RE: Suspending Our Disbelief... An Essential for Change?
I actually wonder if it would be easier for people to find faith if we all stopped trying to share faith with them. I don't mean this in a sarcastic way or anything, but I think thirty years of having false faith and tainted love shoved down my throat did much more harm. It took 4 months of ignoring everything I believed was real to break free and rebuild my own mind, and afterwards, it's very easy to deconstruct the lies and illusions woven together by those with no real faith. Faith does not require you to be afraid, in my mind, it's absolute. You don't get to ask why or question divine order, you bend your mind to its' will and adapt, not the other way around. I feel like we live in society where people expect that if you pray hard enough things magically get delivered and if they don't then you get to turn around and lose faith because you didn't get what you wanted. It's not a selective thing.
Hello @clayboyn,
I think that you are correct to a great degree. "Organized religion" in most cases does more harm than good. I know all too many people who have been turned off by parents, pastors, and other authority figures...
Having said that, I also think that the old saw is true; that "God works in mysterious ways." I also know of people who have come to faith after fighting it vigorously, or after hearing some fire and brimstone street preacher.
In my (all too often not humble enough) opinion, my calling is to simply declare what I believe to be true, and to openly share what I believe God offers the world. While I hope that some who hear what I have to say may actually respond favorably, the response is not up to me, and I am not one to "pound your head with a bible."
Yes, we do have to think through these things and we do have to accept the divine will. God is certainly not our servant, we must adapt to his ways.
Thanks very much for your thoughtful comments! :D