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Ah, you want to create "free-thinking citizens." Admirable. The only problem there is, you can create free-thinking citizens, or you can create devout Christians, but you really can't do both. I can really go for the whole classical education trivium/quadrivium thing, but you just can't very well combine that with an education that creates religious ideologues who accept Christian theology (or any theology, for that matter) . It's like you've got an education where inquiry is the primary value, EXCEPT that there are a bunch of beliefs that are fenced off and not susceptible to examination or doubt. We can see this is in some of the video itself. It was a nice story about the guys planning for 500 years ahead, but where does the concluding claim come from that "that kind of vision is unique to a Christian worldview It's as if myopia or blindness is baked into the cake.
I don’t think you have ever read Biblical Studies or Theology because if you think theology and biblical studies means that you can’t inquire, you are either doing Muslim Classical Education or are just trying to act as an intellectual on subjects you don’t even though the meaning of.
@@NicholasKohen Gee, it's nice of you to accuse me of "acting as an intellectual," because really, I don't think I qualify at all as an "intellectual." I'm just a guy who can read and think critically and put together my thoughts in grammatical sentences. But I would say that I know quite well what "biblical studies" and "theology" are, if for no other reason than that it's easy to look up the definitions. The point was (and is) that it's a puzzlement that conservative and largely fundamentalist/literalist Christians have somehow concocted a curriculum that's basically at odds with itself, per my remarks above. I wouldn't say that theology and biblical studies means that you can't inquire at all, but I would say that if you're a fundamentalist/literalist Christian, then the scope of your inquiry will of necessity be limited. I don't think that if you're of that particular stripe you would seriously question whether the stories told in Exodus really correspond to any historical reality, or whether the plagues really afflicted the Egyptians and were sent by God, whether the Red Sea parted to let the Israelites escape, wheher God kept the Israelites alive for decades with daily drops of manna while they wandered the desert, etc., etc. Now, you might ask serious-sounding philosophical questions about whether Pharaoah had free will and knew what he was doing when he persecuted the captive Jews, or whether he was simply being used as a tool of God. But when the underlying beliefs are not on the table, such questions are sort of like saying that we know the moon is made of cheese, so the real question is about whether it's Swiss or cheddar. And this just seems odd to me given that so much of the classical curriculum contains stuff like the Iliad and Odyssey and Hesiod and similar stories/myths of the Greeks and Romans that nobody gives any credence to as far as them being accurate descriptions of things that happened in the past. Rather, they're simply treated as religious beliefs that people had before they knew better about how the world worked, but are nonetheless worthwhile for teaching us something about what it is to be a human on the earth and how to negotiate reality. Isn't it fairly obvious that the Jewish and Christian scriptures share a lot of the same characteristics? Apparently not, at least to some people, apparently not to you. Which is again weird, given your obvious hostility to Islam. Is it silly to believe that Mohammed flew on a winged horselike creature from Mecca to Jerusalem, after which he ascended to heaven? I sure think so. But that's not any sillier than thinking Jesus rose from the dead or turned water into wine, etc., or that after Jesus' death a bunch of other dead people crawled out of their graves to go back and tell their families in Jerusalem all about it. It reminds me of a story I once heard about some early missionaries in America going out to convert some native Americans. They told them about the creation per Genesis, and briefly about how Jesus, who was sent by God, died and rose again, and people who believe in him go to heaven when they die, while those that don't are punished forever in hell. In response, the Indians told the missionaries about their creation stories and religious ideas. The missionaries weren't up for this and even became offended and a tad angry at having to listen to a bunch of primitive superstitous nonsense, at which point the Indians said, "Hey, we listened politely when you told us stories about your gods. Why don't you afford us the same courtesy?"
Without a Christian worldview, without the triune God of the bible, no philosophical questions can even be answered. He is before all things, its is he that makes objectivity possible (otherwise you only have subjective human beings), it is he who created and is therefore completely outside of the universe and its laws, you cannot be, do, or think without him. Every idea that says you can borrows from God in order to even formulate that idea. Without God there is no concept of being, and logically the only route you have is an anti-realist, subjectivist perspective (constructionism relativism etc) or put another way, nothingness ‘nirvana’ from eastern religions. The idea of being able to rationalise about God without God is useless, you don’t have anything to base your rationality on except yourself. It’s like the picture of people blindfolded describing an elephant that they can all feel but not see. Who is the one who can see the whole elephant? How can you be sure that your view is so complete? How did you get there? Anyway hope that helps - that’s the view of the Christian, and it’s the view that got western society so much further ahead than others, morally, scientifically, technologically. An acknowledgement of the reality of the triune God of scripture
This is very useful, helpful and we here in Mexico are grateful for this insight you have given.
