Laudate_Dominum Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 I was reading something recently which discussed the possibility of "dialogue" between believers and non-believers and while the point of the thing was to instill hope in some vague kind of "mutual understanding", I couldn't help thinking that they were presenting things as though we were from two different star systems or something. I was once a "non-believer", one of my former roommates was once an atheistic Jew, another was an atheistic science guy, yet another was a pseudo-religious humanist type, and yet we are all serious Catholics now; and the conversions were fairly swift in each case. How is it that believers and non-believers are so utterly different when the change from one to the other can follow so rapidly and decisively? I was on a philosophy board earlier where a young woman was pontificating about her belief that there is no God and no purpose or meaning to reality. Ok, but the entire basis of her belief (as expressed anyway) could be summarized as merely some lack of acceptable evidence within her range of experiences to date. Is then the line that separates us breeched by a simple flash of experience? Is her interpretation of the whole of reality, her complete "unbelief", but a faint apocopation of my belief, poised to see consummation in a sudden flash of perception? Ok, everybody is unique and some people take the long road to belief and many never get there, but are we really all that different? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmotherofpirl Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 Grace. God is playing a Symphony out there, we just have to shut up long enough to hear it and respond. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laudate_Dominum Posted March 29, 2007 Author Share Posted March 29, 2007 I like that. Thanks CMom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N/A Gone Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 Are you asking why some are saved/thus some respond and why some do not respond? I babbled about that a while back on one of the TWT threads. Interesting topic I played with as an evangelical. We called it "the four" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anastasia13 Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 (edited) What do you think about this? [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijfys8vOPOg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijfys8vOPOg[/url] [quote name='Revprodeji' post='1222169' date='Mar 29 2007, 10:07 AM']Are you asking why some are saved/thus some respond and why some do not respond? I babbled about that a while back on one of the TWT threads. Interesting topic I played with as an evangelical. We called it "the four"[/quote] Huh? Edited April 1, 2007 by Light and Truth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoosieranna Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 [quote name='Laudate_Dominum' post='1221895' date='Mar 29 2007, 05:32 AM']I was reading something recently which discussed the possibility of "dialogue" between believers and non-believers and while the point of the thing was to instill hope in some vague kind of "mutual understanding", I couldn't help thinking that they were presenting things as though we were from two different star systems or something. I was once a "non-believer", one of my former roommates was once an atheistic Jew, another was an atheistic science guy, yet another was a pseudo-religious humanist type, and yet we are all serious Catholics now; and the conversions were fairly swift in each case. How is it that believers and non-believers are so utterly different when the change from one to the other can follow so rapidly and decisively? I was on a philosophy board earlier where a young woman was pontificating about her belief that there is no God and no purpose or meaning to reality. Ok, but the entire basis of her belief (as expressed anyway) could be summarized as merely some lack of acceptable evidence within her range of experiences to date. Is then the line that separates us breeched by a simple flash of experience? Is her interpretation of the whole of reality, her complete "unbelief", but a faint apocopation of my belief, poised to see consummation in a sudden flash of perception? Ok, everybody is unique and some people take the long road to belief and many never get there, but are we really all that different?[/quote] Off topic, but what does apocopation mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laudate_Dominum Posted April 1, 2007 Author Share Posted April 1, 2007 [quote name='Nadezhda' post='1225531' date='Apr 1 2007, 02:34 AM']Off topic, but what does apocopation mean?[/quote] In normal usage it simply describes the formation of a word as the truncation of another word by dropping the ending (for example ‘Will’ is an apocopation of ‘William’). When I used the word above, somewhat neologically, I had the Greek etymology in mind. My intention was to describe unbelief in a way that would be consistent with what I was trying to say about the similarity of belief and unbelief, while at the same time hinting at certain esoteric linguistic themes. Probably not the best choice of words but it was just a silly rant anyway. Thanks for calling me out on my abuse of language. haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laudate_Dominum Posted April 1, 2007 Author Share Posted April 1, 2007 [quote name='Revprodeji' post='1222169' date='Mar 29 2007, 11:07 AM']Are you asking why some are saved/thus some respond and why some do not respond? I babbled about that a while back on one of the TWT threads. Interesting topic I played with as an evangelical. We called it "the four"[/quote] I was really just trying to distill some of the connected experiences of my day into a single impression. Not so much a question concerning abstract or theoretical understanding but more just the general experience of non-believers as such. It wasn't that important anyway. If you would like to share some of you insights into the theology of grace and salvation please feel free! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laudate_Dominum Posted April 1, 2007 Author Share Posted April 1, 2007 [quote name='Light and Truth' post='1225441' date='Apr 1 2007, 01:57 AM']What do you think about this?[/quote] I just watched the first one minute and that guy seems cool. I'll have to watch the rest later and get back to you (I am in the midst of a birthday party). Good to see you around btw!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoosieranna Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 [quote name='Laudate_Dominum' post='1225705' date='Apr 1 2007, 11:50 AM']In normal usage it simply describes the formation of a word as the truncation of another word by dropping the ending (for example ‘Will’ is an apocopation of ‘William’). When I used the word above, somewhat neologically, I had the Greek etymology in mind. My intention was to describe unbelief in a way that would be consistent with what I was trying to say about the similarity of belief and unbelief, while at the same time hinting at certain esoteric linguistic themes. Probably not the best choice of words but it was just a silly rant anyway. Thanks for calling me out on my abuse of language. haha[/quote] No problem, I guess. I'm a neophyte, and abstruse Greek semantics are not my strong point. So it's functioning as a diminutive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laudate_Dominum Posted April 2, 2007 Author Share Posted April 2, 2007 [quote name='Nadezhda' post='1226111' date='Apr 1 2007, 04:36 PM']No problem, I guess. I'm a neophyte, and abstruse Greek semantics are not my strong point. So it's functioning as a diminutive?[/quote] haha. why do I have the feeling that you're making fun? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoosieranna Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 : Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justified Saint Posted April 6, 2007 Share Posted April 6, 2007 I seem to remember the Holy Father writing things along a similar line of thinking, about how the skeptic and believer are a lot closer than we might expect, though the reference escapes me at the moment. And of course William James has an ironic way of re-stating Pascal's wager in that both the skeptic and believer are governed by a risk, and if they share in common risk-taking then they are practically meeting halfway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laudate_Dominum Posted April 8, 2007 Author Share Posted April 8, 2007 [quote name='Justified Saint' post='1232105' date='Apr 6 2007, 01:04 AM']I seem to remember the Holy Father writing things along a similar line of thinking, about how the skeptic and believer are a lot closer than we might expect, though the reference escapes me at the moment. And of course William James has an ironic way of re-stating Pascal's wager in that both the skeptic and believer are governed by a risk, and if they share in common risk-taking then they are practically meeting halfway.[/quote] Thanks JS! If you think of the reference please post. Your signature-quote thing just cracked me up btw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justified Saint Posted April 10, 2007 Share Posted April 10, 2007 For some reason I want to say [i]Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures[/i] since that is the second most recent book I have read by Pope Benedict, but I couldn't find the exact reference in the text. Now I feel like im getting old... [quote]Your signature-quote thing just cracked me up btw.[/quote] Those things still display, cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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