RE: Christians mistakenly praying to bones of beasts
March 9, 2015 at 9:18 am
(This post was last modified: March 9, 2015 at 9:45 am by Zenith.)
Yeah, robvalue, you do have a point.
However, the whole thing is quite difficult. Basically, one with "strong faith", who's been like that for many years, it is possible you won't be able to help him at all. Faith is like a drug addiction where the victim calls it a good thing.
I... well, don't know how right I am, but I personally don't give a fuck about someone who prays to some bones. What truly matters is how such a person behaves in a society with people of different faiths (and non believers) and if / how it affects other people's lives. Practically, about the "how it affects our lives" thing, I am really concerned about the education of the children, who can very easily be turned into monsters (and can more easily be convinced of anything).
As far as I see from Christian Orthodoxy, at least, their faith is not based on behaving nicely or on keeping some commandments (perhaps they can't even tell what the ten are), but on being humble towards the priests (and all their hierarchy) and showing very high respect to them. So basically, if a brainwashed orthodox sees a certain man debating a priest, with courage, and not bowing down to the weak arguments he presents, he's regarded like a satanist / heretic / whatever.
I believe that any instance where a christian is convinced that a practice or belief of his is bad, is a win, even though he did not forsake everything, or not forsaken everything right now.
I also have acquaintances who call themselves christians (e.g. orthodox), but do not believe in the authority of the priests, do not go to kiss relics, even do not go (but too rarely) to churches, do not agree with the building of many churches, do not seek debates with non believers, nor to impose their beliefs on anybody, and just want to live their lives. Something more like a personal faith rather than a religion.
As for forsaking faith... it is quite difficult. In some cases I believe that people react to shocks: if, for instance, the preacher / priest always preaches that "God wants you to have money, to be rich", and the man happens to become homeless and no one helps him, it will be a conflict of what he's been taught and what truly happened. If the preacher says that "God cares about you, he will never allow something horrible to happen to you", and the man goes into a very bad period, where he's almost lost his sanity (or say, physical wounds: arms amputated) it would be a conflict, again. There must be something to shake his faith, on things he always considered holy / in a certain way. Other things that he needs are: a) the capability for a bit of self-criticism; b) getting out of the religious environment - i.e. even if the explanations of the others make absolutely no sense, the conviction of his relatives / friends of the church will keep him chained into his beliefs.
However, the whole thing is quite difficult. Basically, one with "strong faith", who's been like that for many years, it is possible you won't be able to help him at all. Faith is like a drug addiction where the victim calls it a good thing.
I... well, don't know how right I am, but I personally don't give a fuck about someone who prays to some bones. What truly matters is how such a person behaves in a society with people of different faiths (and non believers) and if / how it affects other people's lives. Practically, about the "how it affects our lives" thing, I am really concerned about the education of the children, who can very easily be turned into monsters (and can more easily be convinced of anything).
As far as I see from Christian Orthodoxy, at least, their faith is not based on behaving nicely or on keeping some commandments (perhaps they can't even tell what the ten are), but on being humble towards the priests (and all their hierarchy) and showing very high respect to them. So basically, if a brainwashed orthodox sees a certain man debating a priest, with courage, and not bowing down to the weak arguments he presents, he's regarded like a satanist / heretic / whatever.
I believe that any instance where a christian is convinced that a practice or belief of his is bad, is a win, even though he did not forsake everything, or not forsaken everything right now.
I also have acquaintances who call themselves christians (e.g. orthodox), but do not believe in the authority of the priests, do not go to kiss relics, even do not go (but too rarely) to churches, do not agree with the building of many churches, do not seek debates with non believers, nor to impose their beliefs on anybody, and just want to live their lives. Something more like a personal faith rather than a religion.
As for forsaking faith... it is quite difficult. In some cases I believe that people react to shocks: if, for instance, the preacher / priest always preaches that "God wants you to have money, to be rich", and the man happens to become homeless and no one helps him, it will be a conflict of what he's been taught and what truly happened. If the preacher says that "God cares about you, he will never allow something horrible to happen to you", and the man goes into a very bad period, where he's almost lost his sanity (or say, physical wounds: arms amputated) it would be a conflict, again. There must be something to shake his faith, on things he always considered holy / in a certain way. Other things that he needs are: a) the capability for a bit of self-criticism; b) getting out of the religious environment - i.e. even if the explanations of the others make absolutely no sense, the conviction of his relatives / friends of the church will keep him chained into his beliefs.
