Killing Faith: Deconstructionist Christians

Bearing in mind that dictionaries are based on the use of a word in context one is bound to find one of the definitions will fit the religious view. Dictionaries do not so much define what words are but what they are used to represent. The longer Oxford dictionary will quote you what it sees as significant uses and dates them.

Faith therefore in the religious view is more about loyalty than reality - the connection runs "faith - fide - fidelity" much in the same way that the word "true" can also mean "loyal" and is derived from the German meaning "loyalty" instead of from "Wahrheit" which perhaps comes closer to meaning "truth."

So it is quite correct to say that the Christian meaning of faith - as defined in "Hebrews" is a specific and not a "universal" meaning

Christianity first opposed sensible reason in the story of Thomas who had the sense to check if a fraud was being perpetrated and was admonished for it. The consequences of this story are disastrous and tragic, and deeply embedded in the western psyche and history. Nazism was a faith based doctrine not a rational one. The mind had been set up for it through two thousand years of Christian "faith" that taught people lies become truths when one is loyal to them.

(bit like psychology)

phi, Sydney
April 21, 2011 5:18pm

Phi, was your father or grandfather a preacher ??

vesey, washington
May 12, 2011 6:01pm

"(bit like psychology)"
Except the methods of psychology are under the same controls and standards as any other science.

Your own dogma is a better example Phi. You give us only your "experience" (read fables and stories) as evidence, with no supporting evidence other than your ideology or personal taste, resorting to idealised charicatures of those you criticise (those would be your "false idols" and "paragons"). Take for example the way you try to portray the Cognitive Sciences: Philosophy, Psychology and the likes are protrayed not as objective fields of study but as oppossing views to your own, with morality and ethos imposed upon them to fit your world view, while a happier fantasy of Organic Farming is pushed as perfect, ignoring the practical failings of the real world, with your opinion that the food is better (a personal taste to anybody else) being cited as evidence of their nutritional superiority (with out bothering to prove they are nutritionally different, that organic pesticides are less poisonous than other kinds, etc.

As much as you dislike Christian philosophy, you can not deny you have a Philosophy of your own, that shares the same flaws as the world views you refuse to tolerate.

Tolerance of others, by the way, being one of the things most philosophies tend to agree on as moral.

Tom H, Kent
May 13, 2011 9:59am

My faith is in God, and not in the Bible!
Proving the Bible by these means you have mentioned is pointless and silly, IMO.

Debby, Auckland New Zealand
April 28, 2012 8:25pm

Is it really true that without faith there is no religion? I was raised a non-believer, my father being a cristian hater mason. I grew with no god in my mind, and felt it was sheer stupidity to even consider its existence. But then I went studying physics, and little by little, discovered that things were not that easy. I finally got to understand -under my own terms, of course- that sustaining the inexistence of god was -and is- first of all a demonstration of ignorance. There are many ways you can guide yourself to this conclusion, but it's not the purpose of these words. There is no loss in knowing, better than believing. When you know, God becomes greater and greater, because there is no limit for knowledge. I guess that's where faith still keeps stepping in. Religions need to evolve, just as humans do. If they don't, they will disappear sooner or later. But anyhow, I'm not worried about religion's survival itself, as truth is what should drive them, even when I can accept that truth can be seen differently as centuries go by. It's truth what we should pursue, not the rigid stability of the stories we have been told.

Ronald, Santiago
May 30, 2012 6:31am

In my opinion the problems & shortcomings experienced by many Faithful seekers of knowledge stem from how their institutions inform their research.
A scientist will take a theory & test it to exhaustion.Only when he/she is satisfied of it's validity will he/she put forward a conclusion to his peers.
regretably fundamentalists are expected to work the other way round by starting with an "undeniable " conclusion and then humoured by their mother church in their "search for truth" so long as they do not rock the Ark

BTW why is it mother church, and not father ?

hopefultom, Bolton, GB
May 31, 2012 12:29pm

Phi: that was only true of one car. The Morgan reverse trike was a lovely piece of work and didn't fall over. It, however, had length problems--a 4 wheeled car the same size had much more capacity, and for the same capacity was much smaller.

Paul, Canberra
July 21, 2012 5:15pm

I think the more important question is why a supposed loving and merciful God would ask anyone to perform infanticide. Why wouldn't an all-knowing god already know the extent of Abraham's faith? The believers don't seem to care that none of it makes sense. It scares them to think about it too much ... they're afraid they'll go to hell. Another one of the cruel tricks by the merciful god-father. (Not to mention disease, hurricanes, sunami's, famine, etc.)
Good grief people! Try to remember that you have brains.

Mimi McMouth, Anaconda, MT
November 19, 2012 6:45pm

The marginalization of faith can be temporary, both individually and culturally. Need, and convenience sway thoughts regarding faith.

bedlamb, Armpit, NV
November 30, 2012 6:04pm

Why did this happen?

"On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (quoted from the gospel according to John 20:19-29)

anotherworldview, Peoria, IL
April 06, 2013 8:31pm