21
« on: May 01, 2003, 07:33:00 PM »
"The assumption that Christians lack the capacity for (or at least don't practice) critical thinking in regards to Church doctrine, understandings of God, the Scriptures, society, and our fellow human beings is patently false." --MCadet
I disagree: the assumption may be correct, depending on your definition of Christian "faith." For many people, faith means choosing to believe certain things, despite any evidence to the contrary. This kind of believer is saying that their perceived relationship with God trumps critical thinking. They would say "God said it, I believe it, that settles it." They see the rest of us in one of two ways. We might be obstacles to their faith. Or we might be potential converts who have been deceived by the world and who are sitting around waiting for some believer to set us free by "sharing his faith."
On the other hand, there are others who define faith as trusting God Himself (or Herself) to see them through the hard times. They focus on their perceived relationship with God, and while they still hold onto dogma, their reality isn't destroyed if the facts prove them wrong every now and then. They are capable of believing the rest of us are simply wrong, without necessarily believing we must be either spiritually deceived or willfully evil.
I think it would be a catastrophic mistake to assume that all Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Wiccans, or atheists are either the first kind of believer or the second. There's always a mix, as tempting as it sometimes is to categorize people.
Straight, by the way, required us all to be the first kind of believer. No doubting, no dissension, no freedom of thought. The god in question was Straight, rather than Jesus, but the principles still apply.