Belief Systems vs Religions
Doug Mudar, in a UUWorld article called Holding the Center, discusses James P. Carse's The Religious Case Against Belief in which Carse lays out a distinction between belief systems and religions:In a nutshell, belief systems provide the comfort of clear answers; religions provide a sense of wonder in the contemplation of mystery.By this definition, fundamentalism and atheism fall the category of belief systems. An interesting distinction.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 2:36 PM
2 Comments:
The same observation was made in the book "True Believer" by Eric Hoffer, 1951.
Virtually the entire argument rests on an acceptance of the modern view of the Abrahamic faiths. Most non-Abrahamic religions, both ancient and modern, have a "liberal" view of religion- Neither Zeus nor Wotan demanded that you actually believe every line of poetry; the test was what you DID, how you lived and behaved. The myths were there to explain why the moral code and give examples of how it is lived.
Paul wrote:
-snip-
"By this definition, fundamentalism and atheism fall the category of belief systems."Paul,
If by "atheism" you mean someone who with absolute certainty says there are no god or gods, you would be making a valid comparison.
But many atheists are not absolutely certain in their views.
They hold them as provisional working assumptions until more evidence comes along.
If you're suggesting that a provisional "working assumption" form of atheism is analogous to fundamentalism, I'll have to call "Blake's Law" on you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharyngula_(blog)#Blake.27s_Law
FWIW, this is analogous to "Godwin's Law."
I don't know of anyone who claims there are no god or gods as an absolutely certain claim.
Heck, even Dawkins doesn't make this claim.
He describes himself viewing the probability of god's existence as being a low probability but not zero -- a person who cannot know for certain but who lives his life on the assumption that god is not there.
Dawkins has an interesting discussion of what he calls a spectrum of probabilities (ranging from people who have a 100% conviction that they "know" god exists to people who have a 100% conviction that they "know" god doesn't exist). It's worth checking out the discussion in The God Delusion on pages 50-51 about this spectrum.
Most folks who are agnostic or atheist are there not out of any sort of absolute certainty but simply as a result of the evidence available to them.
For some folks, the "direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder" in a non-creedal congregational framework may lead them to being atheists or agnostics.
Having atheists (those who don't believe in god) or agnostics (those who don't know if god exists) in UU congregations is one possible outcome that can happen in our non-creedal religion.
Take care,
Steve
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