Faith closes the mind. It is pure idol worship.

[Gnostic Bishop]

Faith closes the mind. It is pure idol worship.

Faith is a way to quit using, "God given" power of Reason and Logic, and cause the faithful to embrace doctrines that moral people reject.

The God of the O.T. says, “Come now, and let us reason together,” [Isaiah 1:18]

How can literalists reason with God when they must ignore reason and logic and discard them when turning into literalist?

Those who are literalists can only reply somewhat in the fashion that Martin Luther did.
“Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense, and understanding.”
“Reason is a whore, the greatest enemy that faith has.”

This attitude effectively kills all worthy communication that non-theists can have with theist. Faith closes the mind as it is pure idol worship.

Literalism is an evil practice that hides the true messages of myths.

We cannot show our faith based friends that they are wrong through their faith colored glasses.

Regards
DL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O1_3zBUKM8

[Robert Tulip]

Hello DL, thanks, interesting comments relating to some other current threads including on evolution. Best with links to say what they are or people will worry you are spamming the forum. I watched this youtube link - it is a music video of a song called Naughty Boy with intriguing Bolivian shamanic vision.

[DWill]

My wish is not to see "reason vs. faith" played out like a zero-sum game, in which partisans try to achieve an overall victory. Given that no person has ever had all of life's experiences, it has to be true that no one can reasonably claim to have arrived at the optimum method of existing in the world. Being truly broadminded means reserving the possibility that others have found ways of existing just as valid as our own. Always we need to examine our assumptions. For example, is it so certain that reason is the sine qua non of living, as people may conclude from listening to us who call ourselves rationalists? I can't be sure that a more spiritual/emotional base doesn't provide people with a source of richness that we may miss, though we get our own benefits that are not as available to the spiritually inclined.

"Nothing human is alien to me"--those words from Terence still provide the best platform for humanism.

[Movie Nerd]

It would partly depend on how you define faith. I put my faith in my friends and family, based on my relationship with them and past experience. That would be one example of an area in which faith wouldn't close my mind, I hope.

By the way, this post is special to me, as it's my 100th post on the site. I feel like I've fully joined the group.

[Movie Nerd]

In thinking more about this issue, I was wondering how faith itself means idol worship. When I think of idols, I think of golden calfs and the like for some reason.

[Gnostic Bishop]

My wish is not to see "reason vs. faith" played out like a zero-sum game, in which partisans try to achieve an overall victory. Given that no person has ever had all of life's experiences, it has to be true that no one can reasonably claim to have arrived at the optimum method of existing in the world. Being truly broadminded means reserving the possibility that others have found ways of existing just as valid as our own. Always we need to examine our assumptions. For example, is it so certain that reason is the sine qua non of living, as people may conclude from listening to us who call ourselves rationalists? I can't be sure that a more spiritual/emotional base doesn't provide people with a source of richness that we may miss, though we get our own benefits that are not as available to the spiritually inclined.

"Nothing human is alien to me"--those words from Terence still provide the best platform for humanism.

Reason and logic do not deny spirituality.

It does deny that they come from some sky daddy.

As a Gnostic Christian, I see it as all coming from us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR02cia ... =PLCBF574D

The thinking shown below is the Gnostic Christian’s goal as taught by Jesus but know that any belief can be internalized.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alRNbes ... r_embedded

This method and mind set is how you become I am and brethren to Jesus, in the esoteric sense.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdSVl_HOo8Y

When you can name your God, I am, and mean yourself, then you will begin to know the only God you will ever find. It is to become more fully human.

Regards
DL

[Gnostic Bishop]

Hello DL, thanks, interesting comments relating to some other current threads including on evolution. Best with links to say what they are or people will worry you are spamming the forum. I watched this youtube link - it is a music video of a song called Naughty Boy with intriguing Bolivian shamanic vision.

That is the group, not the tune.

I do sometimes get the spammer label but not from anyone who has half a brain.

Regards
DL

[Gnostic Bishop]

It would partly depend on how you define faith. I put my faith in my friends and family, based on my relationship with them and past experience. That would be one example of an area in which faith wouldn't close my mind, I hope.

By the way, this post is special to me, as it's my 100th post on the site. I feel like I've fully joined the group.

Faith in a known entity is one thing. Faith in an unknown entity is quite another and faith is usually assigned to the supernatural and not the natural.

That last answers your last post.

Regards
DL

[Robert Tulip]

Hello DL, thanks, interesting comments relating to some other current threads including on evolution. Best with links to say what they are or people will worry you are spamming the forum. I watched this youtube link - it is a music video of a song called Naughty Boy with intriguing Bolivian shamanic vision.

That is the group, not the tune.

I do sometimes get the spammer label but not from anyone who has half a brain.

Regards
DL

Could I suggest you might consider your choice of words more carefully? Links with no explanation are often viewed as potential spam, especially from some one with no track record at a discussion forum. If you want people to click on your link, it should be a simple matter of courtesy for you as a newcomer to this site to state what a link you are providing contains.

[Flann 5]

Literalism is an evil practice that hides the true messages of myths.

Hello Gnostic Bishop.
I'm wondering what myths you are referring to? The gospels are set in real historical time and geographical locations unlike pagan myths. The pagan parallels idea has been well debunked many times. There are similarities which you would expect with religions but the parallels fail in any real sense.
I listened to Wells on the video you linked. Poor exegesis.He takes a line here and a line there from the gospels and fits it into his view of things. For instance he says;Jesus is a son of God not the son of God.He ignores clear references in the same gospel to Jesus as the only begotten son of God. In the Greek monogneas.
That's fairly typical of his overall approach.
I'm going to provide a link to a fairly brief example of the debunking of the pagan parallels in the gospels notions. Chris White refuting D.M.Murdock aka Acharya S. There's much more debunking out there but this is a sample.
And just to respond to your view which seems to be that Jesus didn't exist, a longer one by historian Paul Maier on historical evidences.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmHMKn8is7g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAN3kQHTKWI