I don’t mean to throw cold water on this thread, I just have some questions and observations if that’s ok.
It’s ok. My post was an emotional outburst, perhaps a cold shower is in order.
That sounds like an ideology to me. If Dawkins had his way he would treat bringing up a child in a faith based school akin to child abuse. Scary stuff.
Indeed. And it was one of the reasons, perhaps, that made me give atheism a second look. I realized Dawkins’s position was closer to the fundamentalism he claims to be battling than to the objective and reasonable position he claimed.
Sounds like Marxist ideology.
Not in a political vein, but still quite close to the truth. I viewed religion as something that went against fundamental qualities and values that all humans should hold - mainly, reason and freedom.
I think many people have or develop a religious sense. Maybe it’s the shock that realizing these people aren’t inferior, coming from a Marxist/Dawkins ideology. Why attend a Catholic mass? Why not a Protestant one, or maybe a Buddhist temple? You might have the same feeling or sense of the numinous.
I’ve experienced Zen a while ago. I’ve been at a Pentecostal service, also at a JW gathering, and since I live in an Orthodox country, I’ve witnessed some form of Eastern Orthodox service (funeral, baptism, marriage) from time to time, albeit as a social obligation.
Ad yet I felt compelled to enter a Catholic Church and only in that Church and only during a Latin rite Mass have I felt… well, something.
It’s interesting that you bring the concept of numinous into discussion. But my experience seems to differ from what I read about Otto’s mysterium tremendum. My feeling was rather one of quiet acceptance.
If anything, I felt intimidated and awed entering a Latin church when my atheist beliefs were still intact. Now, it feels more like home, a familiar and peaceful place.
Some doctors can function fine as alcoholics.
Perhaps my analogy was not the most inspired. An atheist can no longer function as an atheist while believing in God and taking part in the life of a particular church.
Wishing doesn’t make it true. Who wouldn’t want to be reunited with loved ones after death, for all eternity. To have an ultimate meaning for life.
I guess I could bring the argument from desire into play but that would not be honest of me, because, indeed, all I wanted to express was my feelings.
You are, of course, right, wishing does not make it so. But it doesn’t mean it’s NOT so, either.
Sounds like Pascal’s wager. You should check out the other major religions too, to hedge your bets.
I’m sorry if I made it sound like Pascal’s wager, it was not intended as so. I make my political choices based on a version of the wager, not the intellectual or spiritual ones.
And I simply don’t feel the need to “check out” the other religions.
This whole thing was not, for me, a “dude, I think religion’s got something, let’s see which one might be the best” type of thing.
They’re offensive because of the attitude of superiority, and the extreme ideology.
And that’s why I apologize.
This becomes an essential question that may need to be answered. Does it really matter whether or not one is atheist, Christian, or some other religion? And if Christian, does it matter if one is Catholic instead of another form of Christianity?
I strongly believe that there are good people among all faiths. I believe now that there is a God, the embodiment of all that is good, and true, and just, and beautiful, and the goodness in people is some form of reflection of God. I’ve no idea whether the Catholic Church is the only way to becoming closer to Him, but I feel, with a certainty I’ve seldom felt before that it is the right way for me.
