OK you were tired. I will ignore the bulk of information, as you did, and simply respond to your point.
Yes he has a perspective and he is welcome to it. However, his topic is not how different human beings may acquire a perspective or even what perspective has to do with truth. Perspective is bound, at least in part, on bias. He concludes his perspective or some related perspective must be true, and on the basis of mutual exclusivity must then render other perspectives to be false. This as you know, or should know, is an unsupportable circular argument. The premise itself contradicts the given assumption, so it contains an internal contradiction which he then tries to dismiss because his particular perspective is true, implying he has convincingly argued as much.
Then he justifies attacks on others using his flawed argument... "Therefore, those with bad beliefs (that is, unsound beliefs) are not merely different, they are wrong; and we should not be squeamish ..."
I can certainly see how some beliefs are unsound. Unsound beliefs would be beliefs which defy reason; like saying you believe pink and purple elephants are hiding in the clouds or something. He has misapplied the term 'unsound beliefs.'
He further implies a very general statement regarding Jesus covers the absolute truth of the matter.
Is God the creator, all knowing, all powerful Lord of the Universe, existing in some sort of human form, able to engage Mary in a sexual act as described in the NT ... planting a sperm which would develop into his son Jesus? The Son is also really one and the same God, not human, or sort of temporarily human? Some people would say that is exactly what happened. Some people would say ‘immaculate conception’ happened but that such a description of God as this sexual human being engaging Mary contradicts the idea of a God who defies description, which is the underlying Biblical assertion. Some people would say the circumstance and description are necessarily metaphorical but that the life of Jesus as described in the NT is precisely the perfect example for human obedience to God and that Jesus, a Godly man was simply providing an example of the righteous way humans should live. This is why there are millions of perspectives and opinions on what or who Jesus is/was, perspectives held by self professed Christians. Is Jesus God? Who did Jesus pray to, why did Jesus fast, or cleanse, or sleep, or suffer, or weep? These characteristics describe a limited being, a human being like you or I. If God weeps for you, then you have power to control God by your behavior, which defies the All Powerful descriptor. Depending on how you interpret this statement “Jesus is God” you fall into all sorts of problems in claiming to have spoken the absolute truth about an all powerful, all knowing being. Depends on what you mean by ‘Jesus is God’ doesn’t it, which is a matter of perspective, none of which can fully account for the absolute truth of the matter, at least not by a limited human being like your author. |
