Do religious people have an argument for why they believe in their specific deity/religion, and not any other, other than "I believe it, therefore it is true" ?
Reason I'm asking is that there was a place and time in history when there were people who literally believed Zeus, Poseidon, or Thor and Odin were real, and yet we now call that "mythology".
bump
seriously?
No
It varies from religion to religion.
Islam says it's because the Quran is so elegant that is has to be from god
Buddhism is basically because you know it in your heart.
Christianity bases everything off the resurrection.
I'm not sure about other religions.
Their gods require their servants to climb the mountain to reach them. YHVH came down the mountain for us.
So contemporary religion is actually just contemporary mythology?
Not really, the only time you'll find them able to give a decent reason is if they're a convert.
Otherwise its just "I was born into it and im too indoctrinated to disagree"
From Plato's Republic 621b-d:
>And so, Glaucon, the tale was saved, as the saying is, and was not lost. And it will save us if we believe it, and we shall safely cross the River of Lethe, and keep our soul unspotted from the world. But if we are guided by me we shall believe that the soul is immortal and capable of enduring all extremes of good and evil, and so we shall hold ever to the upward way and pursue righteousness with wisdom always and ever, that we may be dear to ourselves and to the gods both during our sojourn here and when we receive our reward, as the victors in the games go about to gather in theirs. And thus both here and in that journey of a thousand years, whereof I have told you, we shall fare well.
From Plato's Phaedo 114d:
>Now it would not be fitting for a man of sense to maintain that all this is just as I have described it, but that this or something like it is true concerning our souls and their abodes, since the soul is shown to be immortal, I think he may properly and worthily venture to believe; for the venture is well worth while; and he ought to repeat such things to himself as if they were magic charms, which is the reason why I have been lengthening out the story so long.
Literally Pascal's Wager: The Post.
>dude it might not be true but whattaya got to lose lmao
There are no good logical arguments for any given theistic religion, mostly because religion isn't about logic or reason, but rather emotions and faith.
Uhh yeah? Do you really think a magical superjew who was is own father magically resurrected himself from the dead? Of course not.
That's the "venture" part.
Then there's:
>he ought to repeat such things to himself as if they were magic charms
No I don't think that.
But I am talking about dialectic and arguments. What can a religious person ever say that would convince someone they aren't just being delusional?
Yeah, but religion isn't a noble lie, because there's nothing noble about lies.
the answer is "dude faith lmao" although some Muslims tend to argue that the Qur'an is too perfect to be man-made (clearly bullshit)
The goal is therapeutic.
In the stories, Socrates intentionally makes up a myth for the purpose of tranquilty.
>Indeed the story is false, a fiction, you discovered nothing new, and demonstrated nothing we didn't already know, now leave us be in this peace of mind, and return to your mythology-free containment zone, you autist
But then you're essentially conceding Marx's point that religion is just an opiate for some kind of spiritual suffering innate to humanity.
And since Plato people have no problem with that.
Not surprisingly, contemporary atheists share similar beliefs to him.
"Half of all atheists and agnostics say that every person has a soul, that Heaven and Hell exist, and that there is life after death. One out of every eight atheists and agnostics even believe that accepting Jesus Christ as savior probably makes life after death possible. These contradictions are further evidence that many Americans adopt simplistic views of life and the afterlife based upon ideas drawn from disparate sources, such as movies, music and novels, without carefully considering those beliefs. Consequently, the labels attached to people - whether it be ‘born again’ or ‘atheist’ may not give us as much insight into the person’s beliefs as we might assume."
Interesting actually.
But I would argue that's more of a problem with labels and being in a "category", than anything else.
Labels have limiting semantic content, but people themselves aren't that limited.
>Buddhism is basically because you know it in your heart.
To be more precise, the initial approach to the teachings is because "you know it in your heart". Then their veracity has to be put to the test.
>people who literally believed Zeus, Poseidon, or Thor and Odin were real,
Did they? The pre Christianity religions were often treated like myths desu