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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   33069 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 19, 2023

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So you're saying if there's a sufficient similarity of values and beliefs it is substantively the same to you?

Hayy Ibn Yaqzun argues the same, that Islam effectively arises spontaneously absent human interference.

So you're saying if there's a sufficient similarity of values and beliefs it is substantively the same to you?

Yeah I'd say so, what else enforces religious continuity? The survival of institutions? Seems to me like beliefs are by far the most important aspect of most religions.

I think generally you can count on the belief system, if there is a true one, actively interfering with the world to bring the true religion back. Muslims believe an angel appeared to Mohammed; under their belief system surely another angel would show up to a new guy and share God's word again if that knowledge were lost. Us Mormons believe this has already happened--some of God's word was lost from the bible so more was sent.

In general I think pretty much all belief systems, including atheism, are confident enough about their premises to believe that they would show up again were all their adherents killed somehow.

I'm not sure a second revelation after the destruction of Christianity is, properly speaking, Christianity. Any more than, say, Islam is Christianity.

Well it just comes down to how you define the religion. To be clear I only really think a resurrected Christianity would count as Christianity if Christianity were true. More precisely, both the old Christianity and the new one would be institutions set up by God for his own purposes, and that's way more relevant than any historical context or beliefs of either religion. It's just a question of definitions though so at this point I'm not sure the answer matters either way.

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