What exactly today is the greatest test of faith? Strong faith, promoted as a self sustaining virtue of religious belief, is the cornerstone, the footing, the walls and the capstone of religion. None stand to keep the whole intact without faith. We’ve discussed how mental trickery and indoctrination is used for faith gained, but how is it tested?
There are stories of Abraham, Moses, Jesus on the high mountain, as well as the apostles that had tests of their faith. But in what way is faith tested today? What is it measured against? What is it today that is the ultimate test of devotion? —your resistance against knowledge.
Abraham had it easy. He was tested to see if he would kill his only son in a time of brutality. A violent social normalcy that was already laden with superstition. He heard voices, and followed the (accepted by the day) promptings, and at the last second had woken from his trancelike state and withheld his hand. So what? In a time where little was understood about disease, gods accounted for everything from rain to floods, lightening to drought, God was interwoven into the psyche and dreams of everyone for every thing. His command to kill his son was difficult, but acceptable to him as a means to appease a god.
Other stories of zealousy are quite easily attributed to the times and the passion of religious fervor and power. Knowledge was shunned, separated, imprisoned, suppressed, and heretical so faith could thrive, only on an uneven field in a vacuum. Very uneven!
Today the faithful are tested at every turn with facts—overwhelming explanations that replace god, so warnings resonate from the pulpits and broadcasts, poisoning the well ahead of academics, indoctrinating young and old with continuous barrages of false oppression—all to guard them against embracing knowledge—for in the face of evidence, chronic denial and mediocre scholarship is the key to maintaining faith.
I might add that a trusty companion to fact denial is fact AVOIDANCE in the form of widespread CENSORSHIP… a censorship exquisitely maintained by a variety of insidious tactics…
https://frankjpeter.com/2018/05/28/a-meditation-on-faith-censorship-part-i/
https://frankjpeter.com/2018/05/28/a-meditation-on-faith-censorship-part-ii/
https://frankjpeter.com/2018/05/28/a-meditation-on-faith-censorship-part-iii/
LikeLiked by 5 people
Short and sweet Frank. I like those. Nice add on!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Most christians would not believe god actually spoke to Abraham to kill his son, if Abraham lived in the 21st century
The greatest test of faith for many religious individuals in the 21st century is the ability to turn a blind eye, close up your ears to what we know through science, history and archaeology etc
LikeLiked by 3 people
While the ancients favored heroic stories, facing down death in the eye, those examples inspire today’s believer into thinking they have it easy. Just believing today is a willful act of ignorance, and to maintain faith, one must avoid the temptation to even look at what is being discovered.
LikeLiked by 4 people
If someone came along today claiming to be the Son of God reincarnate, most Christians today wouldn’t believe in them either. But hey, maybe a new denomination of faith would crop up. Hmmm.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You going to try it, CA? We need volunteer…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lol no we don’t need more Christianity offshoots. Maybe if I was a bit more spineless I would; plenty of money and fame if a new religion successfully starts up.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This makes me wonder how many (%-wise) who say they believe, or who actually practice any religion, do not believe (or have faith, or almost none). I understand the closet thing and maybe that is what I am thinking about. But I harbored non-belief (yet practiced religion) for a long time. I then stopped religion for years before I said that I did not believe any of it, and it was even later that I embraced the word atheist followed by the mantra, ‘there are no gods.’ The questioning seems to be the sin and ignorance the glory of god. Feels weird just to type that nonsense.
LikeLiked by 6 people
That is addressed along the way as well. Statements to hedge the coming doubt are laid out in stories, then, “god is just testing your faith” is a mental play leading to acquiescence. “I just believe” is the end result that closes off the believer to even believe something as obvious as climate change. The ability to discount pure reason becomes hard wired with practice, then at that point there is very little that can be said to crack open a nut.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Which leads to limited open discussion (or none) and censorship.
LikeLiked by 2 people
No doubt there would be many who do the whole church thing but don’t actually believe anymore inside. I was in that position for a while. I wonder how many PASTORS don’t believe though? How much sunken costs would be involved in committing to that?
LikeLiked by 3 people
And this is where religion becomes scary. Society (especially modern societies with global problems) cannot function if a large portion of its population is not only detached from reality, but actively working against the common good.
