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I can't help but notice how believers use their faith as a security blanket of sorts. It's almost as if they can't function without their faith. It's kind of sad really. They can't meet life on it's own terms, which is actually a sign of maturity and courage. Then when their security blanket is questioned or challenged, it's like a child throwing a temper tantrum. Thoughts anyone???
I can't help but notice how believers use their faith as a security blanket of sorts. It's almost as if they can't function without their faith. It's kind of sad really. They can't meet life on it's own terms, which is actually a sign of maturity and courage. Then when their security blanket is questioned or challenged, it's like a child throwing a temper tantrum. Thoughts anyone???
I'm thoroughly baffled by faith.
It is a heavily armored, and powerful enemy, and it's weaknesses are well hidden.
I'm referring to Mark Twain's version of faith:
"Faith is believing something you know ain't so."
Except people don't seem to know it ain't so, but they have no reason to believe otherwise that seems evident, so it's a very confusing mental state.
I've gotten to the point where I don't concern myself with other people's security blankets as long as they aren't pushing it on me. A lot of people have something for security. For some it's religion; for others it's their spouse/significant other, their kids, material possessions/social status, career, or whatever.
Personally, for real security I prefer a good hi-cap magazine [19+1!] Springfield Armory XD(M) 9mm with a red laser on board!
This removes the necessity for dependence on some faith-based and invented God! After all, He has a TERRIBLE track record of saving... well... anyone, anywhere.
I can't help but notice how believers use their faith as a security blanket of sorts. It's almost as if they can't function without their faith. It's kind of sad really. They can't meet life on it's own terms, which is actually a sign of maturity and courage. Then when their security blanket is questioned or challenged, it's like a child throwing a temper tantrum. Thoughts anyone???
M. Scott Peck and others have posited "stages of spiritual maturity". Peck's system began, IIRC, with a stage he called "chaotic" where a person is functioning at the behest of their base desires, then moves to "magical thinking" which was roughly his idea of fundamentalism or what you're referring to as a "security blanket", then to a sort or reactionary hyper-rational / skeptic stance, and then ultimately settling into what he sees as a more balanced state of allowing for some subjective beliefs, as in liberal religion. He opined that some people pass through these stages rather quickly and others get "stuck".
I think Ken Wilbur has similar ideas to Peck, culminating in his conception of advanced religious thinking which is more Buddhist / eastern mysticism than the liberal Christianity of Peck. There are probably other examples. I suppose you could say that individuals and societies recapitulate these stages, and that humanity in general is passing through them. Personally, I think these schemes should not be taken too seriously, nor over-thought ... I am particularly uncomfortable with Peck's first and last stages, for example. I think it's perhaps better to just say that as self-aware entities we all have a tendency to have angst about understanding the "whys" of existence; we perceive there must be reasons and purposes and so we either avoid the issue and live way below our potential, or we invent gods to fill what we consider intolerable gaps in our knowledge, or we just get over ourselves and quit inventing inflated narratives that put us center stage in some cosmic drama and just live our lives within our true scope.
To the point of your original question, I think some people will continue to avoid self-awareness, personal responsibility, and direct experience of life-as-it-is. Religion has long been a favored mechanism for such avoidance and will continue to be so for a long time to come -- though I believe it inherently must gradually fade from its current prominence.
I can't help but notice how believers use their faith as a security blanket of sorts. It's almost as if they can't function without their faith. It's kind of sad really. They can't meet life on it's own terms, which is actually a sign of maturity and courage. Then when their security blanket is questioned or challenged, it's like a child throwing a temper tantrum. Thoughts anyone???
But as one continues to grow in faith, the security blanket becomes less reliable. Faith in a cocoon cannot last. The world is ugly and Christianity is not meant to isolate one from the ugliness, but rather how to face it.
The resistance to the dissipation of the security blanket is understandable. If you were hoping for freedom from anxiety and reality, it's painful to accept that the ugliness still exists despite faith and hope and grace.
I can't help but notice how believers use their faith as a security blanket of sorts. It's almost as if they can't function without their faith. It's kind of sad really. They can't meet life on it's own terms, which is actually a sign of maturity and courage. Then when their security blanket is questioned or challenged, it's like a child throwing a temper tantrum. Thoughts anyone???
Its entirely possible to know that something must be true yet still lack faith in it. Therefore in such a case having faith is a perfectly rational thing to do.
I've gotten to the point where I don't concern myself with other people's security blankets as long as they aren't pushing it on me. A lot of people have something for security. For some it's religion; for others it's their spouse/significant other, their kids, material possessions/social status, career, or whatever.
I can't help but notice how believers use their faith as a security blanket of sorts. It's almost as if they can't function without their faith. It's kind of sad really.
Why is it sad? It seems to me that religion helps a lot of people and I think that is a good thing.
When my wife was pregnant with our first child, she said she prayed to the Virgin Mary. I don't know what she asked her for, but if it halped my wife to feel better, that was good.
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