Stephen Fry on meeting God ...

I don't imagine that grannyknot wants to micro-manage the thread, it meanders on its own way.

It seems to be getting stuck in a groove.

The devil brought evil - oh dear!

I can't understand why religious points of view expressed on GN are rubbished so comprehensively. Nearly every thread includes some ill-informed, irrational, prejudiced and otherwise laughable opinions. But posters feel it's OK having a go at perfectly reasonable religious statements. Orthodox doctrine is that 'the devil' is the personification of the evil in the world. Irreligious posters may think that's nonsense but thinking it's nonsense don't make it so.

I haven't read all this thread, but have listened to the Fry interview.
I just wanted to reply to a point on the previous page which implied criticism of ill-thought-out views -
Most religions are intended to apply to all types of the population, most of whom aren't at the level of intellectual argument.
Although I'm not a Christian, I think this was Jesus' appeal - his words were clear and simple, compared to much of the earlier teachings.
In fact I used to think that God sent him because most people need to see things in a concrete personal form.

Tricia

elegran you're right - I don't do micro management.

I don't think that anyone who starts a thread has control over where it heads (except maybe in Soop's kitchen )

I'm interested to see that this thread is still going, so I click on it, but I have nothing further to add.

I only contradict those posts that relate fundamentalist religious views. I am agnostic and regard religious tolerance as an important factor in maintaining peace.

Absent. Enjoy.

What do you mean by fundamentalist religious views? The Bible?

With very few exceptions, Churches accept a God who is omniscient and everlasting, beyond time and space. They believe this God made Heaven and Earth. They believe in the Virgin birth, the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God in Three Persons), the crucifixion, the resurrection from the dead, the forgiveness of sins and the life everlasting. Because many posters on GN reject or, even, are amazed that anyone should believe any of this, they describe believers as 'fundamentalist'. By 'fundamentalist' they mean ignorant and superstitious. They are not. There are Christians who deny all the knowledge gained by humankind since around the 11th century in Europe but that isn't required of Christians.

Mishap - you also say that you are agnostic. So that means that you do not know whether God exists or not?
So why do you dismiss it all?

I meant to post
So why do you appear to dismiss it all

Oh hear, we are really going round in (ever decreasing) circles now. Have we not had a thread where you asked what is meant/understood by * fundamentalist* religious views?
I should have thought it was obvious that what you soontobe are spouting expressing exemplifies just that. Or if you still don't get it,

Slavish and literal adherence to the Bible
Total belief that it is the literal truth
Total denial of Evolution, the scientific explanation for the creation of the universe or of manknd
An unbending fixed belief that there is only one way and that is the way of that writer
An inability to back up pronouncements with any sort of rational argument

Need I go on?
If anything can give Christianity a bad name it is this "whited sepulchre" version of religion. Sad really, better brains than feature on GN(no offence to brainy grannies) have wrestled with the intricacies of faith and whether man is saved through his good works, or by grace alone. They would not recognise half of what has been uttered.

I don't go along with your opinion, Lilygran.

I accept what you say about the Church, but I think when GN posters refer to 'fundamentalists' they mean those who accept what's written in the Bible without question - e.g. the world was created in 7 days, Eve was made out of one of Adam's ribs etc.

x posts, Soutra.

Only you say it much more succinctly!!

Yes I did start the thread.
I had a look to see if Mishap was on it, as I know she has been on holiday recently. But yes, she was on it.

So going by what Ana has posted, does the Devil fall into that for Mishap?

And how does that definition mean that it risks peace?

Glad that we are all on the same page now as regards the definition though.

Why is fundamentalism (as you define it) so bad Soutra and Ana?

I regard much of what the bible says as metaphor but I don't really mind if others want to take it literally.

It is, as Lilygran said, the "denying all the knowledge gained by humankind since around the 11th century in Europe" that defines a fundamentalist to me.

Surely only some knowledge, not all!

I don't mind either, petallus. I just can't take them seriously.

It did strike me as quite odd that soontobe was quite happy to accept that dinosaurs existed because of some passage in the Bible, but she doesn't accept the concept of evolution...

Nope, no dinosaurs in the Bible. Come on, how could Noah have got them on to his Ark? ( And don't say " two by two"!!! . )

A good friend of mine is intelligent, insightful and broad-minded and yet his Christian faith includes a belief in angels and miracles and life after death.

He's okay with evolution though.

I find this quite baffling. I wonder if certain ideas become woven into the personality to such an extent that they become essential to a person's sense of self.

This could be true of atheist beliefs as well.