When you were younger, how did you reconcile with conflicting statements?

For example, the Bible has many statements that conflict with non-religious school textbooks (The Bible says the Earth is only 6,000 years old, while both secular science and history textbooks state it is much older.) Even among different non-secular sources you were probably told different things (can't think of any good examples at the moment.)

I don't really remember how I reconciled with conflicting statements when I was younger. I guess I just "cherry-picked" whatever made sense.

I just thought I knew everything and could decide what was true and what wasn't.

VioletZer0 posted...

I just thought I knew everything and could decide what was true and what wasn't.

I probably did the same thing.

Well everything about the Bible is a lie.
So that helps.

As for other conflicting statements? I go figure out the truth if I can. Or ignore it if it's not important or it's my wife saying it, then you just always pick her side.

SinisterSlay posted...

Well everything about the Bible is a lie.
So that helps.

As for other conflicting statements? I go figure out the truth if I can. Or ignore it if it's not important or it's my wife saying it, then you just always pick her side.

Well as an adult I assume it's easier to find the truth, but I mainly talking about when you were a child.

PikachuMaxwell posted...

Well as an adult I assume it's easier to find the truth, but I mainly talking about when you were a child.

As a child? If at school I would go use one of the computers in the labs.
At home, never really came up. My parents largely ignored me. I was one of those kids that had no bed time, I could stay out all night and my parents didn't seem to care.

Now if we're talking ages 1 to 8. Well I was really fucking stupid and unmedicated. So I didn't really learn anything anyways. Predates ADHD and Asperger's being a thing.

I was intelligent enough to know that most of the Bible was never meant to be literal, and that most of the things people claim it says, it doesn't actually say.

( Fun Fact: Nowhere in the Bible will you find it say that the world is only 6000 years old. That's how some people interpreted it, but those people were stupid.)

I was basically raised by an aloof atheist and a non-denominational Christian. There weren't a whole lot of dogmatic statements being thrown at me at any point.

I was pretty much trained from an early-age to be the Devil's Advocate who always took up a contrary position in most arguments in an attempt to try and force the other person to think, or to at least make them look stupid for being unwilling to think. Didn't really matter what you believed - religious, atheist, political right, political left, skeptic, devout believer in aliens, ghosts, or the supernatural. Most people are stupid. It is my divinely ordained purpose to rub your nose in it.

I just figured there was something I didn't know that makes both of them make sense

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I was intelligent enough to know that most of the Bible was never meant to be literal

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I was basically raised by an aloof atheist and a non-denominational Christian.

Sounds like it was nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with your environment.

Grew up in a non-religious household. I was an atheist by middle school.

I think we should ban discussion about religion outside of CE.

Its a good question, Im honestly not sure, guess I just went with whatever made the most sense to me at the time, still more or less the same to this day

Beveren_Rabbit posted...

I think we should ban discussion about religion outside of CE.

What about unions?

PikachuMaxwell posted...

For example, the Bible has many statements that conflict with non-religious school textbooks (The Bible says the Earth is only 6,000 years old, while both secular science and history textbooks state it is much older.) Even among different non-secular sources you were probably told different things (can't think of any good examples at the moment.)

I don't really remember how I reconciled with conflicting statements when I was younger. I guess I just "cherry-picked" whatever made sense.

Funny story: When I was like 6 years old (and my older brother was 8), we went to Sunday school with our dad. My brother was getting to that age where he was surprisingly intelligent and inquisitive about everything. I just wanted snacks, social opportunities, and recess.

We were learning some lesson about Noah's Ark, and I remember my brother raising his hand and (respectfully) asking how 2 of every animal on earth could fit on the ark, to include rare animals in the arctic and deserts climates. Plus all the billions of insects and stuff.

I remember the teacher's eyes got wide....and she called for an assistant. This helper dude, some random middle-aged guy, stood up and took my brother out of the class. I didnt see him for the rest of the day.

Finally, at the very end of the day, I saw my brother in the lobby standing with that guy who removed him from class. My brother looked all pale and scared.

It took YEARS to finally get my brother to tell me what happened. I was too young to think " that " happened, so I just assumed he got detention or something.

Come to find out, that man took my 8 year old brother to some side room. In that room were a bunch of adults. They stood in a circle around my brother and placed their hands on his head, shoulders, back, neck, wherever.....and they "prayed for his doubt to go away."

We never went to church again.

That's how I reconcile with conflicting statements. I abandon that religion.

If it was truly honest, there would be no conflicting statements.

GreenKnight127 posted...

If it was truly honest, there would be no conflicting statements.

At least in the narrative, you can have conflicting statements from characters but the narrative should be on the same page, what amateurs, they broke the suspension of disbelief

Muscles posted...

they broke the suspension of disbelief

The narrative prevented my belief, lol

Religion is a bad example because most of them are the product of a need for control, not the truth.

Usually, conflicting statements are a result of people wanting to be right rather than true and honest. So when conflicting statements arise, I usually dismiss the problem as too far beyond help since we've already hit the 'bickering needlessly over bullshit' stage.

It's like when a relationship hits that point. It's not a good thing.

GreenKnight127 posted...

Funny story: When I was like 6 years old (and my older brother was 8), we went to Sunday school with our dad. My brother was getting to that age where he was surprisingly intelligent and inquisitive about everything. I just wanted snacks, social opportunities, and recess.

We were learning some lesson about Noah's Ark, and I remember my brother raising his hand and (respectfully) asking how 2 of every animal on earth could fit on the ark, to include rare animals in the arctic and deserts climates. Plus all the billions of insects and stuff.

I remember the teacher's eyes got wide....and she called for an assistant. This helper dude, some random middle-aged guy, stood up and took my brother out of the class. I didnt see him for the rest of the day.

Finally, at the very end of the day, I saw my brother in the lobby standing with that guy who removed him from class. My brother looked all pale and scared.

It took YEARS to finally get my brother to tell me what happened. I was too young to think " that " happened, so I just assumed he got detention or something.

Come to find out, that man took my 8 year old brother to some side room. In that room were a bunch of adults. They stood in a circle around my brother and placed their hands on his head, shoulders, back, neck, wherever.....and they "prayed for his doubt to go away."

We never went to church again.

That's how I reconcile with conflicting statements. I abandon that religion.

If it was truly honest, there would be no conflicting statements.

This is an interesting anecdote! Thanks for sharing!

LordFuzzi posted...

Religion is a bad example because most of them are the product of a need for control, not the truth.

Usually, conflicting statements are a result of people wanting to be right rather than true and honest. So when conflicting statements arise, I usually dismiss the problem as too far beyond help since we've already hit the 'bickering needlessly over bullshit' stage.

It's like when a relationship hits that point. It's not a good thing.

This is probably a good attitude to take!

I would generally believe what my school teachers said above all else. I went to vacation Bible school for a week in the summer and then just a handful of random days throughout the year lik Easter, so the religion never stuck with me.

PikachuMaxwell posted...

The Bible says the Earth is only 6,000 years old

No, it doesn't.
Someone just did some rough math by adding up the ages of the lineages given in Genesis.

Questionmarktarius posted...

No, it doesn't.
Someone just did some rough math by adding up the ages of the lineages given in Genesis.

Yeah, young earthers were never a bright bunch. It also says a day is like a 1,000 years and 1,000 years is like a day to god, so the fact that they think the entire universe was created in an actual week and it traces back like 6,000 years shows they don't understand much about the concept of time or god being outside of time. I'm not a Christian anymore but I always kind of assumed everything happening in a "week" was more symbolism.