LikeLiked by 6 people
Most christians would not believe god actually spoke to Abraham to kill his son, if Abraham lived in the 21st century
Jonathan is quite right.
Similarly if another human took away your happiness in the same way God (over a little wager with the devil no less) did to Job this is not someone we would ever faith in to restore happiness, even if we believed they had the power to do so, we would simply not want that person as part of our lives. The story of Job, if taken literally, is just a horror show. Maybe we should be happy that Christians are only tested by facts. As John Zande often argues, stories like the one of Job could only make you argue for a malevolent creator, because if such standards were to apply to any human, that person would simply be a monster. And you would be right to never to trust that person again.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Yep. I’m picturing the original voodoo doll as you relate that tale. God is love. Lover of what? Taken at face value it’s not very pretty. You just don’t know how to interpret scripture.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Take many of the stories in the Bible, things which God supposedly did, and apply them to humans. Imagine if a judge had a person thrown into a lake of fire for eternity because they lied one time, and didn’t worship said judge as their lord and savior?
LikeLiked by 5 people
Yes the Bible is full of punitive justice over restorative justice. In many ways though Jesus Christ is pro restorative justice, but many followers of the bible don’t subscribe to that mentality.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Faith is the audacity to actually use the brain God gave you.
LikeLike
Nope, faith is believing in and trusting in the things unseen. There is little thinking involved in that.
LikeLiked by 6 people
I’ll take this one step further CA. Faith is not believing in things you have not seen. Faith is believing others stories of things they have not seen either. What part of unknowable, unimaginable, incomprehensible, has any one yet seen? Nobody. Solely imagination.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Yes faith is using your imagination haha. But to give Loy some credit, using your imagination is using your brain I guess 🙂 Think of all the art work that has come from it?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Exactly. Everything ever created, built or accomplished is the fruit of imagination. As indeed is every person. As is the world we call home.
LikeLike
So, the earth was created? It’s not natural, but synthetic? I don’t think so. You’re kidding, right?
LikeLiked by 4 people
Hmm you make a leap here. Everything we do requires some thought or imagination, but that doesn’t mean we were created by someone else’s imagination. We have a good understanding of how our world was made, that doesn’t require a creator. As for how everything initiated, that’s debatable but we can’t just replace the unknown with a creator.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Ahem …. still talking to the Nob I see.
🙂
LikeLiked by 3 people
Ha! I’ve been caught. I feel so ashamed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Religious faith involves putting one’s thinking faculty on pause
LikeLiked by 2 people
Is it any wonder that you’ve made up a new definition for faith, given how many other things you make up your own definition for. It’s the only way you can’t be wrong. It’s using the evolved brain to maintain your status in society through any mean you can. Well done.
LikeLike
That’s an interesting observation. This week a guy from South Carolina made a very interesting analysis on a post of mine. Probably the best I’ve seen. He left religion and, after five years he finally rationalized his way back in. That’s what it took to believe. A cleverly worded bypass on reason.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just the opposite is true
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do just fine living life without all that silly testing! Facing reality works.
LikeLiked by 4 people
You just don’t know what your missing! I think the faithful can be extremely courageous—who else can admit to believing publicly a fantastic tale that is run by an unimaginable, incomprehensible, unknowable, unfathomable entity that makes you desire to be ruled—and be proud of it?
LikeLiked by 4 people
It never worked for me despite trying when I was younger. I wanted to fit in, but it was not my bag. Too damn nosy for information for one thing.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Questions that can’t be answered without addendum, creating more questions gets a little dizzying.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I had to keep asking though, but ended up going to reading as nobody could give me the answers.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I had a brother that was indoctrinated as bad as me. He never did buy it all. He wound up leaving home over the whole thing when he was 16. It caused a lot of friction in the family. We’re great friends now, but I really admire his tenacity calling bullshit at a young age.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Rather young to be leaving home, but I admire his principles.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It got pretty ugly there for a while because he was going to hell. He is still bothered by it at times. My mom actually told him several times he’d go to hell. We were a pretty resourceful bunch. He did well on his own, although much easier in the 70’s.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I can imagine how difficult. I didn’t leave home at 17, but that’s when I told mother I wasn’t going to church anymore. This was the early 60’s.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It all really bothered him a few years ago when mom died and went to heaven—the funeral was all church. At least me and bro will be in hell with the rest of you. Lol
LikeLiked by 2 people
Not to mention how boringly dull so-called heaven would be.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Eight trillion years of worship and tears. Everyone already hates hymns and singing. Sounds like hell too
LikeLiked by 2 people
God is a dictator!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m a music lover, but my choices do not include those.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Incoherent ontological heathen!
