fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2631 ]

[ SECRET POST #2631 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2631 ⌋

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yes. I'm a nondenominational Christian. (Once considered myself a Quaker; may return to that one day.)

Why? Hmm. I believe there is a fundamental good that can overcome a fundamental evil. I find it highly unlikely that a bunch of separate people just hoaxed Jesus' entire story into being. I find it hard to believe that the earth and everything in it is nothing more than an accident (I should clarify that this does not mean I reject scientific assertions re: the origin of the earth, I just believe there was more to it than just chance). I find it hard to believe that emotions such as love, sorrow, and awe came about purely as evolutionary byproducts. I think we have a physical and spiritual aspect to ourselves.

All of this pretty much works as a more serious answer for me too.

Quakers rock.

I'm inclined to agree! Much of Quaker tradition really resonated with me when I was a teen, and still does, even though I left the meeting I used to attend for unrelated reasons. I would love it if I could find another one someday. :)

I went to a Quaker-founded school that retained a good bit of the traditions, and I miss the environment so much. Really influenced me.

None of the Friends' Meetings in my area are Christian. :-(

Oh, that would appeal to me, haha. But I'm sorry you've haven't found the kind you're looking for :(

AYRT

I should add that all the Friends I have made contact with in my area have been very chill with my being Christian, and seem like great people in general. I do think the RSoF has moved on from the original Friends' beliefs and teachings, which is what I found to be very sympathetic to my own worldview, but would not be applicable/appropriated in a Friends Meeting today.

*appropriate

I've heard of this. It kinda makes me sad but it is what it is. The meeting I used to go to was very much Christ-centered, and I would love to find another one that is in the future.

" I find it highly unlikely that a bunch of separate people just hoaxed Jesus' entire story into being."

*cough* Scientology. Except Scientology's only had six decades and Christianity's had more than a millenium.

FWIW, I do think there was a historical figure named Jesus who was a preacher in that region. The rest of it sounds very much like a bunch of people hoaxing Jesus' story into being, because that's essentially what the Bible is-- a bunch of people writing, rewriting and adding onto the legend of a man years and years after he died.

I'm not sure if you're saying you yourself are a Scientologist or that you are presenting it as a group of people who think Jesus was a hoax? Either way, okay.

They're saying that a complex story has been hoaxed into being in recent history, so it shouldn't be hard to believe that it also happened BCE.

I do not know a lot about Scientology. I should research it. (All I know about it is that it's weird. And Tom Cruise is in it? Or some other celeb?)

It's a made-up religion created by a sci-fi writer in the 50s involving aliens, and now thousands of people believe in it and donate a ridiculous amount of money to the church. They're also infamous for using ugly strongarm tactics against dissenters or people who try to leave it. So the idea of a hoaxed life story that's the basis of a religion... yeah, that's not really difficult to believe in.

The Scientology thing is not really analogous to the Christianity thing, though - most or all of Scientology's claims are either very abstract or very far in the past.

The analogy to Christianity would be more like if Hubbard had, in the 1950s, come along and said, "Oh hey, there was this guy who lived right here in New Jersey in the 20s, and he was the Son of God and came back from the dead and we should all worship him. Sound good?" Which would be a rather different thing, I think.

I find it hard to believe that emotions such as love, sorrow, and awe came about purely as evolutionary byproducts. I think we have a physical and spiritual aspect to ourselves.

I'm curious: do you think this is only true of humans, or do other animals have a spiritual aspect as well? Many other species exhibit these emotions that you believe must be more than evolutionary byproducts. (This is a serious question, btw; I'm not trying to be snide.)

I don't think other species exhibit them to the same degree that humans do, except maybe the other great apes (and then who can be sure)? That specific question isn't one I've given a lot of thought to. I'm instinctually inclined to believe that animals do have a spiritual aspect, but I just haven't really given it a lot of detailed thought. I've always been inclined to believe, I guess, that animals don't sin, and are more or less always in God's good graces, because they aren't really capable of being evil.

It's like the old question, do dogs go to heaven? Answer, I don't know, but nothing says they don't, and I'd really like to believe they do.

I think people often underestimate the degree to which many of the more intelligent species of animals feel human-like emotions. The thing that initially prompted me to ask you the question was remembering the way elephants mourn their dead, but I think that many of the more intelligent social animals, like cetaceans as well as the apes you mentioned, have more complex and sophisticated emotional responses than many people realize.

Definitely was thinking of cetaceans too. I think it's arguable that great apes (including humans), cetaceans, and proboscidians are the most intelligent groups of animals. Some carnivorans and a few birds might also be up there but idk how they are on the emotional scale. I do believe dogs have feelings (for example) but not as extensive as ours.

"I find it hard to believe that emotions such as love, sorrow, and awe came about purely as evolutionary byproducts."

Well, look at it this way. I'm sitting in an insulated house with running water and electricity. My socks are made from recycled plastic bottles. I'm typing on a machine so powerful that as recently as three generations ago, this type of power would've been unthinkable for the richest government in the world, never mind a middle class individual. And I'm using that incredible power and all the technology that went into it (technology I don't even understand!) to tap into an international web of information, talking to people I don't know and have never met, and when I hit "post comment", another person on another continent will be able to read what I wrote in a matter of seconds.

And all of this-- ALL of it-- was accomplished within the span of less than thirty years. Which is why I'm puzzled when people think evolution isn't capable of this or that when we're talking about world-shaping forces occurring over millions and millions of years. Because even though I could text someone in China using one finger or use satellite technology to find the nearest McDonalds, evolution is the thing that sounds improbable.

Anon, did you take my comment to mean I didn't believe in evolution at all? Because I definitely do...I'm a biology student, I'd have a hard time getting by not believing evolution is a thing xD;

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