Quote:
Originally Posted by aklim
I tend to think of it like in a court situation. If the witness is called up and can't remember this or that or changes his story, his credibility is shot. OTOH, if he sticks to the story and it is backed up by facts, it makes his testimony certainly worth another look.
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I understand that, in fact fundamentalists make exactly that argument. There is a fundamentalist apologetics book called 'God in the Dock' which follows that line of reasoning. I disagree because no amount of credibility concerning observable and verifiable events gives credibility about the invisible world.
Take the very best historian you can imagine who gives a totally credible account of a battle during the US Civil War, then then concludes by saying that God has spoken to him and told him that he was on the side of the South in the battle. Does his historical veracity add any credibility at all to his theological claim about what God was going. I say absolutely not.
This is the kind of situation that Sharlet is describing in his book. This group of fundamentalists think that God is on the side of capitalists and not on the side of labor. Epistemologically it is nonsense. Sociologically it is very important and has significant consequences.