Josh, I found the ERI podcast completely by accident a few days ago, and I'm very happy I did. I've listened to almost all of the episodes since. As a Portlander, it's beyond refreshing to hear arguments regarding abortion that are both well thought-out and charitable. Your comments about faith in the Rock for Life pt 2 episode gave me pause. I really identified with your desire for epistemological veracity. However, I was confused about something you said. In talking about what matters in Christian belief, you said that the thing that matters most to God is not that we have a set of right beliefs about God. The thing that matters is that we try to become more like Him, and that we go and love others really well. On a general level, I totally agree with your statement. But isn't it also true that at some point, a person's misunderstandings about who God is end up becoming a different god entirely? I'm reminded of the sacrifices of Cain and Abel, and how God did not accept Cain's sacrifice. Granted, you went on to separate less important things from more important things in Christianity, such as frequency of communion and the nature of the offering we bring to God(the bread and wine/grape juice) for communion. This reminds me of C.S. Lewis' 'mere Christianity' argument, or as I've uncharitably called it, Lowest Common Denominator Christianity. Your description of communion carries with it the implicit belief that it is not THAT important, that it is a sort of memorial service. But that's not historically what Christians believed (by "historically", I mean those Christians from the Apostles up until Zwingli). For those Christians, Orthodox and Roman, Holy Communion was the chief and central act of Christian worship, and the primary way in which they physically and spiritually met God. In a literal sense. This belief shows a fundamental difference in what those Christians and Protestants believe about who God is and how He chooses to interact with His people. It's very important.
To come back to the truth in your original thought, with which I totally agree: Just as you said you'd prefer on your team a horrible apologist who's kind over a wonderful apologist who's mean and spiteful, I do believe God would rather us be misinformed but loving, as opposed to orthodox and hateful(the latter two make a dichotomy anyway).
Your comments about faith in the Rock for Life pt 2 episode gave me pause. I really identified with your desire for epistemological veracity. However, I was confused about something you said. In talking about what matters in Christian belief, you said that the thing that matters most to God is not that we have a set of right beliefs about God. The thing that matters is that we try to become more like Him, and that we go and love others really well.
On a general level, I totally agree with your statement. But isn't it also true that at some point, a person's misunderstandings about who God is end up becoming a different god entirely? I'm reminded of the sacrifices of Cain and Abel, and how God did not accept Cain's sacrifice.
Granted, you went on to separate less important things from more important things in Christianity, such as frequency of communion and the nature of the offering we bring to God(the bread and wine/grape juice) for communion. This reminds me of C.S. Lewis' 'mere Christianity' argument, or as I've uncharitably called it, Lowest Common Denominator Christianity. Your description of communion carries with it the implicit belief that it is not THAT important, that it is a sort of memorial service. But that's not historically what Christians believed (by "historically", I mean those Christians from the Apostles up until Zwingli). For those Christians, Orthodox and Roman, Holy Communion was the chief and central act of Christian worship, and the primary way in which they physically and spiritually met God. In a literal sense. This belief shows a fundamental difference in what those Christians and Protestants believe about who God is and how He chooses to interact with His people. It's very important.