Blind Faith
We humans are born without a religious belief. It is learned from society and in many cases indoctrinated into our minds and thoughts, leaving one vulnerable to a lifetime of fear.
The fear of your soul being damned to Hell forever is what keeps your basic average Christian in line. In other words, you must conform to the teachings of the Bible which itself is highly contradictory and open to thousands of interpretations. It is an impossible task. Simply speaking…it’s flawed. Why would people claim this reckless conglomeration of scriptures that was written decades and sometimes centuries later after Christ, is actually “God’s word”? If it is “God’s word”, why didn’t God write it? After all, according to “his word”, he can create. He/she cannot create a perfect book that is indisputable? Why would God need his fallible and errant humans to record it?
The basis of Christianity and Christian faith…the Bible, is flawed. So what are the other alternatives for finding your “daily bread”? What is left besides “Blind Faith”?
EMAIL SUBSCRIPTION
I grew up in a secular household. I remember playing with the neighborhood kids in navy housing and one of my playmates was from a fundamentalist upbringing. She told us the story of a little boy who broke something in the house because he was mad. God punished him by sending him to eternity in Hell. She had one boy in our group in tears because he had done something “bad” earlier that day. I was so scared that I went home upset and asked my mother if I will go to hell if I do something bad. “Of course not” she said. “Don’t believe everything you hear.”
I forgot that lesson in high school and had nightmares when my best friend converted to Pentecostalism. She invited me to the church and, like my young playmate, told me that if I don’t repent, it will be like being thrown into the wood stove and burning forever. This time it was my dad that talked me out of going to my friends church. I called her up and said I changed my mind about going. She stopped speaking to me after that.
But I still feared Hell. I started going to the local Federated church but stopped after about 5 years. The more I read of scripture, the less I liked it—and it’s god.
I don’t know if there is an intelligent creator or force that governs things, but I do consider myself a biblical atheist. And I know longer fear hell.
The fears that are instilled and indoctrinated into us take a while to erode away.
By staying away from churches and clergy we somehow go through de-conversion and start believing in ourselves.
I was raised in a secular environment too. My parents taught us to be politely respectful of other people’s beliefs and to expect the same in return. When questions about religion came up they told us what they thought and why and left it up to us to come to our own conclusions.
I went to church with friends on occasion but no one I knew was a hardcore believer. It was a Christmas mass, Easter service kind of thing. I was impressed by the beauty of it all and still am. Christian services, especially Catholic and Anglican ones are lovely. I hear Orthodox ones are too. But is is all stage props and lath and plaster and it masks some horrible evils.
We visited Salisbury Cathedral a couple of years ago. It was awe inspiring. Not very crowded and someone was practicing on the organ. But behind it all I could hear the screams of people being burned at the stake. Kind of dramatic, Sorry. But that’s how I felt.
Tyo…
Thanks for your heartfelt comments!
It seems like many unbelievers have a story of disbelief or bad “gut feeling” with their childhood religious experiences.
I was always the infidel and blasphemer within a religious household.
The only Blind Faith worth discussing —> I still have my original album from 1969 (yep, I said album). Winwood, Clapton, Baker, Grech. Wow.
Oh yeah Mark, we need CarmenJonze here, if only to read her post Faith Schmaith.
I’d love to have Carmen come by!