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Grains Of Mustard

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Posted by Harvey on June 26, 2003 21:43:16 UTC

Your assertion about theists is curious. While his body was nailed to a cross, Jesus Christ wondered why God had forsaken him. Excluding, perhaps, people in mental hospitals, there isn't a single theist who does not experience doubt as a ubiquitous companion to faith.

True, but my response was in the spirit of trying to find out if apparent meanginglessness in the universe serves a strategic purpose to God rather than as an inherent limitation on our part (eg, our experiences are such that we are exposed to doubt along with our faith - versus meaninglessness playing a somewhat more integral role to the universe than merely our experiences).

Writing philosophical essays on matters of religion may be entertaining; whether there is any moral or intellectual value to it, only comparison with scripture can tell. Which you seem to recognize after all, since you finished your post with a quote from Matthew.

Scripture is one avenue of inspiration. But, there are other approaches of thought that I think also play a key role in coming to grips with a religious understanding of God. One of those is a community of believers, another is prayer, another is meditation, and so on. In the intellectual arena, we depend on scripture (i.e., past religious experiences and inspirational experiences of others in the past), as well as philosophy, physics, anthropology, biological evolutionary science, psychology, economics, sociology, art, music, etc. I think it is a mistake to rely too much on scripture without regard to these other approaches to religion. It is the other approaches to religion that influence the contemporary interpretations of scripture, which is largely how scriptures maintain their meaning from one generation to the next.

You only failed to explain how your ideas may help nurture the little grain of mustard.

Stick around.

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