Tyrphanax said:
corellian77 said:
darth_ender said:
In response to Frink's inquiry, I'm sure I will take flak for this, but sometimes a person of faith acts on faith, even if they are not sure why. Sometimes God simply wishes to test our obedience. Looking at the kosher laws of the Old Testament, God did not mention how much cholesterol or the various parasites you might find in pork. They simply obeyed because God wanted them to. "Oh no! Blind faith!"
More to follow soon...
Reading this made me want to chime in. I think accepting something "on blind faith" simply because a religion advocates it is the first step down a potentially very dangerous and disturbing path. When people forgo reason and common sense in the name of their religious beliefs, it opens the door to a whole host of questionable, and possibly terrible, acts.
Granted, abstaining from drinking coffee or tea is an innocuous rule to observe, and one with no societal repercussions. But the same rationale of following a questionable rule on nothing more than faith could lead someone of another belief system to condemn others (e.g., homosexuals, people of other ethnicities) for no other reason than "our church/mosque/shrine/religious leader/religious text told us to."
Sorry for the rant, but I just find the observance of religious doctrine at the expense of logical thought a bit worrisome due to where it can potentially lead.
Yeah, this is another reason I'll never understand religion. Humans have been granted this pretty awesome brain that's far advanced over any other animal's brain, and yet they'd rather let an old book make their decisions for them.
I understand people don't like to think for themselves and make their own decisions because it's hard and can be scary and gives you a lot of responsibility for your actions and the outcome and whatnot, but damn; if you can't drink tea because a book says you shouldn't for really no reason other than "just because"... I mean, c'mon.
Also, I almost asked what Greeny asked, but thought I'd be a bit more tactful. =P
To address this a little more deeply, let me ask you, do I seem like the kind of person who simply follows authority because I'm told to or follows the crowd because of pressure? I understand it's hard to get to know someone over the Internet, but I assure you, I'm not so naive or simplistic. The answers I've given here, even the "cop out" (not sure if CP3S was joking or not) were simplistic in nature. I have a very philosophical personality, and I am better read on this topic than your average Joe. It takes a lot of courage for someone to put themselves and their faith on the line here and allow a bunch of others with their probing questions to try to answer everything honestly and with sufficient depth so as to improve understanding with the hope that you haven't further alienated these people from your belief. This is not simply a Church project that my leaders told me to do. This was a completely self-motivated challenge that I pray I am up to, simply to inform a few folks who will probably not be swayed to ever join my church, and for the basic reason that they may understand who I am and who we are. You've all been very respectful thus far and I'm not getting offended, but I hope you appreciate the intelligence behind these comments and not take for granted the amount of time and energy it takes to provide you with this information. Being a Mormon is not about ignoring your noggin. You'd be surprised how intellectual Mormons tend to be and how many prominent scientists, philosophers, and historians, living or deceased, are members of my Church.