thread: 2005-08-09 : The New Open House 2: Religion
On 2005-08-10, Matt Schlotte wrote:
There is a long answer to this that I wrote, but it was maudlin and rambling, and while I do ramble, I am not in fact a maudlin person, so I will now try to write a less rambly answer sans the maudlin.
Currently I hold no religious view regarding myself. I respect other peoples religion and hold their belief as inviolate. This means I respect Catholics like no ones business. They have a solid line of faith with the Culture of Life which is consistent and that impresses me, even though it is the opposite of my own personal political decisions. I do not say "amen" when I am in a church. In my mind it disrespects everyone else who is there and who believes in the faith they are acting on. Its like a petition signer getting one hundred legit voter signatures and then up walks someone who can not vote in that state and signs the petition. Let me get back to this point.
I also do not personally hold truck in magic, as magic is faith as well and I for reasons beyond my knowing only hold faith in the interesting but, in my mind, un-magical and un-religious reality around me. However I do believe that other people have faith in magic and/or religion. I do my best then not to step on their toes when they are acting on such. I lack the faith in magic and religion as it effects me, but there is a lot of proof that it does affect others.
So back to the people in the church singing and saying amen. In many of their minds they gathered in a place of worship and it is their collective voice that allows them to get closer to the divine being of their choice, so adding in a disingenuous humming along and "amen" would be the stepping on toes I mentioned earlier.
Some of this has to do with how I was raised, which is as a Jew. Collective religious faith comes from minyan. Liking Catholics because they are consistent is from getting beaten up for being a Jew by people who told me they believed in "love thy brother" and that my g-d is a vengeful g-d. Also because the Catholic kids were never the ones fighting me.
I still consider myself culturally Jewish, but I no longer hold to the tenants.
Let me finally address the faith issue. I'm not sure if I ever had faith in a diety. The Jewish community I grew up in was small and surrounded by people who didn't like us. The Jews my family spent time around were very academic, so my look at the religion was always academic. My family also converted, so we had to be "more" Jewish then the other average Jews at our conservative Synogogue. The people around us, who weren't Jewish though were often claiming they had spoken or heard from g-d or felt its hand guide them or touch them, and I never had an experience like that so perhaps that eroded my faith as well. The idea that other people were off having ecstatic communions with g-d and I wasn't. It never made me want to convert though and often it made me think they were soft in the head, but I was a young kid who was pushed in the dirt often so I can forgive myself thinking poorly of others from time to time.
