lurkingdirk, no insult intended, and maybe it just belongs in the religion thread but whatever, can you explain to me the basis of your beliefs? Like, why do you believe in this particular religion, what made you believe in it, why do you continue to believe in it, etc.
Well, it starts with tradition. It has to start somewhere, doesn't it. My parents were Christian and so I am Christian. That's a real thing, and it's a thing that it seems like a lot of you are finding highly objectionable. I get it, I even agree somewhat -- that can go very very badly (breeding enclaves, exploitation of children). But that only sticks for about fifteen years -- it's not a cause of great concern.
Around puberty, and sometimes before, children start to ask religious questions. Actual religious questions which they can understand the motive of their own asking and understand the answer to. Not the childish spiritual questions, "Do dogs go to heaven?" So that initial tradition and, if you want, indoctrination has to be reinforced. There's a lot of ways that it can be. Some of the more negative ones such as a strict authoritarian call to obedience is a tactic that I think we can ALL object to. But if the belief cannot reinforce itself through any other means, it's not much of a belief now is it. Not worthy of further thought or investigation, certainly not worthy of diligence. It seemed for a while that the authoritarian call was the only tactic. That authoritarian tactic drives away the best minds when used against them by weaker minds. Luckily for the faithful, it isn't the only one. Unfortunately it is the most commonly used one. Among muslims it's worse, but Christians are just as guilty of "BECAUSE I SAID SO". That philosophical reinforcement starts there... sometime around puberty, sometime around where the mind goes from "childlike" to "less childlike". It starts there and it may take an entire lifetime. It probably should take an entire lifetime.
That's not the only reinforcement. There is also practical reinforcement. The community. Family, friends, strangers you meet who profess the same belief. Shared work, shared struggle, shared success. These are little tiny things. So very small that each alone seems inconsequential. Little things that happen that you forget, but they make their mark. That one guy you meet who just seems like probably the nicest guy you've ever met and you just don't understand how the fuck he manages to actually LIVE that way... that one time at the grocery store where a lady needed a jump in the parking lot and you just happened to have cables, so you helped her and she said "Bless you" and she actually meant it... just little things that sediment and stratify and harmonize with the philosophical reinforcement that is also an ongoing process. Omens. The way an animal looks at you sometimes. Very little of this is completely rational so it's very hard to describe in word symbols. And that is truly troublesome to a rational mind. But you've had these moments in your life and they have reinforced a particular belief that you hold -- perhaps a belief in your own freedom. Good on ya. Everyone has these moments.
If I'd been born in India I'd probably be a Hindu. And probably not a whole lot of my day-to-day philosophy would be all that different. But I wasn't born in India, and I'm not a Hindu. And there are some parts of my day-to-day philosophy that would be VERY different. Faith is a choice. How could it be otherwise? We are free willed creatures.
