Conviction
"I'm not about to argue it with anybody, because we won't get anywhere."
Ryan said this in response to my last post, vis- a-vis religion. And you know, he's right. As depressing and even defeatist as it sounds, the changing of a person's mind is a rare and special thing. Well, it's rare when it really matters. You might change your mind about some band you thought sucked, or some food you thought you didn't like, but how often do we change our minds on the things that really matter?
To further reference Ryan's comment, I guess I do write to find common ground with others. But I also write with the somewhat delusional idea that I might change someone's mind. The more I think about it, the more I realize that's a pretty arrogant for me to assume that some random blog will really shake someone's beliefs. Perhaps it's even a little spiteful of me to want others to question their faith. Of course, even if that post did make an impact, I think most people would shift into rationalization mode. It's not like I have any real credibility, so any dissenting opinion I might present can simply be dismissed as the rantings of some internet nobody. Besides, who really wants to abandon comfort for uncertainty? It's an uphill battle, to say the least.
Our resistance to change is a double-edged sword. There's certainly something to be said for conviction, but of course it's also a potentially dangerous thing. It seems that only some sort of trauma can really shake a person's beliefs, and even if something would/should threaten your ideals, some people seem to warp that trauma around their beliefs. The classic example: someone gets into a car accident, loses their legs or something, and says "Thank God I'm still alive." I don't want to pull this discussion back toward religion, but it's the most obvious example. I'm sure some people caught in the tsunami last year thanked God that they survived. Fuck everyone else, I guess.
Imagine you and 9 other people are hanging off the side of a building, unable to hoist youselves up and starting to slip. A man stands over you, and watches silently as the 9 others fall to their deaths, then helps you up. Do you thank him for saving you? Or do you condemn him for his negligence? The answer seems obvious, yet no one gets on God's case for letting people die. I would imagine that negligence of that sort is a sin, but I guess God gets a free pass, 'cause well, He's God. It's good to be the king.
Ryan said this in response to my last post, vis- a-vis religion. And you know, he's right. As depressing and even defeatist as it sounds, the changing of a person's mind is a rare and special thing. Well, it's rare when it really matters. You might change your mind about some band you thought sucked, or some food you thought you didn't like, but how often do we change our minds on the things that really matter?
To further reference Ryan's comment, I guess I do write to find common ground with others. But I also write with the somewhat delusional idea that I might change someone's mind. The more I think about it, the more I realize that's a pretty arrogant for me to assume that some random blog will really shake someone's beliefs. Perhaps it's even a little spiteful of me to want others to question their faith. Of course, even if that post did make an impact, I think most people would shift into rationalization mode. It's not like I have any real credibility, so any dissenting opinion I might present can simply be dismissed as the rantings of some internet nobody. Besides, who really wants to abandon comfort for uncertainty? It's an uphill battle, to say the least.
Our resistance to change is a double-edged sword. There's certainly something to be said for conviction, but of course it's also a potentially dangerous thing. It seems that only some sort of trauma can really shake a person's beliefs, and even if something would/should threaten your ideals, some people seem to warp that trauma around their beliefs. The classic example: someone gets into a car accident, loses their legs or something, and says "Thank God I'm still alive." I don't want to pull this discussion back toward religion, but it's the most obvious example. I'm sure some people caught in the tsunami last year thanked God that they survived. Fuck everyone else, I guess.
Imagine you and 9 other people are hanging off the side of a building, unable to hoist youselves up and starting to slip. A man stands over you, and watches silently as the 9 others fall to their deaths, then helps you up. Do you thank him for saving you? Or do you condemn him for his negligence? The answer seems obvious, yet no one gets on God's case for letting people die. I would imagine that negligence of that sort is a sin, but I guess God gets a free pass, 'cause well, He's God. It's good to be the king.
posted by Kultcher at Wednesday, July 19, 2006
2 Comments:
That's quite the position you have there. Quite the dissenting opinion, even.
I guess that anybody would be thankful that they got out of that sort of situation, as well as regetful that other didn't. But to say that you'd be completely unselfish in that respect, I think, is to delude yourself. I think a solid "Thank you, but you're a jackass" is what my general attitude would be.
I also think that, yes, God probably does get a free pass... on a lot of things. "He has a plan", etc. The thing about faith in an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent being is that it's... omnifaith, to coin a term. It's always there, and the belief that what this being does is right is a persistent belief. And necessarily so. If God can be wrong, why worship him?
And now look what you've done... you've got me arguing it ;-)
I guess God is kind of like the Pope (or is it the other way around?) He's infallible, but hey, no one is *really* perfect. He occasionally does something that doesn't quite make sense, and it gets rationalized and explained under the rug.
That's where it comes back to the whole fear thing. If you want to reconcile a belief in God and this often fucked up world we live in, then you must either a) accept the fact that God, to quote Tyler Durden "in all probability, hates you" (and to follow up your post, why worship him if he doesn't care about us) or b) use the "God's plan" rationale.
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