(no subject)
To all street evangelists everywhere (especially those of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints, because you dared interrupt me to talk about JAY-sis whilst I was reaching the climax of The City & The City the other day, and everyone knows you should never interrupt a girl during climax, oh my).
I respect you. I do. I respect that you have a strength of belief I am sorely lacking, that you are willing to commit entirely to your faith, and that with the sure and certain knowledge that your faith holds the key to redemption, you will give up huge amounts of your own time and comfort to offer salvation to people who you do not know and who in all likelihood will be thoroughly unpleasant to you. That takes both compassion and balls of steel.
But I'm interested to know exactly what difference you think it's going to make? Who out of everyone you've stopped and talked to or yelled at in the street has ever, ever stopped and gone 'Jesus loves me? What a novel idea! You've made a believer of me, sir, thank you, thank you!" Faith is not something that can be learned or explained: faith is, in all obvious aspects, the antithesis of logic. I know everything you try to tell me. I have read the Book of Mormon, I have read the Qu'ran, I have read the Bible, I haven't read the Torah because I don't read Hebrew, I have studied philosophical texts and I have been on mormon.org for non-trolling reasons. Fuck, I even read the Book of Scientology with a straight(ish) face.
Faith is not a matter of being aware that there are logical reasons to believe in a God, or being aware that salvation comes through church X/action Y/Prophet Z. I can rationally argue my way to there being a higher power, I can rationalise even that it might care for us, I can and do make this rational path to the potential validity of a theistic standpoint. That doesn't make me a believer. I know that there is every possibility that such a being exists, that doesn't mean I feel it, it doesn't mean I have that blind faith (and understand I don't mean that as an insult) that enables me to trust without questioning, or to know in a deep, super-conscious way that this being is there, that this is The Truth and that this is how things are.
Telling me this increases my understanding, in principle, but I already understand. I've done my homework. Without trying to sound arrogant, in all likelihood I know as much about what you're telling me as you do. And if I don't, I'll ask, because I am genuinely curious. But my net belief levels, if you like, are not going to change. There is always the possibility something is going to shake me into a religious lifestyle, but it isn't going to be an increase in knowledge. It may be something I perceive to be miraculous. It may be a divine vision or spiritual experience, I may get stoned one day and hear the voice of the Metatron telling me to burn it all down, but whatever might have the power to change my fundamental world view, I'm afraid it isn't going to be somebody engaging me in a hackneyed and unending argument on the "God loves, Jesus saves, God will send your unbelieving arse to Hell" lines, or somebody spouting dogma and catchphrases, or even somebody having a sensible, down-to-earth discussion on the basis and meaning of their beliefs, because that just isn't faith. At best, what you'll create is a dogmatic automaton, clinging to a dogma they neither understand nor throw themselves whole-heartedly into in the hopes that God will have mercy on their sinning souls, or will raise them up to heaven. That's not faith, that's a cult of greed and fear, like the Catholic church most Christian churches most organised religion the entire Western world the world that Christ himself decried. In the Bible. For the length of his life.
So while I appreciate your enthusiasm, your selfless quest to save sinners, your strength of belief and, to be fair, I relish the opportunity to discuss faith with people who aren't raging atheists, I suggest you take a long look at what you are doing, what you hope to achieve and whether, fundamentally, it's even possible to save another person's soul for God. This essay might also clue you in as to why you really shouldn't ask a deepset agnostic whether they believe in God, and why it really is easier for me to just say, 'I'm a Quaker and comfortable in my philosophy, thank you'. I hope in reading this you've been made to think a little about the nuanced nature of faith, the potential futility of evangelism and the relationship between your personal understandings and beliefs.
Also why you should never interrupt a nerd in the middle of a China Mieville novel.
I respect you. I do. I respect that you have a strength of belief I am sorely lacking, that you are willing to commit entirely to your faith, and that with the sure and certain knowledge that your faith holds the key to redemption, you will give up huge amounts of your own time and comfort to offer salvation to people who you do not know and who in all likelihood will be thoroughly unpleasant to you. That takes both compassion and balls of steel.
But I'm interested to know exactly what difference you think it's going to make? Who out of everyone you've stopped and talked to or yelled at in the street has ever, ever stopped and gone 'Jesus loves me? What a novel idea! You've made a believer of me, sir, thank you, thank you!" Faith is not something that can be learned or explained: faith is, in all obvious aspects, the antithesis of logic. I know everything you try to tell me. I have read the Book of Mormon, I have read the Qu'ran, I have read the Bible, I haven't read the Torah because I don't read Hebrew, I have studied philosophical texts and I have been on mormon.org for non-trolling reasons. Fuck, I even read the Book of Scientology with a straight(ish) face.
Faith is not a matter of being aware that there are logical reasons to believe in a God, or being aware that salvation comes through church X/action Y/Prophet Z. I can rationally argue my way to there being a higher power, I can rationalise even that it might care for us, I can and do make this rational path to the potential validity of a theistic standpoint. That doesn't make me a believer. I know that there is every possibility that such a being exists, that doesn't mean I feel it, it doesn't mean I have that blind faith (and understand I don't mean that as an insult) that enables me to trust without questioning, or to know in a deep, super-conscious way that this being is there, that this is The Truth and that this is how things are.
Telling me this increases my understanding, in principle, but I already understand. I've done my homework. Without trying to sound arrogant, in all likelihood I know as much about what you're telling me as you do. And if I don't, I'll ask, because I am genuinely curious. But my net belief levels, if you like, are not going to change. There is always the possibility something is going to shake me into a religious lifestyle, but it isn't going to be an increase in knowledge. It may be something I perceive to be miraculous. It may be a divine vision or spiritual experience, I may get stoned one day and hear the voice of the Metatron telling me to burn it all down, but whatever might have the power to change my fundamental world view, I'm afraid it isn't going to be somebody engaging me in a hackneyed and unending argument on the "God loves, Jesus saves, God will send your unbelieving arse to Hell" lines, or somebody spouting dogma and catchphrases, or even somebody having a sensible, down-to-earth discussion on the basis and meaning of their beliefs, because that just isn't faith. At best, what you'll create is a dogmatic automaton, clinging to a dogma they neither understand nor throw themselves whole-heartedly into in the hopes that God will have mercy on their sinning souls, or will raise them up to heaven. That's not faith, that's a cult of greed and fear, like the Catholic church most Christian churches most organised religion the entire Western world the world that Christ himself decried. In the Bible. For the length of his life.
So while I appreciate your enthusiasm, your selfless quest to save sinners, your strength of belief and, to be fair, I relish the opportunity to discuss faith with people who aren't raging atheists, I suggest you take a long look at what you are doing, what you hope to achieve and whether, fundamentally, it's even possible to save another person's soul for God. This essay might also clue you in as to why you really shouldn't ask a deepset agnostic whether they believe in God, and why it really is easier for me to just say, 'I'm a Quaker and comfortable in my philosophy, thank you'. I hope in reading this you've been made to think a little about the nuanced nature of faith, the potential futility of evangelism and the relationship between your personal understandings and beliefs.
Also why you should never interrupt a nerd in the middle of a China Mieville novel.