Clivedurdle

Ok, we are all steeped in this religion. It has been part of our ancestors' thinking in Britain at least for eighteen hundred years. Shakespeare, Milton, Chaucer many more use xian thinking. It has helped create English as a language.

What is it like to not think like a Christian? What are the signs of thinking like a xian?

djrafikie

To think like an Xtian, DRINK A LOT, note how you hug your buddies a lot, note how you talk tripe, note how you become unusually agressive towards strange things and people.
See how you cannot solve complex logic puzzles and also fail to understand simple sentences when addressed. Note how things you cannot understand in your impaired state are dismissed with an unintelliegable mumble which when recorded and played back in reverse will say "god did it".

To NOT think like an Xtian.
Enagage brain before operating mouth. Note how the sounds you make closely resemble the speach of an educated person. Resolve to do this more often.
Resolve not to answer all difficult questions with "god did it".
Note how without this handly reply to all difficult questions you remain an unbeliever.
Celebrate with drink.

djrafikie

By the way, very close clive, it was more the latin, but as that did come to us via the church, your suggestion remains sound.

Incidentally, over 30% of our english words today are retained from our pre church tribal origins. That should cheer you up a bit :devil1:

Malachi151

I agree completely. Indeed I think that when you look at the sciences, we see that our "base assumptions", even among non-Christians, all come from Christianity.

This is especially true in areas of animal behavior.

WishboneDawn

*takes a swig of beer* Can't figure out if I should hug you or become unusually agressive towards you. Damn, friggin' tididdog.

Peter Kirby

I'm fairly sure that there is no specific, common mode of thought that is "like a Christian." How could you possibly, for example, extract a single type of thought among Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian, or Aquinas and Erasmus, or Bultmann and Bonhoeffer? These are alll very different thinkers.

kind regards,
Peter Kirby

Malachi151

I disagree. Take a few things for example:

It is/was a widely held belief in Western society that "people are conscious and animals aren't"

It is/was a widely held belief in Western society that people are "sinful", exhibiting behavior like war, jealousy, rape, hate, etc. and animals are are not, thus they don't have these types of issues.

This was a HUGE issue with the studies of Jane Goodall. She, herself being a Christian, believed, like most people, that social violence was a purely human trait, and that "war" was a social phenomenon that was "unnatural".

To her surprise, the chimps waged war, they raped, they committed infanticide, they hated each other, they bullied, they committed genocide, etc.

Jane Goodall was shocked, she couldn't beleive it, her world view came crashing down, and why? Because she started out with the Christian belief in the fall of man...

Peter Kirby

Do you? Then what is the specific, common mode of thought that is "thinking like a Christian"?

kind regards,
Peter Kirby

Malachi151

I gave some examples already.

Here are some more:

Mind body duality

Earth is the only planet with life

Only people have emotions, specifically, only people feel love

Only people have "reason"

Only people are "conscious"

etc., I have to go, I can come up with more later.

WishboneDawn

Christian? Some seem greek. Some seem fairly universal.