Religion
In reply to the discussion: Atheists Still Waiting for the Origin-of-Life Messiah [View all]Joe Chi Minh
(15,229 posts)come on - the bulb could be a dud, new and untested by you, or it could have blown. However, humdrum daily experience persuades you that the odds are very, very much in your favour. Well, the same goes for Christians, theists and deists, only the evidence they rely on is far broader in its scope and more persuasive - to them (us). Nevertheless, both could be designated as 'knowledge - faith' continua. corresponding with our world of space-time, though evidently with different emphases, secular and religious.
However, Christianity and divine judgment are really about the heart. As St James says in an Epistle, 'The Devil believes and trembles.' Credence is nowhere near enough - still less credulity. So profound, abstruse and inscrutable are the ultimate mysteries of our life and our universe that we end up believing what we want to believe - just as atheists have claimed, although the same goes for themselves : metaphysical voluntarism. Jesus' preaching is based on it, and a faith that implies a commitment to the Law. And what is the Law ? Love. Love is the fulness of the Law. Upon it, hangs the whole of the law and the prophets: compassion, charity, self-denying love.
Why should the truth be cold, hard, not to be wished for, not to be hoped for, undesirable, ugly - instead of warmly loving, dynamic, something to be passionately wished for and hoped for, eminently desirable and very, very beautiful.
'Well, do I hear some of you say, 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush ? I value my sex-life 'as is', and I'm not going to swap it for 'pie in the sky.' Well, that's the question we are faced with, though only God knows our personal circumstances fully, the course and context of our lives, how much self-denying love we have been capable of. The evidence of the New Testament suggests that there will be a lot of former rogues and vagabonds in heaven, at least in the eyes of the polite society of the monied, and fewer of the Pelagians who relied on their following the letter of Church law in small matters, while neglecting the really key ones.