The Tension of Faith

My pardon to the board if I am repeating what has gone before. I would just like to address Faith's initial post regarding a belief in Hell and a theist's (not necessarily just Christians) belief in it as the final destination of all those not in their particular sect. Faith's friend's dilemma is a logical follow-on from his faith in what he has been taught. This is, to me, one of the most heinous traps of religions, more specifically those of the Abrahamic beliefs. They set up a situation where the world is divided between those that burn and those that don't. To people of conscience it causes great angst and worry over the ultimate fate of people they love/like. To people of bigotry it justifies hate and marginalisation of others. To others it spurs them to involve themselves in apologetics and even politics where they van supposedly do 'the most good' and try to save 'souls'. The latter is especially worrisome because the good of secular society plays second fiddle to their specific dogmas. What you end up with are groups that interfere with the implementation of social justice: same-sex marriage, LBGTQI rights, civil rights, the teaching of science, personal biological rights etc.

Hi Phat. Let's assume what you say is correct - that we are involved as pawns in a "...cosmic game of brinksmanship? ". I wouldn't "laugh" at it. I would consider it a matter of great concern. Firstly, if this was true we would have to divine the nature of the players. Who are they and what are their goals? In other words which theology do we assume is 'real'. Only by doing that can we choose which side to support - or not. Irrespective of the motives and goals of the combatants one has to ask the question: 'Must I/we get involved?' What if we abandon all theisms and their attendant beliefs altogether? Would that play into the hands of one of the combatants? Again it boils down to the question of WHO are these combatants? What evidence supports the choice of 'WHO'? There is an almost infinite variety of nuanced choices. For me, I reject the notion altogether as having no objective evidence, not for any of it. THIS world is the one that matters, to us, to those we love. It is HERE that we make choices of how to build functional, equitable and harmonious societies. We don't need the incoherent, subjective dogmas of a plethora of theistic beliefs in order to accomplish this.