Open Theism Discussion Board
  HomeLog InRegisterSearch the ForumHelp
   
Open Theism Discussion Board > Public Forums > Questions about Christianity > (No Subject)
 
Forum Quick Jump
 
New Topic Post Reply Printable Version
54 posts in this thread.
Viewing Page :
 1  2  3 
[ << Previous Thread | Next Thread >> | Show Newest Post First ]

Corey
Five with a Four-wing




Date Joined Feb 2003
Total Posts : 1893
 
   Posted 5/29/2005 11:14 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Have any of you read this?  I bought it the other day and can't put it down.
 
The narrative style is quite effective in helping one model the transition from modern to postmodern.  I wonder if Greg has read this; I thought of him several times in regards to the path he travelled last summer during his unplanned sabbatical.
 
 
Back to Top
 

Corey
Five with a Four-wing




Date Joined Feb 2003
Total Posts : 1893
 
   Posted 5/30/2005 8:46 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
I was just reading a critical (but largely unthinking, in my view) review of McLaren's work by Bob DeWaay, and saw him make reference to 2 Timothy 3, as proof or prophecy fulfilled that McLaren is a heretic.
 
As I reviewed this passage, I was quite interested to discover that it could just as easily be describing modern conservative evangelicals:
"People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them."
What think you?
Back to Top
 

Truth Aficionado
Registered Member




Date Joined Dec 2003
Total Posts : 1544
 
   Posted 5/30/2005 9:48 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Corey said...
I was just reading a critical (but largely unthinking, in my view) review of McLaren's work by Bob DeWaay, and saw him make reference to 2 Timothy 3, as proof or prophecy fulfilled that McLaren is a heretic.
 
As I reviewed this passage, I was quite interested to discover that it could just as easily be describing modern conservative evangelicals:
"People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them."
What think you?

Hello Corey,

Are you suggesting discrimination towards an entire group of people by passing judgment on all "modern conservative evangelicals" in one broad sweep?

 

 

Peace,

 

Mark



    "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Back to Top
 

Corey
Five with a Four-wing




Date Joined Feb 2003
Total Posts : 1893
 
   Posted 5/30/2005 10:04 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
No.

I'm just observing that the passage could be applied to more than the usual suspects, and that each of us (including DeWaay AND myself) ought to reflect for ourselves before God if we are relating rightly to him.  It's a two-edged sword.

I'm interested, what do you consider discriminatory in my observation?

To be clear, I include myself in this indictment.  All too often I am:

... a lover of myself, lover of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to my parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not a lover of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, a lover of pleasure rather than a lover of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with me.

What I object to is the implication that this applies to McLaren, but not to DeWaay.  Ironically, I'm actually protesting against the bias and discrimination that I perceive here.

Post Edited (Corey) : 5/30/2005 2:09:51 PM (GMT-5)

Back to Top
 

Corey
Five with a Four-wing




Date Joined Feb 2003
Total Posts : 1893
 
   Posted 5/30/2005 2:41 PM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Let me pose what I understand to be the core question McLaren raises: When one converts to Christianity, must they also convert to a Modernist worldview?


 

Back to Top
 

Similitude
Registered Member


Date Joined Apr 2004
Total Posts : 4968
 
   Posted 5/30/2005 8:10 PM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Corey: Let me pose what I understand to be the core question McLaren raises: When one converts to Christianity, must they also convert to a Modernist worldview?

Jeff: What exactly is the modernist worldview? Is it just the belief in the law of non-contradiction or is it more?


wjs

Back to Top
 

Corey
Five with a Four-wing




Date Joined Feb 2003
Total Posts : 1893
 
   Posted 5/30/2005 9:33 PM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
The idea of the law of non-contradiction goes way back, at least to Socrates, so that is not a unique or defining characteristic of modernism, nor is it denied by postmodernists. This particular criteria is not so useful in helping us make the distinction.

I'll dig into it a bit to try to articulate a more formal definition for you. But for now, let's say simply that modernism is the mindset that grew out of the enlightenment period, and has certain characteristics that distinguish it from its predecessor, medievalism.


 

Back to Top
 

Truth Aficionado
Registered Member




Date Joined Dec 2003
Total Posts : 1544
 
   Posted 5/31/2005 8:28 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Corey said...

... I'm interested, what do you consider discriminatory in my observation?

It was my inconsideration of you including your self as a "modern conservative evangelical"
Sorry Corey, my bad.
 
