As much as want I want to reject determinist views of human behavior, I can't dismiss the importance of experience (including culture, historical context, and geography) on human belief systems. I also can't claim that I can control or escape my experiences though I still insist that I have had a more-or-less free will to react to them. Moreover, even if or when I rebel against my heritage, I'm rebeling against MY heritage. I could not rebel against someone else's background. I could not react to someone else's environement. No one is a self-made man or woman. (I do tend to think that libertarians are delusional or narcissistic.)
Because my family supported Wm. J. Bryan, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt, I inherited a progressive/populist political outlook. Because my father was killed in the Korean War, I did not move to Japan in 1950. Because FDR enacted Social Security and Truman signed the GI Bill, my mother and I had enough money and GI benefits to allow me to go to college and I never developed a desire to be rich. Because I received an amost free humanities and social science educaton at I.U., I attended Bloomington's First Christian Church and was influenced by the theology of its liberal minister, Dr. Anderson. As this chain of events went on and on, I developed my own questions and concerns. Moving thru the United Methodist Church to the Episcopal Church, I found the three-part method of addressing those questions and concerns: scripture, tradition, and reason.
So, it would sem to me that everyone's theology is a product of experience. What's the opposite argument? Of course, my interest in the arguments is a product of my ......
As much as want I want to reject determinist views of human behavior, I can't dismiss the importance of experience (including culture, historical context, and geography) on human belief systems. I also can't claim that I can control or escape my experiences though I still insist that I have had a more-or-less free will to react to them. Moreover, even if or when I rebel against my heritage, I'm rebeling against MY heritage. I could not rebel against someone else's background. I could not react to someone else's environement. No one is a self-made man or woman. (I do tend to think that libertarians are delusional or narcissistic.)
Because my family supported Wm. J. Bryan, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt, I inherited a progressive/populist political outlook. Because my father was killed in the Korean War, I did not move to Japan in 1950. Because FDR enacted Social Security and Truman signed the GI Bill, my mother and I had enough money and GI benefits to allow me to go to college and I never developed a desire to be rich. Because I received an amost free humanities and social science educaton at I.U., I attended Bloomington's First Christian Church and was influenced by the theology of its liberal minister, Dr. Anderson. As this chain of events went on and on, I developed my own questions and concerns. Moving thru the United Methodist Church to the Episcopal Church, I found the three-part method of addressing those questions and concerns: scripture, tradition, and reason.
So, it would sem to me that everyone's theology is a product of experience. What's the opposite argument? Of course, my interest in the arguments is a product of my ......