The Great Religion Post
Warning: This is a long read with considerable stretches of narrative. Settle in and enjoy, but please read the whole thing before replying.
Preface: My BackgroundI set metaphorical pen to paper with some trepidation here ( Read more... )
Preface: My BackgroundI set metaphorical pen to paper with some trepidation here ( Read more... )
I have seen this growing in you-this intellectual tendency to make the idea of reason or rationality the end-all-be-all, and I have worried for you and where it would end up taking you.
If you rely on reason alone in searching for the fullness of truth, needing proof beyond all possibility of rational doubt, you will never find truth except perhaps in glimmers. Man cannot be reduced to reason; we use it to search for the truth, but it is a tool to help us reach it, and not the truth itself. We can misuse our reason, rationalizing things that are not true. We can almost always construct logical reasons to doubt (or believe) anything, and think we are being honest with ourselves-really try, even, to be honest with ourselves. But how many times does the veil fall away and we realize that we haven't been? And how many times does that veil not fall away-do we not realize that we aren't being honest, that we are mistaken? Reason on its own is reliable to an extent. It cannot encompass Truth in its fullness.
And you and I, Rosemary and Roberto? Our individual brains, our minds-we can know the fullness of Truth? We can discover it and puzzle it out, we of all the billions of deluded people on this earth? Why should we be able to find it through our own power? Why should we be able to discern who is right and wrong in their arguments, in these arguments that have been going on for ages? I am not so sure of the power of my own intellect not to be shaped and influenced in ways I can't perceive by my own desires, my background, the society I live in, my personal weaknesses, even my strengths misused. You are trying-you lay out your background here-but that is only what you see. You'll never see it all. I feel you've entered a rather hopeless place where, ultimately, no real knowledge of truth is possible.
I am also baffled, because while I assume you no longer believe in the Fall, surely you ought to have known that our reason, too, is fallen, is an aspect of our humanity that needs to be formed and straightened, sometimes conformed to truth in humility because it, like the rest of us, is bent by sin and darkened?
I am so sad that you have used your intellectual abilities to create a road that leads you away from Christ. (And I'm sure you understand what I mean-that you have walked away not from a religion, not from a set of beliefs, but a Person.) Sad, and in a state of disbelief. And yet the really sad part is I can see the road that led to it. Not just the one you've laid out here, the journey through belief, but in the shaping of your attitudes and priorities since I've known you. When you were in the ultra-pious stage, the actions and attitudes you held then were not all that different except in the direction they pointed at the time. Both then and now I know that, to the best of your ability, you are trying to live well; I do see that. I do also appreciate your honesty, although we've had conversations about honesty. :-P
In any case, this is not meant as a rebuttal, per se, of the arguments you have reached/constructed. For very many reasons, I don't know that I'm capable of entering into such a conversation with you.
Also I reeeeeeally need to get to work now.
God bless.
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Reply
Firstly, please don't feel offended that you didn't get tagged. There is a tag limit on Facebook, so I tagged only the individuals that I felt were closest in interest and interaction with this type of debate as it pertained to me personally. Naturally, I am very thankful that you have taken the time to read and to comment. :) I would, however, like to clarify and comment upon a few of your remarks, in order to better our understanding of one another's perspectives.
Most importantly, the notion that I believe in "needing proof beyond all rational doubt," or that I believe "Our individual brains, our minds [can] know the fullness of Truth," is, as politely as I can put it, a straw man. I am quite explicit above: the very nature of the mind and of existence dictates that if we are being honest, we can only speak in terms of reasonable probabilities.
This view leaves tremendous room for rational doubt on a whole host of issues, and indeed calls into question the idea that we can *know* (rather than guess at) any Truth at all, much less the fullness of Truth. I don't need proof beyond reasonable doubt; I simply need evidence upon which I can reasonably and honestly rely for the conclusions I draw.
In this vein, your argument for the influence of human subjectivity is therefore quite compelling. Unfortunately, however, it's all we've got. It begs the question to do as you imply and rely on an ostensible higher authority, since the identity and nature of this higher authority can only be confirmed, detailed, and debated via the flawed human subjectivity which you rightly doubt as capable of giving us reliable conclusions (and it would, of course, be a god-of-the-gaps unsupported inference to suggest that in certain narrow instances our limited reason can magically be purified and exalted such that it can recognize Truth).
I would submit to you that merely following in the footsteps of one's upbringing or going with what "feels right" are not honest solutions to this problem. Without meaning to, I believe you are making a fairly compelling argument for agnosticism as the most intellectually honest recourse in the face of such. To affirm belief when uncertainty is better warranted would indeed be a contradiction of reason, which you rightly point out is unjustifiable in the formulation of ideas.
In closing, I'd like to think that I haven't walked away from the person of Christ, so much as candidly admitted what I can truly know about this person.
While I do expect some sadness on your part, and do not begrudge it at all, I hope you and I can both agree that honesty and striving to live uprightly -- even if it means losing the faith -- are ultimately nobler than keeping the faith while violating the conscience.
Again, thanks for your concern and for the valuable time you took to read and reply.
I still feel religious enough that I can legitimately say "blessings" in parting. ;)
--R
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