It is all to do with Relationship, dontcha know? About having the Holy Spirit come inside you so’s you can develop an other centered love for Jesus …. or something.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Faith seems to be a subtle blend of the intrinsic need to believe reinforced with insidious brain washing from a very early age. Our temporal lobe wiring seems to dictate our intrinsic needs to believe if any. Often wonder if this intrinsic need aspect has any genetic component that is passed from one generation to the next. Consider myself fortunate to have a natural immunity to all religious influences.
LikeLiked by 5 people
The brainwashing must compensate for the lack of gods actual influence. I acquired my immunity from little luck and a WP debate 5 yeas ago. Now I self administer the antidote almost daily. Thanks for stopping by Ken.
LikeLiked by 2 people
In a related note, I have OCD, and the higher my stress levels, the more intense my if/then thinking becomes. As in if I don’t do things in very particular ways, disaster will strike (despite rationally knowing it won’t). I have the impression the same mechanism is at play in the religious mind.
LikeLiked by 5 people
We all have it to a degree. Some are able to overlook it better than others. I think you may be on to something there.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Exactly! Science and history have greatly disprove many religions! And my study if both reinforces my secular beliefs 🙂 In the holiday spirit, I would like to note I celebrate Christmas as my family albeit non-practicing is Christian. For us though, it’s not about religion or Jesus so much as it is about family cherishing each other 🙂 My reason for the season 😉
https://aladyofreason.wordpress.com/2018/12/24/baby-its-triggering-outside/
LikeLiked by 1 person
And also, as an atheist, who’s up there to tell me I can’t 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Even when we willingly embrace the ‘ facts’ as revealed by science we still have to live our lives and deal with all the moral problems the world presents to us . We still have to decide what sort of life we wish to live , unless of course we are too busy struggling to survive.
Most of us in the richest parts of the world have been cosseted all of our lives with all the benefits of modern civilisation and it’s a lifestyle that’s not easy to sacrifice.
As science reveals this army of facts it also presents us with a host of toys to keep us amused and happy ; we can play with our phones , fly our drones ( not too near airports) , engage in discussions on media platforms , browse the myriad of shops , watch our favorite TV , go to a mince pie and Carol service, talk to our relations we seldom see.
So here we are with chock a block full lives . I saw December daffodil today , all alone , shaking it’s yellow head in the breeze . The sun had not yet risen but the dawn clouds were full of white lustre . For a moment I felt like Wordsworth except he saw a host , but one is better than none and my climbing days are over.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is a great little line there! Here, the deer wait under the forested canopy, like statues enduring the bitter morning frost, waiting to be fed…I throw them bread. Our daffodils lay wanting, beneath the frost and snow, waiting ’til death warms over
LikeLiked by 1 person
Faith gives some people a reason to behave. To not be the natural a-holes that they are. It’s their shield. I don’t mind that they practice their beliefs as long as they don’t try to convert me.
Imagine what monsters they would be without their harness.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Definitely can speak to the core. Unless of course everyone needs their religion but them. I have had Christians comment that they’d be horrible people without faith. Maybe it’s necessary for those in it to keep from hating more than they already do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nasty little buggers!
LikeLike
I do think this applies more to the apologist types than the regular guy trying to live a decent life. Maybe overcompensating? The more vocal the deeper the closets tend to be.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very true. I think that’s a diversion tactic.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The ones who are kind and like/need religion are ok in my book. To each their own.
LikeLike
What about people who find excuses to change their beliefs just enough to accommodate facts? I was one such person when I believed. The nasty stuff persisted while other things changed. It didn’t lead to any internal turmoil. Rather, it took breaking the urge to make excuses for me to finally make my stand.
I think the urge to deny conflict of faith with facts is strongest when people ask, “What’s the harm?” It draws thinking about these things away from specific instances to general platitudes where nobody can be accountable for their beliefs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Facts have become very problematic in this inf0rmation age
LikeLiked by 1 person