Peace,
 
Mark

Back to Top
 

Corey
Five with a Four-wing




Date Joined Feb 2003
Total Posts : 1893
 
   Posted 5/31/2005 9:09 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Cool. More precisely, I guess I'd call myself a post-conservative Christian. Been there, done that, on the full-out conservative thing... not going back.

Back to Top
 

Corey
Five with a Four-wing




Date Joined Feb 2003
Total Posts : 1893
 
   Posted 5/31/2005 9:16 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Jeff, as I think about how to better articulate my understanding of what modernism is, could you do the same in regards to articulating your understanding of post-modernism? It appears to me that you are equating postmodernism with a denial of the basic tenets of logic. Wondering how you got there.


 

Back to Top
 

Similitude
Registered Member


Date Joined Apr 2004
Total Posts : 4968
 
   Posted 5/31/2005 5:29 PM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Corey, Shane said the following on Bryan's postmodern thread about postmodern teaching he had received:

I know the proponents in my discussion group even describe the first principles of logic as “conventional” (i.e. merely Western conventions). Given all this, I can see why they prefer to talk about things in terms of “narratives,” “conversations,” and “stories.”

It sounds like those particular postmoderns are saying that even the first principles of logic are mere constructs.


wjs

Back to Top
 

Corey
Five with a Four-wing




Date Joined Feb 2003
Total Posts : 1893
 
   Posted 5/31/2005 7:21 PM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Wow -- that sounds pretty outrageous. I missed that somehow. Maybe I just don't understand how they're using the language? Maybe they're saying that the language we use to describe the first principles is a matter of convention? Hard for me to come up with anything else.

Maybe I just haven't understood it accurately, but it is my impression that such a view is not held by the likes of McLaren. See this letter, for example.

Back to Top
 

Laika
Registered Member




Date Joined Mar 2003
Total Posts : 2433
 
   Posted 6/1/2005 8:30 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
jefscott said...

I know the proponents in my discussion group even describe the first principles of logic as “conventional” (i.e. merely Western conventions). Given all this, I can see why they prefer to talk about things in terms of “narratives,” “conversations,” and “stories.”

It sounds like those particular postmoderns are saying that even the first principles of logic are mere constructs.
Jef,
 
 
 


Post Edited (Laika) : 6/1/2005 8:47:10 AM (GMT-5)

Back to Top
 

Tom
Registered Member




Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353
 
   Posted 6/1/2005 12:49 PM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.

From the site Laika posted:

 

"Surprisingly, this important principle [PEDC] has acquired no particular name in the history of logic.

 

PNC (Principle of Non-Contradiction): at most one is true, both can be false

PEM (Principle of Excluded Middle): at least one is true, both can be true

PEDC (Principle of Exclusive Disjunction for Contradictories): exactly one is true, exactly one is false”

 

I’m not an expert on this stuff, so I might be wrong. But it seems to me that all the author does is figure bivalence into the equation. But it’s not true (as he says of PNC) that a proposition and its contradictory can both be false. This destroys the very notion of contradictoriness. Given bivalence, one must be true and the other false. Nor is it true (as he says of PEM), that a proposition and its contradictory can both be true. This also destroys the notion of “contradictoriness.” All one needs is PNC and PEM in a bivalent system. Once bivalence (every proposition is either true or false) is given, then for any pair of contradictory propositions, one is true and the other is false (PNC) and there is no other option or middle ground between being and non-being (PEM).

 

Tom

Back to Top
 

Laika
Registered Member




Date Joined Mar 2003
Total Posts : 2433
 
   Posted 6/1/2005 1:31 PM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
TGB said...

From the site Laika posted:

 

"Surprisingly, this important principle [PEDC] has acquired no particular name in the history of logic.

 

PNC (Principle of Non-Contradiction): at most one is true, both can be false

PEM (Principle of Excluded Middle): at least one is true, both can be true

PEDC (Principle of Exclusive Disjunction for Contradictories): exactly one is true, exactly one is false”

 

I’m not an expert on this stuff, so I might be wrong. But it seems to me that all the author does is figure bivalence into the equation. But it’s not true (as he says of PNC) that a proposition and its contradictory can both be false. This destroys the very notion of contradictoriness. Given bivalence, one must be true and the other false. Nor is it true (as he says of PEM), that a proposition and its contradictory can both be true. This also destroys the notion of “contradictoriness.” All one needs is PNC and PEM in a bivalent system. Once bivalence (every proposition is either true or false) is given, then for any pair of contradictory propositions, one is true and the other is false (PNC) and there is no other option or middle ground between being and non-being (PEM).

