thread: 2011-07-11 : Hooray for Religion
On 2011-09-02, David Berg wrote:
A big question for me:
Let's say I'm born in 1300 in France. Or some time and place where the church is a big deal for pretty much everyone, so much so that I pay them a substantial portion of my meager living.
Now let's say I'm smart, and observant, and curious. I see all my friends going hungry because they're giving money to religious authorities who claim they should be paid because of metaphysical reasons that I can't see or touch.
What are the chances that I might stop paying? If I did stop paying, what are the chances that some combo of rational skepticism, self-justification, and desperate fear, what are the chances that I go, "Those metaphysics aren't real! I'm NOT going to Hell! Hell isn't real! Maybe God isn't real!"
700 years later, the range of what seems plausible to me (everyone did that; no one did that) is vast. Does anyone have more confidence in one direction or the other?
