On Jan 18, 3:13 pm, Pat <[email protected]> wrote: > On 18 Jan, 14:01, Molly <[email protected]> wrote:
> Now > that the Pope has recanted the concept of original sin, we KNOW > (capitals implying that the infallible Pope has proven the fallibility > of all his predecessors) That's a good one! I hadn't heard about it. How on Earth does the Church attempt to rationalise it? > In England, it's > almost impossible to be married (in an Anglican church) without > proving that you've been baptised, which, to me, is simply > ridiculous. I think this provides a (slightly) interesting example of a case in which it is actually a good and rational idea to remain in deliberate ignorance of a matter of fact, thus: I have absolutely no idea whether I was ever baptised or not, and (now that this thread has made me think about it), I refuse to make even the slightest effort to find out one way or the other (a simple phone call to my mother right now would settle it), because to do so would be to dignify what you rightly describe as a ridiculous idea. Perhaps my own belief in the paranormal should lead me to worry whether the ceremony of baptism might have some paranormal effect? (I certainly don't think it could have any supernatural effect.) I think my response to that is that I don't want to have any truck with any deity that would require a splashing on of allegedly holy water in order to make someone a good person. If I get damned for my disbelief, then fsck it, I don't want to be saved by such means! I'll have to think some more about this, because it really is quite interesting (to me, at least) to reflect on the question: in what sense can I be "rational" while still being open to belief in "paranormal" phenomena? (Both terms in quotes are rather hard to define clearly, I think, although it would be nice to be proved wrong on that.) (Threads with me in them tend to drift a bit, I'm afraid!)
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