Wasn't Pascal known as kind of a nutjob anyway? And you can't help what you believe. If you're an atheist pretending to go to church, I think God's gonna figure it out.
Every time I start learning about a new faith tradition, part of me wonders if I'm going to end up being convinced that this one is The Truth. Instead, in every case I find things in the tradition that make me think, "How cool is that!" and things that make me think (at best), "Well... that's kinda weird...."
Have you read The Gospel According to Jesus? Those were the ideas I was raised on instead of the Bible- that Jesus was a good guy whose ideas were corrupted by the Catholic church.
I've been reading the New Testament for the first time, and Jesus seems to have a split personality. Half the time he's the "turn the other cheek" guy, and half the time he's the "all who don't follow me will burn in Hell!" guy. What the Gospel According to Jesus suggests (if I remember correctly... it's been a long time) is that much of the brimstone and fire stuff was put in Jesus' mouth by church officials decades later.
My main religious belief is this- God (assuming he exists) is probably a pretty smart guy, if he created the whole world. So I'm guessing he can come up with a system of judging souls a little more complex than "Do you believe in the correct religion/sect? Then you go to heaven." That's why I like Purgatory- lots of levels.
And returning to looking for the good in every religion: I think the principle we use is simply emotional reaction and reason. If something doesn't feel right or doesn't make logical sense, there's no reason to believe it, but no reason to discard the things that do feel right. A flawed barometer? Of course. But what else do we have? Other people's instincts? Holy books written by other people? Science? The closest science has come (so far that I've heard of) is the 21 gram soul thing.
I'm thinking of writing a holy book, declaring myself a prophet, and seeing if anyone follows me.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-06-06 01:25 pm (UTC)Every time I start learning about a new faith tradition, part of me wonders if I'm going to end up being convinced that this one is The Truth. Instead, in every case I find things in the tradition that make me think, "How cool is that!" and things that make me think (at best), "Well... that's kinda weird...."
Have you read The Gospel According to Jesus? Those were the ideas I was raised on instead of the Bible- that Jesus was a good guy whose ideas were corrupted by the Catholic church.
I've been reading the New Testament for the first time, and Jesus seems to have a split personality. Half the time he's the "turn the other cheek" guy, and half the time he's the "all who don't follow me will burn in Hell!" guy. What the Gospel According to Jesus suggests (if I remember correctly... it's been a long time) is that much of the brimstone and fire stuff was put in Jesus' mouth by church officials decades later.
My main religious belief is this- God (assuming he exists) is probably a pretty smart guy, if he created the whole world. So I'm guessing he can come up with a system of judging souls a little more complex than "Do you believe in the correct religion/sect? Then you go to heaven." That's why I like Purgatory- lots of levels.
And returning to looking for the good in every religion:
I think the principle we use is simply emotional reaction and reason. If something doesn't feel right or doesn't make logical sense, there's no reason to believe it, but no reason to discard the things that do feel right. A flawed barometer? Of course. But what else do we have? Other people's instincts? Holy books written by other people? Science? The closest science has come (so far that I've heard of) is the 21 gram soul thing.
I'm thinking of writing a holy book, declaring myself a prophet, and seeing if anyone follows me.