Than again, many of us who say that we have faith, have no faith whatsoever in authority. We don't see "authority" or "obedience" as aspects of faith at all.

It seems to me that there are two radically different types of religion. One claims to have possession of the Answers, or Truth; and also claims the authority to enforce that Truth, whatever it is. The other type of religion explores the Questions of this life, and sees Truth as something beyond us that is constantly sought and explored, but never completely found.

These two types of "religion" coexist (uneasily) within almost every religious denomination. I suppose you may wonder why denominations don't split, so there are separate churches for the "Seekers" and the "Authoritarians." Well, the Christian churches have split many times - and each new branch develops its own new Seeker and Authoritarian divisions. So, we seekers continue to hope that our Authoritarian counterparts will sometime see the light and come to understand our big Question Mark in the Sky. And the Authoritarians (Absolutists?) continue to hope that they will some day be able to bring us heretics into submission.

And the beat goes on.....


But despite the fact that I am embarrassed by the Authoritarians within my denomination, I find broad statements like "Religion makes me sick" to be profoundly offensive. I thought tolerance was supposed to be an important aspect of liberalism, but that doesn't seem to be the case here at Mudcat. Iran is a good example of religion gone haywire, but it is NOT an example of the essence of religious faith.

-Joe-