Text 24078, 87 rader
Skriven 2015-04-26 01:43:00 av Lee Lofaso (2:203/2)
  Kommentar till text 24071 av David Drummond (3:640/305)
Ärende: Faith
=============
Hello David,

 DD> faith : strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual
 DD> conviction rather than proof.

 DD> faith : accepting something as truth when one has no supporting evidence
 DD> what so ever

 DD> faith : pretending to know something when one really does not know it at
all

"You Gotta Have Faith" was a favorite of Saints fans everywhere
for years.  And then the Saints went and won the Super Bowl.
George Michaels was out as a singer, and New Orleans locals were
in, the new song being "Who Dat Say Dey Gonna Beat Dem Saints?
Who Dat? Who Dat?"  And then the Saints returned to their losing
ways, but with high hopes of finding the right number again
some day.

 DD> gullible : easily persuaded to believe something;

Saints fans fall for it every year, deluding themselves
into believing that Breejus will once again guide them into
the Promised Land of milk and honey (another Super Bowl win).

 DD> superstition : a widely held but irrational belief in supernatural
 DD> influences, especially as leading to good or bad luck, or a practice based
 DD> on such a belief

Wearing the Black and Gold (Saints colors) is supposed to be
a combination of mourning (black) and redemption (gold).  The
fleur de lis is a French water lily resembling the sign of
the cross.  And then there is the name of the football team
itself, the Saints.  Some people consider the whole thing
as being sacrilegious.  And they might be right.  Especially
given the costumes worn by some of the goofball fans at the
games.

 DD> I guess I do have beliefs...

Of course you do.  We all do.  It cannot be helped.
To believe is to doubt.  And without doubt, there can
be no belief.

 DD> agnostic : An agnostic is a person who believes that the existence of a
 DD> greater power, such as a god, cannot be proven or disproved;

That is what all (sane) men/women believe.  Anything else
would be a clockwork orange.  Alex and his buddies come to
mind, as well as Beethoven's 9th ...

 DD> I sometimes claim to be an "apathetic agnostic" : I don't really know, and
I
 DD> don't really care.

Pierre Boullé was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his
novel, "Bridge Over the River Kwai" - a very dark fiction
about real events during WWII.  He also wrote "Planet of
the Apes" and other novels and stories of note.  His
religious views were warped, to say the least.  But as
far as I could tell, not actually heretical.

The religious arguments Boullé presented in his stories
would get you thrown out of most online forums.  But they
are philosophically sound arguments, and have real merit.

One can believe in the existence of a god(s).
One can believe in the non-existence of a god(s).
But neither can it be known or proven.  Therefore,
the best that man can do is come up with a theory
of probability.

That is in summation one of the arguments presented
by Boullé in his stories.

We create our own reality, whatever that reality
might be.  How others perceive reality, or what
they call reality, is not the same reality as my
reality.

But that is getting to be another subject, for
another day ...

--Lee

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