Luiseach

Hmmm...how so?

Rational BAC

Actually Sabine-----I do like the Brits---bad teeth, but excellent "shopkeepers"

(Was it Napoleon who said that?---the shopkeepers part--bad teeth is from an Austin Powers movie as we all know) Maybe Hitler said the "shopkeepers" thing --I am no longer sure.

I can't help but like the Brits. I am Brit through and through on my mother's side.

Hungarian on the other side---not particularly anti-brit for that part -----except for the fact that the damned Brits gave my Hungarian ancestor in 1720 a choice of getting hung --or going to the colonies on a prisoner ship. Of course being the wise Hungarian he was, he decided that being hung was a bad choice. (thank God he survived --a prisoner ship was not a whole lot better than a slave ship.)

But I still have no great love for the Brits (in a friendly manner of course.)-----

-----and after all I am Episcopalian, from my mother's side and not Catholic from my father's side--------and I thank God every day for that. (Whoops--excuse my French for that one)

AJ113

Circular reasoning.

"I have faith in the bible with no good reason, and that is OK because the bible says that in order to have faith there does not have to be any reasoning."

So, Sabine, are you making assumptions on RBAC's behalf? That's rich isn't it, when you preach to all and sundry on this board not to make assumptions on your own behalf?

Nowhere357

No disrespect intended - the comment was made in jest.

I'm a human - a child of earth - and our political and "racial" boundaries have little meaning to me.

Luiseach

The irony was refreshing...

As for golf courses, castles and mist....they actually are rather plentiful in Scotland, so your impressions, though meant in jest, were accurate enough

AJ113

Sigh.

He has ADMITTED that his faith is irrational.
How much clearer do you want it to be?
He is basing his life around a religious belief that he fully admits is irrational.

And before you reply with another load of shite about judging other people whom I do not know, remember that my opinion of his rationality is based on his own revelations.

Nowhere357

I was with you until the last sentence - feeling something, and talking about it, are two separate things.

Consider please something like hunger. Maybe this is an example of the experience of genetic knowledge? I think my point is that hunger provides it's own justification - no appeal to reason is necessary.

Yes, in a word - home.

I was hoping for an insight into how a resident might view Scotland, in a few words, that tries to capture the spirit of the place. I hope to visit one day...

AJ113

He can, but he is not generally rational, is he?

What reason do you have, to think that a person's one irrational belief is sufficient to deny that person's general rationality?

One irrational belief? We're talking about an entire religious faith, here, comprising of a multitude of beliefs, all of which RBAC has admitted are irrational, (or at least the main facets of his faith.)

RBAC revolves the entirety of his life around this amalgamation of irrational beliefs. And you think that qualifies him as a rational person?

Luiseach

We feel an emotion (or something else that doesn't involve reason), but we react to it using reason. The feelings and the thought aren't necessarily divorced from one another.

Yes, perhaps it is. I hadn't thought of that.

Is there any appeal to reason when experiencing hunger? Well, we, as self-conscious thinking beings, interpret the sensation using our rational faculties, unlike many or most other animals, who react instinctively. What do you think?

I'm not saying that the feeling doesn't exist, or that we don't have 'non-rational' experiences, but because we can reason, we cannot experience the 'non-rational' without reason getting itself involved to reflect upon it.

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It's a beautiful country, with loads of history, interesting people and stuff to do. Great for hiking. And your ironic sense of humour would be greatly appreciated by many Scots, I think!

If you're interested in the U.K., etc., there's a thread in 'Political Discussions' entitled 'U.K.?' that you might like to look at sometime...

Nowhere357

Neither do I - I've never been here before, exactly. But it's offered in support of my objection to the opinion that an irrational belief is sufficient to declare a person irrational in general.

No, I am trying to say that reason is valuable but not all-important. From the Logic and Fallacy page on the The Atheism Web:

"Firstly, logical reasoning is not an absolute law which governs the universe. Many times in the past, people have concluded that because something is logically impossible (given the science of the day), it must be impossible, period. It was also believed at one time that Euclidean geometry was a universal law; it is, after all, logically consistent. Again, we now know that the rules of Euclidean geometry are not universal.

Secondly, logic is not a set of rules which govern human behavior. Humans may have logically conflicting goals."

As sure as I am that external reality exists, I am even more sure that I have subjective mental experiences.

Yes you are wrong here. I'm saying that we use our reasoning to aquire knowledge. But that's not the only thing we use.

It's not. Neither is it an indication of the non-existence of god.

I would never claim such a thing.