Exercising my right of Free Speech and also your right to leave this site if you disagree.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Open Question of Faith

I want to pose an open question on faith to world at large.

What do you believe and why?
I know that is too general. What I am looking for is an understanding of what makes people tick. What is convincing and why? So, if you are atheist, agnostic, christian, muslim, hindu, et cetera, why do you believe what you do?

Note: Because X book says so does not cut it.

4 comments:

  1. Everyone must have their own threshold of what constitutes believability. For most religious believers, the threshold is low enough to include a lot that is mystical nonsense to the rest of us. Personally, things that I find utterly unconvincing are the big, general ideas of religions: a benevolent diety who really cares about one's daily life (and to whom you can and should pray constantly); an unimaginable afterlife of eternal boredom in the company of history's least interesting souls; a holy book that retains its sacredness and truth despite centuries of mistranlation, etc....

    What I DO believe is that, while we live in an indifferent universe where human life isn't particularly special relative to the untold other species that have come and gone, for each individual human, this life can be an amazing adventure. Why do we waste so much of our short time worrying about trivia, so focused on an "afterlife" that we miss the real, present life.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I do not believe in magic. But I also believe that religious faith is a great asset to those who allow it to play a part in their lives.

    I'm what you might call a reluctant atheist. Can't muster up enough credibility for "the other" to allow it a meaningful place in my understanding, and lack of understanding, of the universe.

    To me the uses to which religious credulity has been put is in many cases quite sad. Faith as a force for Good is unsurpassed, but faith for the sake of of political power is an abomination of humanity. I find it absolutely astonishing that there are those who have been gullible enough to follow professed oracles of the divine, even to their deaths or to the murder of others.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well said, let's keep it going.

    ReplyDelete

Followers

About Me

I am a husband and a father of two. I work as a network administrator. I am interested in religion and philosophy, though mostly from an external perspective.