[lit-ideas] Re: Bizarre Faith
- From: Paul Stone <pas@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 16:00:07 -0500
>Do you really expect an authentic response to such an asinine comment? Or
>are you just trolling? I am happy to answer for my beliefs but not if you
>are being an ass.
I'm not being an ass. I want to know, not so much _why_ people hold their
beliefs, but why they act on them so truly that they actually let it
influence every major/minor decision they make -- including getting a bank
loan.
I'm trying to resolve the following issue:
It appears that [quite devout] Christian belief helped Mr. Bush win the
election. It also appears that most people from the Middle East have [quite
devout] Islamic beliefs which are very different in substance than are the
Christian ones. Now, other than an accident in geography -- and thus, the
resulting geographic inculcation -- there is no 'REASON' for one person to
hold either of those very different beliefs, and even LESS reason to carry
them out in such a way as to live their life according to that handed-down
tradition. Have you ever seen the 'grapevine' seen in "Johnny Dangerously"?
It's questionable what kind of perverted (in the non-pejorative sense)
message you are getting at the end of the line.
I was forced [key word] to go to Sunday School, but for some reason it just
didn't stick. The reason it didn't is because I looked around every Sunday
and thought to myself "whaaaaaaaaaaaat?" When I finally had a say, I
stopped going. Up until then, I had been faking. I'm just wondering how
many people aren't faking it. I understand the faking -- that's the typical
herding mentality. I DON'T understand the actually "knowing" that "Jesus
Loves me" ..." because the bible tells me so". I learned not to accept
'argument from authority' a long time ago.
It has been my experience that there is no logical reason to believe in
God, let alone a religion. I want someone to tell me why they do. I'm not
"trolling" as you put it. This {people's devotion} is as troubling to me as
bare breasts on tv are to some "religious folk."
And I'm not coming at this as an ingorant ass either. I've read Descartes
arguments for God in his "Meditations", other philosophical arguments for
and against, and also the Koran, Bible, Gita, Lao Tse etc. It's all very
interesting, but swallowing any of it all whole seems a bit imprudent.
Other than those who have actually had personal divine revelation (I think
that number to be quite low even in this group), what actual reason would
you have (other than going along with Pascal's Wager) for living your life
according to a book or set of books that recount parables.
My straw man is the one who miraculously survives to adulthood without ever
hearing of a particular religion. Would that person freely choose any of
Campbell's "myths to live by"?
waiting for a knockout punch,
Paul
##########
Paul Stone
pas@xxxxxxxx
Kingsville, ON, Canada
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
