Hi Ian, all the faithful
> I think we've established that here (and in Harris) "faith" is being
> used in the "Blind Faith" / unquestioning sense, but we've also just
> agreed there is a level of interpretation in what is claimed to be
> believed over what may actually be believed. But we're playing
> definitional games around the edges - as we always end up doing.
>
> Perhaps I could re-word Gav's "Faith is experiential knowledge" ?
> Are you trying to say "True faith (the quality kind, not the blind
> kind) is faith in real experience (the Jamesian / Pirsigian,
> participatory kind)".
>
> Reclaiming a good word may be better that casting around for another -
> there are never enough words to go round.
Steve:
Until reading the End of Faith I had a strong interest in reclaiming
the language of religion.
I found this quote relevant:
“If one no longer has use for the word “God”…Still why use religious
terms? Indeed it might be better not to use them because they are
always misunderstood. But what other terms are there?
We need a new language, and new poets to create it, and new ears to
listen to it.
Meanwhile, if we shut our ears to the old prophets who still speak
more or less in the old tongues, using ancient words, occasionally in
new ways, we shall have very little music.
We are not so rich that we can do without tradition. Let him that
has new ears listen to it in a new way.” Walter Kaufmann
The problem is I can't "listen in a new way" to pedophile priests,
sacred bombings, one-celled human life, Jesus crackers, predictions
of the end of the world, etc.
These words are fine for poetry, but they to be expunged from public
discourse. There is a usage of the word faith that is opposed to
intellect and with global terrorism on the rise, opposed to
civilization itself. Dogmatic religious beliefs aren't just laughable
anymore, they are scary.
This use of the word faith is so confused with the use of faith as
trust, loyalty, real mystical experience, etc. that it may be better
if the word itself disappeared for a while.
At any rate, faith as the idea that it is a virtue to belief things
that don't make sense to you is a dangerous one.
Regards,
Steve
Logic and sermons never convince,
The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul.
Only what proves itself to every man and woman is so,
Only what nobody denies is so.
--W Whitman
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