Thursday, December 1, 2011

On quoting scripture

I noticed this 'hot' post on Google+ today:

One of the many things I don't understand about devout Christians is that they seem to believe that quoting the Bible gives them credibility with non-believers. My general reaction when confronted with a line of religious scripture is one of "this doesn't make any sense" which is then further reinforced by the inability to explain why I should find the passage relevant.
In future, Christians of the world, I will respond in kind by quoting the ingredients list of the wrapper of whatever food product I have recently consumed. At least my response is likely to be based in fact even if is logically irrelevant to the matter in hand.
I responded:
Within any given worldview, any one person will end up citing references they believe to be relevant to the data at hand.  A philosopher may quote Nietzsche while a scientist may quote Darwin.  A Christian who cites the Bible is no different.  Without context, without sharing a worldview, the citation is meaningless.  Any intelligent and interested person would bother searching out the meaningful context of the quote no matter which of the above were cited.  Singling out the Bible and religious people seems arrogant.

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