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catsloanis's comments:

on Relationships and Religion

Absolutely! My background has put me in close contact with the most fundameltalist Christians who FEAR science and especially anything that "threatens" a strict view of creationism. Meanwhile in college, while these relatives prayed for my soul, I studied Anthropology and did research in evolutionary psychology & behavior... in these classes I encountered faculty and students just as defensive and threatened as the most narrow-minded church-goer. They have so much in common and don't realize it! I eventually revealed to a few profs that I was able to comfortably reconcile both sides and no amount of knowledge on either side threatened my core values or beliefs, leaving me free to dive in and fully engage in research and discussion. One professor in particular was so puzzled by this and couldn't figure out why I wasn't troubled when I presented such a critical eye to everything but I think he started to understand that for me faith was personal and not something to use as a weapon, a novel idea to someone who had been berated and attacked by Christians his entire career. Science and faith (for me anyway) are harmonious ways to approach truth and understanding.

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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on Relationships and Religion

It's frightening to me too. Please don't assume that anyone with any sort of faith or spiritual life agrees with the destructive views you speak of, we tend to keep quiet about our faith out of respect for others and for fear of being lumped in with Christians who confuse power with faith. Whether it's faith in science and humanity's ability to discover scientific truth or faith in a god, true faith demands skepticism and asking the hard questions. If simply asking a question or considering another perspective is so unsettling - is it really faith?

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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on Relationships and Religion

Growing up, I was exposed to two very extreme ends of the faith spectrum - my grandparents, with whom I'd spend a month each summer, aggressively indoctrinated and criticized me in an attempt to mold me into a perfect fundamentalist Christian with a Southern Baptist flair and my dad who bitterly denounced all Christianity and told me one day he loved me because he didn't think I'd ever believe that "mumbo jumbo." It was his comment that revealed how conditional his love was and revealed my deep desire for a relationship with God. My faith took on it's own shape, totally different from the narrow view of my grandparents and other "church folk." It was shaped more by God himself than the beliefs of others.

The man I married sees the modern church in much the same way as me and it was his connection to God independent of membership, perfect doctrine, or pretense that drew me to him so strongly. Recently, a fellow Christian gave us a book of apologetics - that's the discipline that seeks to explain away every question about scripture and faith, boiling down these questions that are so worth asking into a simple retort with "infallible" logic. God isn't about perfect, inarguable logic! I'm excited to hear about this book andhave temporarily dropped my morning work to look into it. Perhaps the emergent church is where Christians like us are gathering, thank goodness we're not alone!

And to the gal from Beaverton who posted below, maybe we can have you over for dinner sometime, we might be neighbors:)

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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