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For example, Lets say you believe in God and that you are a Christian. Christian beliefs says that you are not allowed to get a divorce but you don't agree on them with that. Does that mean you are contradicting you entire religion/belief?

asked Nov 18 '12 at 23:54

deannamurray's gravatar image


That's the price you pay when you adopt an altruistic philosophy, a mixed bag of ethics, and attempt to live your life as you see fit. Your life will be riddled with contradictions, and you'll live moment-by-moment choosing to act selfishly or selflessly. All-in-all, not very good for one's self-esteem.

(Nov 19 '12 at 11:08) JK Gregg ♦ JK%20Gregg's gravatar image

First off, if something is your belief, how do you not believe it. If you believe it, it is your belief. If you do not believe it, it is not your belief. To say you do not believe something you believe is a lie, not a contradiction.

In the case of agreeing or disagreeing with a text, such as the Bible, you are exercising your own judgment about which parts you choose to agree and disagree with. Still, what you believe to be true is what you believe. To believe that the Bible is true with the exception of the following, is still a statement of what you believe.

A contradiction can be the status of a belief. Rand uses a fairly simple example in her works." "There are no absolutes." they chatter, blanking out the fact that they just uttered an absolute."

A person can believe that there are no absolutes. They have not examined the nature of their belief to grasp whether it is contradictory or not. To understand what an absolute is, is to know there are indeed, absolutes. To believe "there are no absolutes" is to hold a contradiction as a belief. We only have a choice, as human beings, whether to examine our beliefs to determine if they are true or false, consistent or inconsistent, non-contradictory or contradictory, or to default on that examination.

answered Nov 19 '12 at 11:05

dream_weaver's gravatar image

dream_weaver ♦

So for someone to say that they only believe in some parts of the bible and not all of it means that they don't necessarily believe in Christianity, but their own belief of something else?

(Nov 19 '12 at 17:21) deannamurray deannamurray's gravatar image

With the Bible, generally what is encountered is in the realm of hermanutics, or interpretations. Catholicism, Baptist, Luthern, etc., interpret the text in subtly different ways, creating different varients of Christianity.

(Nov 19 '12 at 17:58) dream_weaver ♦ dream_weaver's gravatar image

A belief is what you make it. I myself am a Christian, and my personal beliefs may not match up with everything the Bible says... But in general, isn't a belief system a square-cut compilation of beliefs, concepts, and philosophies grouped together and identified by a single name? If so, then it would not be a contradiction to personally disagree with something from the group because you don't believe that particular belief. Although, Christianity is simply believing Jesus is Lord and that He did to save people from their sins, so you could still be a non-contradictory Christian in that sense.

(May 08 '14 at 19:13) PersonifiedPoet PersonifiedPoet's gravatar image
Christianity is simply believing Jesus is Lord and that He did [sic] to save people from their sins....

If this is a reference to Original Sin, those who are interested can find a devastating critique of it in The Ayn Rand Lexicon (excerpted from Galt's Speech in Atlas Shrugged).

(May 09 '14 at 01:00) Ideas for Life ♦ Ideas%20for%20Life's gravatar image
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Asked: Nov 18 '12 at 23:54

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Last updated: May 09 '14 at 01:00