why do we want EITHER OR in our answers? why can't stuff be gray?

Question

i an an agnostic atheist, so, "the bible says" answers, in general ,will be ignored.

a red rose is never a red rose; it always has some blue, or blue green in it.

Answer 1

Simple minds can only deal with bifurcations.

Answer 2

Greetings.

I'm a christian and I just want you to know that you ask a really good question that too many do not stop to think about. It's not all black and white, either or, etc. This is not reality. Things are much more complicated than that. And, gray it is all too often.

I could bore you with many christian theologies that seemingly contradict themselves (like the soveriegnty of God and the free will of man). The point is that both of these doctrines are found in the Bible and seemingly contradict themselves. If you believe in both, as I do, then it's not either or but both. Color this very gray.

Don't know if I've been much help. All I know is that the more you think, the more you land in gray land. God gave us brains to think. Keep at it. Have a great day.

Answer 3

We can accept that not everything, even most things on earth are grey while we seek to clarify what our clear principals are. The grey area is what happens when two or more clear ideas that we hold to be true clash. For instance, many of us will agree that war is a bad thing. At the same time many of us maintain that war is necessary to weed out an even worse evil like, say, Nazi Germany. Both of these concepts exist in our self-awareness as very lucid and clear black-and-white slate of principals which we can choose to further contemplate and develop. But if you take both of them into consideration and ask the question "is war good or bad?" then what you get is an ambiguous uncertainty. Such is life.

Answer 4

My husband grew up in the Church of Christ. On most things about life he is very much shades of gray, but on religion, any religion, it is all 1's and 0's, it is this way or not, no gray area and religion. I asked him this once and after sitting with a blank look on his face for a few minutes we realized that it was still more residual fall out from his youth. This particular denomination is very much the either it is said in the bible and that is the way you take it or not. There can be no gray. So even as a agnostic and spiritual searcher he can find nothing to believe in because he has to believe in all or nothing. I was raised to question everything even my questions and why i came up with them. That there is truth in everything if you dig it out and never take anything at face value. So to me there is lots of gray areas in religion. I think that it has to do with how people first come to religion.

Answer 5

People at the lowest level of psychosocial development tend to think in either/or terms (dualism). People at the next higher level tend to think in matters of gray (triads). People at the next level, like the Buddhists, go even beyond gray to colorlessness.

The lowest level of computers are binary (0 or 1). They are working on 0, 1, and 1/2 computers as we speak, so even computers will someday be able to think in shades of gray. Meanwhiloe, however, the evolution of human minds seem as a whole to be stuck in binary mode, forever rattling between my way or the highway sort of stuff. Very juvenile. Cultures, unfortunately, have a psychsocial level of development, and the US culture is but a child, a young, impetuous, terribly spoiled brat.

Answer 6

For every question concerning God there is a definite answer. It wouldn't make since for the creator of the universe to be "wishy-washy" with what he expects of us.
Not grasping details of a matter does not suggest a "gray area", only that there is a lack of understanding on our part.
I find some people prefer gray areas because they won't have to adhere to laws that are clearly black and white--but the plea of ignorance is no excuse.

Answer 7

Because its a conflict between absolute truth and relative truth. Post Modernism as opposed to Modernism.

Post Modernism describes a major movement of intellectual thought or historical period which has had a major impact on philosophy, art, critical theory, literature, architecture, interpretation of history, and culture since the late 20th century. The term defies easy definition, but is generally characterised as:

* A reaction to Modernism, the emphasis of grand, absolute values and establishments. (see Counter-Enlightenment) In contrast, postmodernism rejects the validity of a basis for those values.

* The belief that no communication is devoid of myth, metaphor, cultural bias and political content. (see cultural relativism)

* Feelings regarding the illegitimacy of knowledge and identity.(see nihilism)

* Asserting that experience is personal (cannot be generalized) and that meaning is created by the individual, not an author. (see Existentialism)

* Parody, satire, self-reference, and wit with regard to art and social theory.

* A culturally pluralistic and profoundly interconnected global society lacking any single dominant center of political power, communication, or intellectual production.

* A result of a mass media dominated society in which there are only inter-referential representations with no real original referent. (see late capitalism)

Answer 8

I understand where you are coming form. I see everything in various shades of gray and seldom recognize absolutes.

Answer 9

Because neutrality gets you nowhere. Gray to me seems stagnant.