Quote:
Originally Posted by AshleyO
Of course. I still hold the religious moderates' feet to the fire. Their faith is informed by the same dogma as the nutcases; therefore there's an inadvertent piece of responsibility on their part for things such as this.
You know Saya, beyond what religion is capable of, beyond all notions of spiritual callings and moderate exceptionalism, I was always curious as to why you seem to feel that religion must prevail above reason at all times.
I've always been bothered by this sort of evasiveness you employ that truth takes a back seat to what people WANT or even NEED to be true. As if some kind of world wide agnosticism is some kind of terrible tragedy that we must protect spiritual conviction from.
I've always wondered why you want religious faith to prevail over reason at every turn. I understand the pragmatism of belief. It's useful and I wont deny that. But you seem to be afraid of asking the toughest question: Despite the usefulness, despite the good that it does; is it empirically true and is it not worth honestly marching forward or is it always better to march on half truths?
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Its not really that I want religious faith to prevail over reason, its just that I'm pretty sure it usually will. I don't think anybody is capable of being absolutely objective at all times on every topic. I think a lot of people are capable of having a spiritual life that's separate from their every day dealings with people (like, a lot of people who are Christian but don't identify as strongly religious or give it much thought beyond holidays and the occassional service). In places where religion was oppressed, like Vietnam or China, religion made a come back when it was legal for them to do so. And here when faced with something terrible in the church, a lot of people go their own way, join another church, try to change their church or even convert to other religions. I don't think either that if a communist/anarchist or some kind of collectivist society be established religion would go away on its own, after all collectivists society existed before with their own belief systems.
I think religions can change dramatically or lose popularity, but I don't think RELIGION as a whole will ever go away.