Tom, I understand the desire (by others) to preserve bivalence regarding God's knowlege but why the desire to preserve bivalence regarding our knowlege?
 
Matsuyama Aya ate ramen for lunch in Darwin on June 1, 2005.  True, false or unknown (to me).  What's wrong with that?
 
What do you gain by holding on to bivalence regarding human knowlege?
 
 
 


Post Edited (Laika) : 6/1/2005 2:02:25 PM (GMT-5)

Back to Top
 

Tom
Registered Member




Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353
 
   Posted 6/1/2005 10:55 PM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Laika: Tom, I understand the desire (by others) to preserve bivalence regarding God's knowledge but why the desire to preserve bivalence regarding our knowlege?

Matsuyama Aya ate ramen for lunch in Darwin on June 1, 2005. True, false or unknown (to me). What's wrong with that? What do you gain by holding on to bivalence regarding human knowlege?
 
Tom: Ah so grasshoppa, wisdom comes to those who help unpack the U-haul…

Just joshing.

OK, if bivalence doesn’t hold for us as well as God, then there’s no way to make sense of saying (as you do) that the answer to “Did Matsuyama Aya eat ramen for lunch in Darwin on June 1, 2005” is unknown to you. I mean, saying you ‘don’t know the answer’ to this is to say there IS an answer that you don’t know and that this applies to you. Bivalence’s applying to you in this case is what makes it possible for you to be ignorant of anyting! If bivalence didn’t apply, then this proposition wouldn’t’ have a truth value, in which case it wouldn’t “have” an answer for you to be ignorant of.

Bivalence is an attribute of propositions. It applies to THEM, not to those who do the knowing or not-knowing. So to ask, What do we gain by holding on to bivalence regarding human knowledge is (I think) to misunderstand the whole point. It's propositions that posess truth value, not OUR epistemic state of mind.

See, in your three options, “true” and “false” are attributes of propositions, right? But “unknown” isn’t an attribute of propositions. It’s an attribute of your state of knowledge with regard to the truth-value of the proposition. To say the answer to some question is “unknown” to you is not to say it’s neither true nor false. It’s to say it’s one or the other but that YOU don’t know which.

Tom

Post Edited (TGB) : 6/1/2005 10:58:03 PM (GMT-5)

Back to Top
 

Laika
Registered Member




Date Joined Mar 2003
Total Posts : 2433
 
   Posted 6/2/2005 7:36 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
TGB said...

Bivalence is an attribute of propositions. It applies to THEM, not to those who do the knowing or not-knowing. So to ask, What do we gain by holding on to bivalence regarding human knowledge is (I think) to misunderstand the whole point. It's propositions that posess truth value, not OUR epistemic state of mind.

See, in your three options, “true” and “false” are attributes of propositions, right? But “unknown” isn’t an attribute of propositions. It’s an attribute of your state of knowledge with regard to the truth-value of the proposition. To say the answer to some question is “unknown” to you is not to say it’s neither true nor false. It’s to say it’s one or the other but that YOU don’t know which.
OKay Obi-wan Kenobi, how about this proposition:
 
Picasso's first cubist work, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, is beautiful.
 
Is this proposition true or false?
 

hmmm 


Back to Top
 

Tom
Registered Member




Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353
 
   Posted 6/2/2005 8:21 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.

"Beauty" in art is by defintion a purely subjective, relevant thing. In other words, your prop is to be read "...is beautiful TO ME." So it would be true if the speaker found Picasso's painting beautiful and false if the speaker found it not beautiful. Its truth doesn't extend beyond the subjective experience of the speaker which experience alone constitutes the truth grounds for the proposition. But the truth grounds of propositions like 2 + 2 = 4, or JFK was assasinated in 1963, or George Bush is now the President of the United States, lie outside the speakers own subjectivity. So bivalence still holds universally, it's just a matter of determining what the meaning of some assertion is--what constitutes its truth grounds.

Personally, Picasso's painting makes me feel kinda adverturous! nono I think it's the fruit at the bottom.

Next? cheers

Tom

Post Edited (TGB) : 6/2/2005 8:28:38 AM (GMT-5)

Back to Top
 

Laika
Registered Member




Date Joined Mar 2003
Total Posts : 2433
 
   Posted 6/2/2005 8:37 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
TGB said...

