Evid3nc3, I see. No, I won’t search him out. It’s just not that important to me. If the professor had been a compilation of several different people, that hadn’t mattered much to me. I do wonder, though, why he thought it was good for him and his wife that they were Christians well into their 30s. What exactly did that save them from, I wonder, that their non-believer friends went through. By stating this, he says there is some quality in the Christian faith… the opinion that religion is for weak people who need a father figure but not for strong, intelligent people - which he clearly holds, from other things he said - is not unusual. I don’t think it’s true, though. Religion obviously meets needs that people from all walks of life have. The question is, what kind of needs. Either our heart is restless until it rests in you (Augustine)…
…or something more worldly. Or maybe I should say, more human.
To a certain extent, it seems that people who travel from a Christian tradition with a very literal, black/white understanding of the Word of God often travel to a position of atheism that also is black/white, and just as important to them as their religion was. I never understood organised atheism. It makes sense regarding people like you, with your background and upbringing, but people like me - grown up in a secularised family in a secularised country - normally think that if there is no God that means “no need to spend time on religion, not in disproving it either”. In the US, where religion is everywhere, I understand it will be partly different.
If God is a - what was the word you used. Just a construction, that we fill with meaning, then obviously people will fill this with different kinds of meaning and the concept can probably be used both to good and to bad ends. In a Christian society, general knowledge about human interaction, what we today call “psychology” and life philosophy will be framed in Christian terms. This is especially true in a time pre-dating our social sciences, but even today - reading scientific papers seldom affects the way we interact with others or with ourselves. It’s a different kind of learning. Perhaps religion is a language which, at its best, enables us to learn important things. I think there is plenty of usefull stuff in there. Apparently bad stuff also. Sifting required, just as in life in general.
By writing this, I suppose I remove all credibility on my part, on this forum. That is… okay. I guess I’ve reached a conclusion on where I currently stand, and this place wasn’t created for people like me. You had a part in that, Evid3nc3. Thank you for your story. I’m sure you realise that you have created an account of - I don’t know the English terminology, sorry. Your story is the equivalent of typical Pentecostal witnessing “I was a sinner who drank smoked and cursed, stole and led a wicked life, but Lord came into my life and now I’m saved”, in front of the whole crowd… people’s individual stories are important. Thank you for sharing yours.
