Dan,
You ask me if I think faith is suspending rational thought. I say , in a sense, no. I can understand having faith. To some degree all spirituality is predicated upon having some faith. Conversely, having faith does not make it wrong to question things. Without questioning, how do you achieve a deeper understanding which can quite possibly deepen your faith?
If you were to say to me, "I don't understand how one can not be worse than other, but I have faith that it is so because of some particular passage", I would understand that. I would think that it would still be okay to question things and dig deeper because you may end up understanding after awhile. You may also never understand. Both are okay. There is no shame in not knowing, and it does not reflect poorly on your faith to not fully comprehend.
Believe me, the most confident sounding person on all of SI does not know everything on every level about their personal philosophies either. No one does.
All too often we take a question and assume that other person is trying to change our minds or trap us. Sometimes that is the case, sometimes it is not. In the end, who cares? No one knows all the answers, we can only try to understand as much as we are capable of understanding, and if we are lucky, give and receive as much love as possible along the way.
I would be happy to continue or drop altogether this particular discussion. I would be just as happy talking about when Johnny Lang's new album is coming out:-)
Mark |
