Quote:
Originally Posted by peter12
I've read some of the current popular arguments that claim that monotheists are on the whole more violent than atheists or polytheists. This one in particular,
http://www.amazon.ca/God-Against-God...1567697&sr=8-1
However, I'm convinced the whole thing is entirely more complicated. Some of the most insightful philosophy related to us as human beings involves the idea of a single Good or God, I'm thinking of St. Augustine and Plato, especially. |
Well on the surface it makes sense that people who do care about what other people believe (monotheists, I'm right you are wrong) will always do more about it than people who don't care what you think (you like Athena, I like Apollo, lets have a beer).
But since the answer to most things in life is "it's complicated"...
Quote:
Originally Posted by peter12
I've never read City of God, but I have read quite a bit of Plato, especially multiple readings of the Republic and I can safely say that I still have no idea what I am talking about except that most of the current popular arguments "out there" in the culture lack in a lot of substance and historical awareness of the philosophical problems surrounding the issue of monotheism and its relation to human life.
|
I think that's fair to say about pretty much anything that's "out there". People are at the level they are at, popular arguments are popular because the real stuff would be inaccessible to the laity.
Media reporting on science drives me crazy because they get almost everything wrong and when they do get it right it's either for the wrong reason, or they miss a nuance. I don't doubt one bit that the same happens for history or philosophy or politics or anything else.
But what can you do, until we can learn stuff Matrix style by downloading or whatever, no one has the time to really understand the nuances of everything.