The Agnostic’s Confessional
Hendrix Keats has a confession to make. In order to give you the full context of his post, I would have to copy just about all of it, but rather than do that, let me just point you his way.
But you know, his post could have very well come from me because I violate my religion from time to time too, committing sins on a daily basis, sometimes lacking faith, and just like him, there is no one to punish me for my sins and I also take great comfort in that, knowing that my sins are forgiven. People have asked me too, how my faith can promote morality, when I am “once saved, always saved”, meaning that regardless of what I do, nothing can come between me and the Father, not even sin. I can totally relate.
We’ve been involved in a lengthy discussion at DrHelens and Vox, on religion.
For all I repeat one of my many comments here on the subject:
The concept of christianity reminds me of that Star Trek film where Capt’n Kirk says, “excuse me, but what does God need with a spaceship?” Excuse me, but what kind of a god requires worship and condemns those who disobey to an eternity of firey torture? Not any god i want to know. Sounds more like an authoritarian dictator like Saddam Hussein than the ‘prince of peace’. [as Sarcastro once said]
It’s an interesting demographic - denialism, dogmatism, and authoritarianism - so strongly associated with conservatives. I admire your conviction. Belief in the supernatural requires a lot of suspension of reason. I can also see that many of the religious have been indoctrinated from and early age, lived lives with the absolute certainty of religious conviction and with no room to consider it all may be a fallacy. There is no room for reason on the subject, only rationalization, often in the form of attacking anyone who questions the factual basis for religion.
AN interesting essay written by Terry Walstrom, a person who escaped the pit of absolute certainty of religion explains the psychology of how people fall into the self-righteous abyss:
1. Religion is often presented to us when we are young and intellectually unable to be skeptical. We trust what we are told and our world view is permanently colored.
2. We expect our belief system of religion to be absolutely true since it comes from an inerrant God. Consequently, we constantly find ways of proving it is true. Conversely, we ignore every evidence contrary to our expectation.
3. Religion carries with it many rituals. Ritual behaviors relieve our tensions and depressions in carrying the notion of “effective action” and getting positive results.
4. Prayer and Faith cannot be subject to disproof. We continue praying until we get some “signal” that our prayer is answered. If something bad happens it becomes a case of not displaying “enough faith.”
5. Religous beliefs are reinforced by the social pressures of the group we belong to. Many groups are completely exclusive. Thus, all possibility of disproof is unavailable for observation.
6. The confidence, absolute certainty, positive attitude and determination that comes from believing your are RIGHT propel the “faithful” person into confident behavioral demonstrations. The faithful convinces himself and others as a result.
7. A True Believer has their ego and their future completely tied up in a package deal that must be reinforced and strengthened constantly to remain effective. As a consequence ever more active participation must be engaged in or the real world intrudes and extreme depression results.
Dogma is not debatable to the true believer. Dogma is blind and deaf to anything reason has to offer. Faith is nonnegotiable. We expect people in general to observe the rules of reason, yet religion gets a pass with otherwise rational people and ignores the rules of reason.
I don’t blame you for not wanting to know that kind of God. That type of God most certainly does not sound like the Prince of Peace. If that was my perception of God, I would get another one. Many different people perceive God in many different ways. If I didn’t like the religiosity taught by church people, I would find a perception that worked for me.
“that whoever believes in him shall not perish” … J 3:16
I don’t know, scripture is very explicit on this point. If you don’t believe, you will perish.
I don’t see any point of debate here. This is god’s word, it is Scripture! Either you believe and follow or you perish. Period.
Like I said, if I didn’t like what that said or what the followers of that verse taught, I would find my own perception.
I have an unrelated question about grammar and spelling. Is proven not a word anymore? Was it never a word and I always thought it was? Am I supposed to be using proved instead? Because Firefox always underlines it as a misspelling.
Glen: Firefox also underlines some contractions, and other valid words.
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proven is a word
Firefox can go to hell. Oh wait, I was just kidding. I love Firefox. Firefox (which is also saying the word Firefox is a misspelling) is forgiven.