(January 16, 2016 at 5:42 pm)Whateverist the White Wrote: But then I think he then goes right off the rails:
"...if you're going to accept the existence of God, at some level you have to give up control and you can't just do what you want to because it feels good. And I liked very much being in control. I liked not having to answer to what was holy and vote for what was right. Maybe in some way, I was aware already without having put words to it, of the moral law — and aware that I wasn't living up to it.
From the concession that a faith based worldview need not be dismissed out of hand, it does not follow that one should abandon control to a hypothetical god. That is just whack. One can admit that one has less control than many probably surmise without willfully abandoning any role whatsoever in ones life. Self abnegation is always a mistake as well as reprehensible.
There are ways to live a life with a faith based worldview, and even hold your head up high in doing so. But Collin's way isn't one of them. You meet and hear of so few impeccable theists. I wish those there are would do more to make themselves known to encourage others. But they probably feel estranged by the fundamentalists who dominate most traditions. It would be much more interesting to live in a world with those guys to challenge us than it is to be constantly proselytized to by idiot fundamentalists who have so missed the boat.
Yeah, and he never explains why he became a Christian as opposed to a Muslim, a Jew, a Hindu, Buddhist, etc., other than he read some simplistic book by C.S. Lewis on the "3 Ls". Collins reasoning is just simple-minded, so simple-minded, in fact, that it is likely that he "converted first" (out of emotional despair) and then went looking for "evidence" after the fact.
