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.
TheCommonAtheist 