Yeah, it needed some clean up. @LeeWoofenden I also believe that atheists are atheists largely for emotional, not rational, reasons, even though they believe they are atheists for largely rational reasons You've put into words something that appears to me to fit a lot of cases. Don't know how close to "universal" that would be, though.
@Nathaniel Saw your question on History, and I offer (for your consideration) the works of Jan Bloch (20 years previous to Clark's reference) on why and how war was becoming impossible or pointless --- depends upon how one takes his work. He made an exhaustive case for the meatgrinder of war (before air power existed) that was a decent synthesis of a variety of developments up to that point in history. Nobody listened, obviously ... thus August 1914.
@KorvinStarmast Right. That was a quasi-generalization. I don't think all atheists are atheists for very emotional reasons. However, in general, I do think that people believe what they do for reasons driven by their heart and what they love, rather than for purely intellectual reasons, even if the emotive reasons are not obvious on the surface.
@KorvinStarmast At the risk of getting the Protestants here mad at me yet again, this is one of the reasons I think the belief that everything about our justification and salvation, including love and works, flows from faith and originates in faith, is a fallacy based on viewing the process of justification and salvation superficially rather than deeply.
In my view (and I think the Bible supports this), even that faith is prompted by a more underlying love that the Lord places in our heart, which is prior to the faith. Faith is just the first thing we see, so we think it's first and everything else flows from it. This, I believe, is why Paul identifies love, not faith, as the greatest among faith, hope, and love - 1 Corinthians 13:13.
@curiousdannii Swedenborg's version (one of many places where he speaks about this):
> The good impulses in our motivation [traditionally "will"] give themselves form in our understanding and make themselves visible. (The New Jerusalem #34)
This, of course, is speaking of a person who has good motives. For those who have bad motives, though, the same principle applies.
@LeakyNun You can call it a confirmation bias. However, it is a fundamental part of how the human mind works. No one believes anything for purely dispassionate reasons. There is always heart, motive, and emotion behind the things we believe, and the things we believe are driven and shaped by the things we want and love.
The word dulia comes from the Greek doulia (meaning "servant" or "slave"). But in Catholicism, the word has taken on a theological meaning, as described in the Catholic Encyclopedia, "signifying the honour paid to the saints."
I see the connection between servant and veneration, in that a serva...
The word dulia comes from the Greek doulia (meaning "servant" or "slave"). But in Catholicism, the word has taken on a theological meaning, as described in the Catholic Encyclopedia, "signifying the honour paid to the saints."
I see the connection between servant and veneration, in that a serva...
The Upper Room
The Upper Room