I’m in Mexico too and about to launch a Christian school, I appreciate your prayers.
Thank you very much.
Ah, you want to create "free-thinking citizens." Admirable. The only problem there is, you can create free-thinking citizens, or you can create devout Christians, but you really can't do both. I can really go for the whole classical education trivium/quadrivium thing, but you just can't very well combine that with an education that creates religious ideologues who accept Christian theology (or any theology, for that matter) . It's like you've got an education where inquiry is the primary value, EXCEPT that there are a bunch of beliefs that are fenced off and not susceptible to examination or doubt. We can see this is in some of the video itself. It was a nice story about the guys planning for 500 years ahead, but where does the concluding claim come from that "that kind of vision is unique to a Christian worldview It's as if myopia or blindness is baked into the cake.
I don’t think you have ever read Biblical Studies or Theology because if you think theology and biblical studies means that you can’t inquire, you are either doing Muslim Classical Education or are just trying to act as an intellectual on subjects you don’t even though the meaning of.
@@NicholasKohen Gee, it's nice of you to accuse me of "acting as an intellectual," because really, I don't think I qualify at all as an "intellectual." I'm just a guy who can read and think critically and put together my thoughts in grammatical sentences. But I would say that I know quite well what "biblical studies" and "theology" are, if for no other reason than that it's easy to look up the definitions.
The point was (and is) that it's a puzzlement that conservative and largely fundamentalist/literalist Christians have somehow concocted a curriculum that's basically at odds with itself, per my remarks above. I wouldn't say that theology and biblical studies means that you can't inquire at all, but I would say that if you're a fundamentalist/literalist Christian, then the scope of your inquiry will of necessity be limited. I don't think that if you're of that particular stripe you would seriously question whether the stories told in Exodus really correspond to any historical reality, or whether the plagues really afflicted the Egyptians and were sent by God, whether the Red Sea parted to let the Israelites escape, wheher God kept the Israelites alive for decades with daily drops of manna while they wandered the desert, etc., etc. Now, you might ask serious-sounding philosophical questions about whether Pharaoah had free will and knew what he was doing when he persecuted the captive Jews, or whether he was simply being used as a tool of God. But when the underlying beliefs are not on the table, such questions are sort of like saying that we know the moon is made of cheese, so the real question is about whether it's Swiss or cheddar.
And this just seems odd to me given that so much of the classical curriculum contains stuff like the Iliad and Odyssey and Hesiod and similar stories/myths of the Greeks and Romans that nobody gives any credence to as far as them being accurate descriptions of things that happened in the past. Rather, they're simply treated as religious beliefs that people had before they knew better about how the world worked, but are nonetheless worthwhile for teaching us something about what it is to be a human on the earth and how to negotiate reality. Isn't it fairly obvious that the Jewish and Christian scriptures share a lot of the same characteristics? Apparently not, at least to some people, apparently not to you. Which is again weird, given your obvious hostility to Islam. Is it silly to believe that Mohammed flew on a winged horselike creature from Mecca to Jerusalem, after which he ascended to heaven? I sure think so. But that's not any sillier than thinking Jesus rose from the dead or turned water into wine, etc., or that after Jesus' death a bunch of other dead people crawled out of their graves to go back and tell their families in Jerusalem all about it.
It reminds me of a story I once heard about some early missionaries in America going out to convert some native Americans. They told them about the creation per Genesis, and briefly about how Jesus, who was sent by God, died and rose again, and people who believe in him go to heaven when they die, while those that don't are punished forever in hell. In response, the Indians told the missionaries about their creation stories and religious ideas. The missionaries weren't up for this and even became offended and a tad angry at having to listen to a bunch of primitive superstitous nonsense, at which point the Indians said, "Hey, we listened politely when you told us stories about your gods. Why don't you afford us the same courtesy?"
Without a Christian worldview, without the triune God of the bible, no philosophical questions can even be answered. He is before all things, its is he that makes objectivity possible (otherwise you only have subjective human beings), it is he who created and is therefore completely outside of the universe and its laws, you cannot be, do, or think without him. Every idea that says you can borrows from God in order to even formulate that idea. Without God there is no concept of being, and logically the only route you have is an anti-realist, subjectivist perspective (constructionism relativism etc) or put another way, nothingness ‘nirvana’ from eastern religions. The idea of being able to rationalise about God without God is useless, you don’t have anything to base your rationality on except yourself. It’s like the picture of people blindfolded describing an elephant that they can all feel but not see. Who is the one who can see the whole elephant? How can you be sure that your view is so complete? How did you get there? Anyway hope that helps - that’s the view of the Christian, and it’s the view that got western society so much further ahead than others, morally, scientifically, technologically. An acknowledgement of the reality of the triune God of scripture