Lexicographer
Retired 13 May 2006
Argh WHY did you have to revive this thread the week before midsem? DAMN TIM...
If you had indeed read my arguments in the previous threads (the ones with Lazarus) then you would find that I, and many other Christians, do indeed pose questions to our faith. We think and we meditate upon the issues of the world as anyone else would, and if we come upon something within our faith we question it.
It is you who has proclaimed all Christians (and other religious) to be "narrow minded", and "blinded by faith". I admit that there are people (I call them the "stagnant faithful") who take what they are given and don't try to process it, but I am quite insulted by your nave suggestion that I am one of these. How dare you assume that simply because I choose to invest my spiritual wellbeing in a greater order I am somehow less intellectually active, less able to form an opinion, or even less informed than you are.
By asking questions and discovering answers our faith is STRENGTHENED, not destroyed. If we do not like, or understand, what the Canon is saying we will question it, find new meaning and attempt to interpret it differently.
I don't think that simply because you are not religious you are somehow narrow-minded. You may very well be a free thinking and highly philosophical individual. I do, however, think that you can be extremely narrow minded, and this is because you refuse to accept that religion is NOT all about lies and usury. You refuse to consider the viewpoint of the religious beyond the model you have formed: Unquestioning automaton devoted to ancient and irrelevant issues and customs. As it is, many religious do NOT fit this model - the theologians, the budding seminarians, the active laity - we all spend time in thought and prayer, trying to deeper understand our faith. Rather than taking the Canon at face value we are duty bound to always seek deeper meaning. If someone like you, Tim, approaches me and says "Christianity can't be true because it's full of holes" I immediately ask them "show me". Often the "hole" is simply a matter of misinterpretation - but just as often it is something that we Christians have ourselves been debating for centuries. You seem to think that everything about religion is set in stone - "here are the rules, live them ad eternum". This, of course, is not the case. We Christians (and all other religions, I assume) have always debated the true nature of our faith, there will always be points of controversy (eg the Virgin Birth) and many of these we will simply never be able to answer.
Despite these uncertainties I am ever stronger in faith, because I do not believe your ideals of purist humanism the way I should live my life. I believe there is more to life than self gratification, I believe there is more than simply death to look to and I believe that we all have a spark of divinity within us.
I could post the Apostle's Creed, but that's too specifically Catholic. As for The Sunday paper, I read none of them because they're all tabloid junk (Herald during the week) but Pell is something you have to understand to appreciate. On a side note, I met him last Thursday.
If you had indeed read my arguments in the previous threads (the ones with Lazarus) then you would find that I, and many other Christians, do indeed pose questions to our faith. We think and we meditate upon the issues of the world as anyone else would, and if we come upon something within our faith we question it.
It is you who has proclaimed all Christians (and other religious) to be "narrow minded", and "blinded by faith". I admit that there are people (I call them the "stagnant faithful") who take what they are given and don't try to process it, but I am quite insulted by your nave suggestion that I am one of these. How dare you assume that simply because I choose to invest my spiritual wellbeing in a greater order I am somehow less intellectually active, less able to form an opinion, or even less informed than you are.
By asking questions and discovering answers our faith is STRENGTHENED, not destroyed. If we do not like, or understand, what the Canon is saying we will question it, find new meaning and attempt to interpret it differently.
I don't think that simply because you are not religious you are somehow narrow-minded. You may very well be a free thinking and highly philosophical individual. I do, however, think that you can be extremely narrow minded, and this is because you refuse to accept that religion is NOT all about lies and usury. You refuse to consider the viewpoint of the religious beyond the model you have formed: Unquestioning automaton devoted to ancient and irrelevant issues and customs. As it is, many religious do NOT fit this model - the theologians, the budding seminarians, the active laity - we all spend time in thought and prayer, trying to deeper understand our faith. Rather than taking the Canon at face value we are duty bound to always seek deeper meaning. If someone like you, Tim, approaches me and says "Christianity can't be true because it's full of holes" I immediately ask them "show me". Often the "hole" is simply a matter of misinterpretation - but just as often it is something that we Christians have ourselves been debating for centuries. You seem to think that everything about religion is set in stone - "here are the rules, live them ad eternum". This, of course, is not the case. We Christians (and all other religions, I assume) have always debated the true nature of our faith, there will always be points of controversy (eg the Virgin Birth) and many of these we will simply never be able to answer.
Despite these uncertainties I am ever stronger in faith, because I do not believe your ideals of purist humanism the way I should live my life. I believe there is more to life than self gratification, I believe there is more than simply death to look to and I believe that we all have a spark of divinity within us.
I could post the Apostle's Creed, but that's too specifically Catholic. As for The Sunday paper, I read none of them because they're all tabloid junk (Herald during the week) but Pell is something you have to understand to appreciate. On a side note, I met him last Thursday.
