Meditation on faith
Lileks published an interesting meditation on the nature of religion. Personally, I've gone through a lot of the spectrum of religious orientation, and I find his distinction between types of religions interesting. but this is in my wheelhouse so I have something to add to it. I have read a lot of Lutheran theology, and I don't remember in which thick volume this distinction was made, but I find it telling; (paraphrasing from memory) "...there are many kinds of religion in the world: all of them save one are concerned with what you are to do to make yourself right with God. The Faith of Jesus, Paul, Augustine, Luther teaches you how God has done, is doing, and will do to make you right with Him." Islam is simply the most blatant example of (works righteous) people who, aware of the call to holiness assume a hugely erroneous thing: that they are Able.
When (and if) you really hear what God is saying to people about what he wants, you realize he wants something totally alien. Actually this last sentence has a seed of deception in it - reading it you might get the idea that if you meditated long and hard enough, you might come to the Enlightenment. The truth is this, humanity has no natural understanding of God or ability to obey him. The classic mantra is that man is a "Blind, dead enemy of God" The deception that we are in is fed by the fact that we are constantly being upheld, enlightened and empowered by Him. There may be some moral ability evidenced in our actions, but it is roughly analogous to watching a puppet move and thinking that he can leave the stage and direct his own actions.
The functional error that all work-righteous religions fall into is this: if we just get enough rules out there and make the punishment onerous enough, we will change men's hearts. The original Cargo Cult! It doesn't work.
Lileks published an interesting meditation on the nature of religion. Personally, I've gone through a lot of the spectrum of religious orientation, and I find his distinction between types of religions interesting. but this is in my wheelhouse so I have something to add to it. I have read a lot of Lutheran theology, and I don't remember in which thick volume this distinction was made, but I find it telling; (paraphrasing from memory) "...there are many kinds of religion in the world: all of them save one are concerned with what you are to do to make yourself right with God. The Faith of Jesus, Paul, Augustine, Luther teaches you how God has done, is doing, and will do to make you right with Him." Islam is simply the most blatant example of (works righteous) people who, aware of the call to holiness assume a hugely erroneous thing: that they are Able.
When (and if) you really hear what God is saying to people about what he wants, you realize he wants something totally alien. Actually this last sentence has a seed of deception in it - reading it you might get the idea that if you meditated long and hard enough, you might come to the Enlightenment. The truth is this, humanity has no natural understanding of God or ability to obey him. The classic mantra is that man is a "Blind, dead enemy of God" The deception that we are in is fed by the fact that we are constantly being upheld, enlightened and empowered by Him. There may be some moral ability evidenced in our actions, but it is roughly analogous to watching a puppet move and thinking that he can leave the stage and direct his own actions.
The functional error that all work-righteous religions fall into is this: if we just get enough rules out there and make the punishment onerous enough, we will change men's hearts. The original Cargo Cult! It doesn't work.
posted by Qob at
8:31 AM
