tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670983579028792738.post1404705966027521834..comments2017-05-01T13:36:54.168-04:00Comments on #ChurchCrimes: Pastor Blog 1#ChurchCrimeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08352834229432240957noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3670983579028792738.post-51444844098758401672016-08-29T19:49:22.938-04:002016-08-29T19:49:22.938-04:00Hi Karen,
Thank you for giving me permission to i...Hi Karen,<br /><br />Thank you for giving me permission to interact with your blog post here.<br /><br />First, let me apologize for missing the point of your first question. I read your post and saw you say this:<br /><br />"I was most certainly driving at the fact that truth is really apparent and because religious god faith is not true, indoctrination is needed to keep up blind faith, and as you see, I argue that a reinforced blind faith is bad for humanity."<br /><br />However, I don't share your premise, "because religious god faith is not true," so I have to rephrase the question. Is this an adequate paraphrase?<br /><br />If this teaching about God is true, why do people have to keep re-convincing themselves of it?<br /><br />If my question is largely the same as yours, then I have two answers to it.<br /><br />First, there are many areas of life where something is learned once, but then needs to be "reconfirmed" repeatedly. The most obvious example of this is in a marriage. At one point in time, someone said to someone else, "I love you," but if those words only got said once, most people would think something is wrong with that marriage. The truth is that people are emotionally "leaky" and we are all prone to lose "faith" in the commitments that others make to us. The same can be said about God. God has made verbal promises to us about himself and about his relationship to us. Even if he were as tangible as your next door neighbor, we would still need periodic "re-convincing" of his character.<br /><br />Secondly, there are many truths in life that are so difficult to internalize that though they may be "learned" once they must be repeatedly reinforced not to convince ourselves that it's really true, but to help us understand how it really works. Some examples of these incredibly difficult truths are quantum mechanics, general relativity, global warming, evolutionary biology. One can "learn" these disciplines in a classroom, but one does not truly internalize their complexity until after decades of continued work.<br /><br />Finally, I want to speak directly against the assumption behind your question. Behind the lines of the question is an assumption that people of faith are so hopelessly in doubt when it comes to their faith that all of religion is hanging on by only a thin thread of "indoctrination." If we could all just open our eyes, we would see what a farce this all is and get off the hamster wheel!<br /><br />I can hear you asking me, "Why don't you just give up the charade, give in to your doubts, and let everyone else give in to theirs too?"<br /><br />To respond to that I simply say this: I regularly confront my doubts and encourage others to confront them too. My faith is not built upon a tower of indoctrination and re-convincing that could fall over if one piece is removed. No, my faith is built upon something far more solid and secure. I feel deeply sorry for those moments in your life when you were encouraged to simply ignore your doubts and push them aside. For me, I've never had to ignore them. For me, I have worked through them and have come out stronger as a result. I would, if I could, take you on the same journey through doubt and rediscovery.Jeff Mikelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02787720725312116427noreply@blogger.com