"Beauty" in art is by defintion a purely subjective, relevant thing. In other words, your prop is to be read "...is beautiful TO ME." So it would be true if the speaker found Picasso's painting beautiful and false if the speaker found it not beautiful. Its truth doesn't extend beyond the subjective experience of the speaker which experience alone constitutes the truth grounds for the proposition. But the truth grounds of propositions like 2 + 2 = 4, or JFK was assasinated in 1963, or George Bush is now the President of the United States, lie outside the speakers own subjectivity. So bivalence still holds universally, it's just a matter of determining what the meaning of some assertion is--what constitutes its truth grounds.

OK, this grounding 事 I've got to study.
 
TGB said...

Next? cheers

 
Ginger or Mary Ann?
 



Post Edited (Laika) : 6/2/2005 8:40:03 AM (GMT-5)

Back to Top
 

Tom
Registered Member




Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353
 
   Posted 6/2/2005 8:43 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Ah yes my padawan learner. The force will lead you.

Remember one big objection to Molinism? It's the "grounding" objection. If you go with a correspondence theory of truth (that truth is correspondence to reality--a proposition is true if it corresponds to the real world, if what it claims is the case), then the "truth grounds" of a proposition are just that in virtue of which the proposition is true. Truth grounds could be objects, states of affairs, etc. They are the grounds upon which, or in virtue of which, propositions are true, or more crudely, they are what "make" the proposition true. They are what the proposition "corresponds to" in the real world. Thus, "correspondence" is the "relation" that exists between the "truth grounds" (which are some "way" the world is) and some "truth claim" (or proposition). We call this 'relation' the 'grounding relation'.

I can't get the logical notation to post, but to spell it out:

Truthmaker Axiom: Necessarily, for any proposition p, if p is true, then there exists some condition x, such that if x obtains then p is true.
 
You da man,
Tom

Post Edited (TGB) : 6/2/2005 8:51:20 AM (GMT-5)

Back to Top
 

Truth Aficionado
Registered Member




Date Joined Dec 2003
Total Posts : 1544
 
   Posted 6/2/2005 8:58 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
TGB said...
 Ah so grasshoppa, wisdom comes to those who help unpack the U-haul…

You can count me in to add some muscle in exchange for all the wisdom you have shared, Professor.

 

 

I would be glad to lend a helping hand to my new neighbor,

 

Gilligan.  smilewinkgrin

Back to Top
 

Tom
Registered Member




Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353
 
   Posted 6/2/2005 9:04 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Let's PARTY!

Tom


Back to Top
 

AtTheWell
Registered Member


Date Joined Nov 2004
Total Posts : 133
 
   Posted 6/2/2005 9:18 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Hey you guys, (interruption)
If one (Mclaren) is Christocentrically seeking truth, and one (DeWaay) is convinced of  an absolute truth as a necessity in Christianity, then there is in fact truth to be found, so, what's the beef? (this would reflect more on DeWaays article)


Peace,
ATW

Post Edited (AtTheWell) : 6/4/2005 8:35:01 AM (GMT-5)

Back to Top
 

Laika
Registered Member




Date Joined Mar 2003
Total Posts : 2433
 
   Posted 6/2/2005 9:58 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
TGB said...
Let's PARTY!

Tom

The first thing you should load on the truck should be the beer, thus it will be the LAST thing we unload.
 
A word to the wise is sufficient.  icon_brows2


Back to Top
 

Truth Aficionado
Registered Member




Date Joined Dec 2003
Total Posts : 1544
 
   Posted 6/2/2005 10:05 AM (GMT -6)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Laika said...
TGB said...
Let's PARTY!

Tom

The first thing you should load on the truck should be the beer, thus it will be the LAST thing we unload.
 
A word to the wise is sufficient.  icon_brows2

 
Next, load the chairs.  yeah


Contradictions if well understood and managed can spark off the fires of invention. Orthodoxy whether of the right or of the left is the graveyard of creativity.

Back to Top
 
New Topic Post Reply Printable Version
54 posts in this thread.
Viewing Page :
 1  2  3 
   
Forum Information
Currently it is Monday, November 09, 2026 12:12 PM (GMT -6)
There are a total of 97,718 posts in 6,040 threads.
In the last 3 days there were 0 new threads and 0 reply posts. View Active Threads