The Gay Debate: The Bible And Homosexuality

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Pages: 6
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Candidate number 6

Candidate Number:
Dr. Maloney
Theory of Knowledge
May 2017

Prescribed Title 5: ?Given access to the same facts how is it possible that there can be disagreement between experts in a discipline??

A fact is a quantitative or qualitative piece of information, but often even amongst experts we see disagreements can arise even when given the same facts. Because as humans no one person is alike, this leads to differing perspectives often stemming from backgrounds, culture, level of education, religion and many other factors. An expert is viewed as a person who is very knowledgeable or skillful in a particular area (e.g. a specialist). Interestingly with experts, they are associated with a certain authority …show more content…
Matthew Vines is the founder/executive director of The Reformation Project, and has published a book call ?God and the Gay Christian; The Biblical Case in Support of Same ? Sex Relationships?. He gave a speech concerning homosexuality and Christianity called ?The Gay Debate: The Bible and Homosexuality?. He discusses, in particular, Genesis 19 the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the original interpretation of the story and his own/more modern interpretation of whether homosexuality is sinful (Vines). Matt Slick is the President and Founder of the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry who has a Bachelors in Social Science. Slick published on his website a review of the speech arguing Vines has no proof to claim that homosexuality is not a sin (Slick). These two experts disagree on whether homosexuality is a sin and disagree on the use of Genesis 19. One believes the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is biblical evidence that homosexuality is a sin, while the other believes it is one?s perspective that leads them to think the story is evidence. Within Religious Knowledge systems unlike the Natural Sciences there is uncertainty surrounding what is evidence and what is not. And because of this uncertainty surrounding this often stops the progression of knowledge within the field. In this real life situation, we can see clearly that even though they …show more content…
In Catholicism, there is a consensus surrounding their beliefs which are written in the catechism (tenants of their faith). If you are catholic you follow the tenants described in the catechism, but you might practice differently within your church. In Catholicism, there is a large debate concerning the role of women in the church and whether they should have leadership positions. Sister Donna Markham in 2015 became one of 3 women to be in charge of social service groups in the United States, which some believe to be a paradox since women are not allowed to become priests (O'Loughlin). Even if you disagree on the role of women in the church, if you are catholic you will agree to follow the Pope and priests on matters of Dogma. Again unlike the Natural Sciences disagreements don?t further the progression of knowledge in this area. Disagreement in this field often results in schism which can be as to why one church might split into two. One problem that often arises is the problem of faith, and how strong one?s faith is. Faith is personal and hard to measure because it isn?t as tangible as evidence in the sciences. Faith much like perspective can also result in schisms because it may not measure up to the faith of others in the same church. Thus knowledge is very hard to progress in this field because of our varying perspectives, but also the difficulty with faith and
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