🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Nov6.145757.26607@aee.aee.com>, gene@aee.aee.com 
(Gene Kochanowsky) writes:
| 	Faith is the unquestioning acceptance of beliefs. This is important,
| if you question the beliefs, then you do not have faith. Ask any priest,
| minister, mullah, rabbi, shaman, witch doctor you come across. If you wish
| to become a "__________" (fill in the blank), then you must accept fully 
| the "_________" (fill in the blank) of "__________" (fill in the blank). 

Not so- I was for many years a member of a Christian church, and it
was not generally taught that belief should be unquestioning. There
are those who believe that it should be, but in our congregation the
contrary was periodically asserted from the pulpit: you *can* question
your faith. In fact, it was sometimes recommended.

sschaff@roc.SLAC.Stanford.EDU (Stephen F. Schaffner) writes:
|	This is complete nonsense.  There may be religious leaders who 
|demand unquestioning acceptance of belief, but I've certainly never met one.  
|
|As a matter of interest, how many have you actually asked?

I also ask this question of Mr. Kochanowsky: have you, indeed, asked
priests, ministers, mullahs, rabbis, shamans, or witch doctors what
they think? How many? Have you investigated Buddhism, for example?

There have also been many religions where it is *action* that counts
primarily, rather than belief.

In article <1992Nov7.212535.312@aee.aee.com> 
gene@aee.aee.com (Gene Kochanowsky) writes:
>	What planet do you come from? It is not Earth.

You are being unnecessarily rude, and you make your lines too long for
my CRT.

>There can be no religion without faith. With no faith, the
>congregation becomes a social club of like thinking people. If you do
>not accept the common understanding of the word, look it up in the
>dictionary.
>
>	Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary -faith 
>		1. a: allegiance or duty to a person: LOYALTY b:
>			fidelity to one's promises

We can stop here. Religion is typically a matter of *commitment*-- but
not necessarily to *belief*, possible instead a given practice. The
word "faith" is often used, it is true, to mean other things.

Followups set to talk.religion.misc.

                       "In no way, shape or form did Kevin represent
Keith Ramsay            a viable alternative to mental illness."
ramsay@unixg.ubc.ca                  -Phillip K. Dick, _VALIS_