Awesome Quote

[sylvia_rose]

"If we are blessed with the unremitting mercy and compassion of Christ, then our belief in His true teaching must constantly be tested and tempered by reason. The word of God rests separately in the heart of every man. Each must consciously decide what His will is for himself and not blindly accept the dogma of the Church. True faith is not for

Comments

[samasa]

We had a discussion on religion in high school, and the class conclusion was that anyone who claims their parents' religion is "blindly accepting religion." And the only exception would be those who question and turn from their parents religion, thoroughly investigate other religions, and come back to their parents' religion...and even that is a questionable exception since indoctrination into any culture (religious, ethnic, geographic, ect.) starts at birth. [not to say there's anything 'wrong' with blind acceptance].

I'd be very curious to hear your take on this authors words (even though they're slightly different in concept I think).

[samasa]

By that I mean, how you think about rejecting blind acceptance within a single religion as opposed to outside of the religion...if that makes sense.

[sylvia_rose]

Well, just because you end up in your parent's religion doesn't necessarily translate into "blind acceptance". You can very easily tell when someone is blindly accepting religion of any kind (their parents' or not) by the way they act and the way they live their life. For instance, I never turned away from my parent's religion, but I did explore it thoroughly. What EXACTLY to adventists believe? What makes them tick? Where is the evidence? How are they interpreting scripture? And I have had no problems with it (or at least, very few). Do you consider me to be blindly following religion just because I take my parents' faith? I believe that I was very lucky to be "indoctrinated" at a young age, as you say. I, unlike most people it seems, believe that children should be taught religion and should grow up reading the bible. I know A LOT about scripture and religion thanks to my parent's teaching and therefore have a lot more information with which to base my opinion on religion when I'm old enough to question it.

[samasa]

I was just more curious to your interpretation of the quote. All arguments about blind acceptance I've heard are from people who maintain in order to not be blindly accepting, you have to explore :other: religions thorough, not just the religion of your parents...but I've never heard an argument (or a rebuttal) from the other side of that coin. So I figured I'd ask you since that quote kind of was related.