Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Voices of Me!


Being an atheist named Faith is mostly ridiculous and occasionally hilarious*. Today it's the latter. (thank you to [redacted] for the link.)


Voice of Faith: there is no god, therefore, no religion is true. Go, and wonder no more.

The Rev. Duke Tufty, Unity Temple on the Plaza, Kansas City, Mo.: There are two basic ways to know what the true religion is. The first is to let another or others tell you. In most cases their response will be "my" religion is the only true religion.


Voice of Faith: "Most cases"? If you didn't think your religion was the one true religion, why would you believe in it? Well, I guess those friendly universalists who are pretty open about their need to believe in something even if they have no idea whether or not it is real. Unsurprisingly, universalists are pleasant to be an atheist around.

The second way for you to know what is the true religion is to personalize it and do research to discover what the true religion is for you. Read the statement of beliefs, acquaint yourself with the history and determine whether the theology inspires you, empowers you and resonates with your deepest beliefs.

Your spiritual path should be one that impassions you, not imprisons you. It should be one that continually moves you to higher levels of joy, love, peace of mind and harmony. Seek and you will find the spiritual source that is best for you. The one that truly supports your greatest happiness and highest good.


Look, I'm down with the universalism, but "it makes me happy" does not make something true. Unfortunately, "it's the highest good" doesn't make something true, either.

The Rev. Justin Hoye, pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church, Nevada, Mo., and St. Bridget's in Rich Hill, Mo: You don't - that's why faith is called for! I can give personal testimonies and historical accounts that could tip the scale toward belief in the person of Jesus Christ. But you can dismiss these professions as biased, unsubstantiated or unreliable. That is, at a certain point you are asked to assent to these claims with an act of faith.


Yeah, look, you could look at the evidence and conclude this is all a bunch of bullshit, but . . . faith!

Faith: "yes?"



Priest "Oh, I didn't mean you."



Faith "Hey, you called for me, I answered. What up?"



Priest "Well, look, I . . ."



Faith "Seriously, are you selling that 'faith is truth if only you believe' bullshit again? That shit's not true."



Priest "Historica-"



Faith "If I believe that I am a invisible pink unicorn does that make it true?"



Priest "That is not a fair comparis-"



Faith "Fine. I have faith, complete faith, that the events as related in Girl Genius are the absolute truth. I even have evidence- look at all these books, and this website and all these people dressed up like the characters! It must be true."



Priest "I really hate you."



Faith "Right back at you, buddy."

A Catholic professes that Jesus Christ is the savior of all and that knowledge of this truth is universally accessible; i.e., this truth is accessible to you and to everyone else.

We say this is possible because faith is in communion with reason, and the church works tirelessly to present her beliefs so that they not only provide direction and, ultimately, salvation, but express a faith that is in concord with reason.

For what definition of reason? I can't . . . I just . . . there is no part of that that is "in concord with reason". I mean, what part of God sacrificed God to God to change a rule God made is "in concord with reason"?

Christian faith is mysterious, yet it resonates with our experience of the human condition. A Catholic would invite you to investigate the claims of the church to see if they speak to your heart and mind.

Evidence is there, along with the reality that men and women throughout the centuries have been so captivated by an encounter with Jesus that they profess him to be true. They - we - have found the truth that sets us free. Our access to this reality comes when we cease looking for undeniable proof and make an act of faith.

People have also, for centuries, professed to be true: faeries, unicorns, Zeus, Thor, Odin, ghosts, demons, elementals, magic, telekinesis, telepathy, astrology, homeopathy, I could go on all day. Are all of those things also real? How many people have to believe a thing for how long to become real under your system? Is there some sort of cutoff? More people than accept the Book of Mormon as true, for longer than Islam has been around? C'mon now.



*Sometimes, I get to type bad faith complaints and I giggle the entire time.


6 comments:

  1. "Christian faith is mysterious, yet it resonates with our experience of the human condition."

    And there, right there, is a perfect one-line summary of why I'm not a Christian. It doesn't resonate with my experience of the human condition.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Apparently, we're not human.

    Unfortunately, until I can find a way to be a jägermonster, I'm going to have to hold onto being human, and find that offensive. (Once I am a jägermonster, I can say, "Dot's right, sveethot, Hy'm bettah den hooman!")

    ReplyDelete
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  4. in my opinion, that only faiths that are true are the faiths that ascribe to the notion that religion is only a tool - a means for humanity to attempt to understand the Divine as much as humanity can. therefor, it doesn't matter WHICH religion [or none] so long as the person is happy and stable.

    religion is there to serve people, that's it's POINT - any religion that instead demands that people serve *IT* - well, that's EXACTLY what Jesus was preaching against.


    then again - we've discovered that i'm one of those "harmless" type believers, because i don't CARE what anyone believes, so long as A) they don't force it on anyone else, B) it's not harming them or anyone else and C) it works for them.

    so i'm not sure anything i said would be helpful, lol


    question - there's that "conversation" between you and Random Priest, and this "
    "
    keeps appearing - was that intentenial, in it broked HTML, or is the error on *MY* end.



    also, not relevant at all - that idea you told me about, about cave-men and "God and Angels" and etc? i haven't got the write-up done yet, but i'm gonna be using it in my game :D which means there WILL be a write up, and i'll send it to you when i has it done :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. "If you didn't think your religion was the one true religion, why would you believe in it?"

    Ooh! Ooh! I know this one! Teacher, pick me!

    As an eclectic Pagan, I believe that my religion is a true religion. I certainly don't believe that it is the true religion. There are many paths to the Divine; to use a silly analogy, there is no "one true path" to a destination on Mapquest. A person in a fast car with an I-Pass coming from the north will take a very different route than a person on a 60-mph-tops scooter with no pocket change coming from the south, but they're both going to the same place. (What? Look, I said it was a silly analogy.)

    As for "faith" and "personal experience" - look, I'm a religious person, I'm down with that. But I'm also perfectly aware that my own subjective, personal experiences are not scientifically verifiable nor repeatable, and therefore should not be held up as "proof." They're enough for me to believe what I believe. But for me to expect anyone else to take my word for it and believe something just because I had an experience - well, that's just plain silly. People will find their own reasons to believe, or else they won't - and that is also ok. See above: many paths.

    (Note: do I believe atheism can be a path to the Divine? Yes. Does this make any sense at all? Well, I tend to think so, but then I probably have a different idea of what "the Divine" means than many people do. Do I understand why such a statement sounds ridiculous? Absolutely. Life would be boring if it all made sense.)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Meet Mary, my smarter and more eloquent twin sister :D


    [not really! i don't know Mary, i think - but damn, that was awesome!]

    ReplyDelete

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