Excerpt #29 from my book, Religion, An Obstacle to Human Progress
“In the unreal world of supernaturalism, myth is more productive than fact. Myth-conception is an endless function of faith. Who it hurts or how much it costs is incidental. As long as religious purposes are served, ethics, inquiry and reason are abandoned. Does anyone care about truth? Are we becoming a country of mindless followers, content to wallow in a world full of concocted hysteria and senseless sensationalism? Is it that easy to believe fantastic claims rather than it is searching for truth? “The truth is not always comfortable. Ascertaining truth takes work, lots of it. But let’s not waste what little precious time we have. Let’s not quibble over facts. Truth is anathema to religious exploitation and hysteria. And so is reason.” – Ronald J. Barrier
TRUTH CAN BE BRUTAL.
Traditional western religions are preoccupied with the personality of a savior, a believing church, redemption, salvation, and postearthly beatitude. If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions included in the Gospels, then Christianity is doomed. For that view of resurrection is not believable, and if that is all there is, then Christianity,
which depends upon the truth and authenticity of Jesus’ resurrection, also is not believable. – Bishop John Selby Spong, Resurrection: Myth or Reality
Believing is easier than thinking. Hence so many more believers than thinkers. – Bruce Calvert
CHECK YOUR PARACHUTE BEFORE TAKING LEAPS OF FAITH.
Americans are three times as likely to believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus (83 percent) as in evolution (28 percent). The Virgin Mary is an interesting prism through which to examine America’s emphasis on faith because most Biblical scholars regard the evidence for the Virgin Birth, and for Mary’s assumption into Heaven (which was proclaimed as Catholic dogma only in 1950), as so shaky that it hasto be a leap of faith. As the Catholic theologian Hans Küng puts it in On Being a Christian, the Virgin Birth is a “collection of largely uncertain, mutually contradictory, strongly legendary” narratives, an echo of virgin birth myths that were widespread in many parts of the ancient world. (Excerpted from a Nicholas Kristof column)