From: Steve Peterson (speterson@fast.net)
Date: Wed Oct 02 2002 - 02:00:47 BST
> Well I can reason that all men have value but you are
> right that 'all men are equal' would have to be accepted
> on faith. But I don't accept it because I just argued that Bush has low
> intellectual value. But despite this type of value judgement I do accept that
> 'all men are equal' in the respects that I don't consider
> my or anybody elses value judgement to be considered a fact.
> Rather then saying I accept 'all men are equal' on faith I
> would say I find it useful.
Understand that I am distinguishing faith and factual belief. Faith
includes loyalty, trust, and belief, but the word "belief" has two uses.
One is to believe in a factual way, while the other is to have a conviction.
It is the conviction idea of belief that has to do with faith (or at least
this is how I see it as well as other progressive Christians.)
Faith in the religious sense works the same as faith in the secular "All men
are created equal" way. It is not about believing eight impossible things
before breakfast, but about thinking about what it means for example to hold
that Jesus is "the Truth, the Light, and the Way," and to discover what it
means to live as though such a statement were true. Once again, this claim
about Jesus has no more factual meaning than "all men are created equal," so
faith in such a conviction can have nothing to do with believing it
factually.
What I would really like to see is religion that focuses on its role as a
dynamic faith system rather than as a static belief system. On the end of
factual belief it is doomed to fail, but I think the role of religion in
helping people understand value in their lives can continue without dogma.
By the way, I noticed that Erin removed the "created" part of the quote. I
assume that this was done because it smacks of supernatural theism, but we
have to admit that this exact language has more significance in the daily
lives of Americans than the metaphysics of anything.
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