Thursday, September 10, 2009

Faith and hope

Frankie beat me to the punch on today's post. He pretty much said a lot of the same things that I intended to say about my least favorite Louisiana politician, David Vitter. I have this thing about hypocrisy being the one personal attribute that should immediately disqualify a person from public office. I think Frankie's observations were quite accurate and appropriate in regard to Mr. Vitter's so called Christian faith. He does not walk the walk.
While we're on the subject of faith, I thought I might clarify a few things in terms of our own beliefs. I'll let Frankie explain his in more detail for himself, but I would classify him as a born-again Catholic. I am an unabashed secularist who has studied quite a few religions in search of a workable world view. I lay claim to any idea that strikes me as worthy, incorporating it into my ever-evolving conception of the world. I will take ideas from anyone, anytime, anywhere. If it seems to contain truth, it works for me.
I am actually opposed to organized religion, mainly because of my personal (albeit limited) understanding of the way the human brain works. I think it is impossible for any two people to have absolutely concurrent worldviews and religions have caused too much trouble throughout history for me to condone any of them. (more later- I have to cut the grass before it rains again)

4 comments:

  1. I take it as a primary task to convert my secularist friend.

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  2. He might want to scratch that off his to-do list. It's not gonna happen. My appreciation for mythology will preclude any type of conversion. He seems to have found some happiness in his recovered faith, so I'm happy for him. I'm also pretty happy on my own, with my faith that the practice and sharpening of our reasoning skills is the best hope for mankind.

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  3. Well, Sean Hannity's, Karl Rove's, Dick Cheney's, Sarah Palin's, reasoning skills certainly do not provide much hope. History teaches us that anything can be reasoned. Certainly the practice of law demonstrates that, as well.

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  4. Sincerity is one of the cardinal elements of good reasoning.

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