Victor Reppert is Feeling the Heat of the Outsider Test for Faith

Yep, just look at the title to his latest post: If I had been born in Saudi Arabia, would I have been a Muslim? Hell, no! "Hell No"? Hmmm. That's an expletive! To quote Shakespeare, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." A reasonable person would simply say "I don't think so," although that wouldn't be reasonable either. See Brenda's comment below, which is a perfect response:
Well.... you know.... if you were born a different person you'd be a different person.

It is a fashion of our times to believe that we are perfectly self contained monads existing entirely within our selves. But I don't think so. I think we are determined a great deal by the people around us, our social environment. The same person in a different environment becomes a different person.

This is most true when we are young. After all, we are all born with the same capacity for learning language. If I were born in a Japanese family I would speak Japanese and likely not even comprehend English. I cannot imagine that person. I would have nothing in common with the Japanese me. She would not be me.

If things were different then I would be different. This is because I am only who I am as a result of my experience and if I had different experiences in my life then I'd be a different person. We are who we are because the world beyond our ego causes us to be who we are. To believe that you would be the same person under different circumstances (speaking of children here, not as adults) is to deny casualty.

You have the thoughts, feelings and beliefs you do because the world caused you to have them. How can you have uncaused thoughts or beliefs?

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