Clivedurdle

(Posted by Bacht - welcome!)

Is there something about certain xian backgrounds and personal histories that biases one towards or against certain ideas?

Doug Shaver

I really have no idea, but my rank speculation is that it's more a matter of personal history than specific background.

bacht

Sorry I was offline for a couple of days

I suppose there is possible flip/flop between true believer and skeptic. For me it's kind of like recovering from a hangover, and trying to figure out how I got myself into the situation (I was a convert, not raised as such)

Maybe the unique God-man story of orthodox Christianity was an indirect spur to the development of science? Would the Scientific Revolution of the 17th C have occured if there had been no supernatural monotheism preceding it?

Flaming Moe

Do you mean peer pressure influencing ideas? If so, I would imagine that the answer is entirely dependent upon the character of the person. As is evident with this forum, even people from Christian backgrounds can end up as atheists.
I would, because of my own bias, imagine that in a lot of these cases it is because of curiosity and a desire to dig deeper that this occurs: if you take faith out of the quantifiable equation it seems there is less chance of staight faced belief than if a person never researches at all.

Chili

Good point. The Reformation turned loose the epitome of Beauty and Truth that was internally ours to be exploited by the individual in a world of power and greed.

There is nothing wrong with that initially but the value of gold today tells of our poverty in that area while at one time the true beauty of gold was found in our ability to walk away from it.

bacht

Sure, there is nothing wrong with curiosity (unless you want a static totalitarian society). Faith is not necessary for research, at least if you're following scientific principles.

For better or worse, the Judeo-Christian tradition is a cornerstone of our Western culture. It is normal if not almost automatic for people to study their own history as a means to a fuller self-understanding. There is no reason to apologize for this imo.

I became interested in ancient history as a teenager. I have wondered whether N Americans are particulary fascinated by these vanished Old World peoples since we are relative newcomers culturally speaking.

I grew up being more interested in the past and the future than in the present. I always found imaginative voyages in history and science fiction richer than exploring the banal ignorance and ego of contemporaries. I guess I'm a nerd