- Joined
- Aug 21, 2001
- Messages
- 680
With due respect, beekboo.... I feel obliged to turn that question around... Assuming that there is in fact a Supreme Being, Creator of the entire Universe (please stop and think about THAT one for just a moment would you?) , champion of what is Right, bestower of eternal life, etc, etc, etc... you would question such an entity's "right" to praise? I think if there is insecurity at play, it is at least a 50/50 call as to whether it is manifest in God, or in the person who would question God's right to praise... If you don't believe in God, fine... but...
On a more broad but related subject, I have to say... and again, I really had no intention of getting deeper into this (still waiting to hear how, in a godless, rudderless universe there is ANY incentive to do "good", or even if the term "good" has real meaning in such a universe) ... I am a bit disappointed at the banal reasons often cited for disillusionment with religion and God... Church is boring? Human beings are sometimes hypocrites? Life is unfair? This is the basis on which something as fundamental as belief in God turns? If you don't want to believe in God (or gods!), fine, but jeez...
Also... I find myself a bit disappointed in the snotiness of a distressing number of my fellow Forteans. It is one thing to not share someone's views; it is quite another to treat such a person with disrespect, condescension, and broad-brushed bias. The explicit and implicit dismissals in this chain, of those with a religious bent, as intellectual lightweights, cowards, bigots, and simplistic bumpkins is not worthy, in my view, of folks with truly open minds. When you dismiss those of faith - or really, of any and all faiths - I think you are cutting a pretty broad swath through some of history's finest thinkers.
It might surprise at least some of you to learn that I am not what most would consider "formally religious". I just find some of the smugness here a bit off-putting.
Shadow
On a more broad but related subject, I have to say... and again, I really had no intention of getting deeper into this (still waiting to hear how, in a godless, rudderless universe there is ANY incentive to do "good", or even if the term "good" has real meaning in such a universe) ... I am a bit disappointed at the banal reasons often cited for disillusionment with religion and God... Church is boring? Human beings are sometimes hypocrites? Life is unfair? This is the basis on which something as fundamental as belief in God turns? If you don't want to believe in God (or gods!), fine, but jeez...
Also... I find myself a bit disappointed in the snotiness of a distressing number of my fellow Forteans. It is one thing to not share someone's views; it is quite another to treat such a person with disrespect, condescension, and broad-brushed bias. The explicit and implicit dismissals in this chain, of those with a religious bent, as intellectual lightweights, cowards, bigots, and simplistic bumpkins is not worthy, in my view, of folks with truly open minds. When you dismiss those of faith - or really, of any and all faiths - I think you are cutting a pretty broad swath through some of history's finest thinkers.
It might surprise at least some of you to learn that I am not what most would consider "formally religious". I just find some of the smugness here a bit off-putting.
Shadow