I have to admit, once in awhile I read Cary Tennis's column at salon.com. Usually it's mild, mostly reasonable, non-provocative, slightly sappy advice, so when I read this I was rather surprised at being overwhelmed. I guess it's all still a little raw, even though I can date my own deconversion to a day in spring more than three years ago. Anyway. I meant to blog about this then, but I never really knew what I wanted to say. In truth, I could go on for hours, but then again I don't know many who really give a fuck about this sort of thing, and the few that do have really probably heard more than their share on the topic from me, so I'll spare everyone the mushy stuff :P
There was one part of Tennis's reply that struck me though, and that i think bears reproducing here:
Note the circular reasoning of one of Buckner's relatives, i.e., "If you accept and practice Christianity and it is false you have essentially lost nothing. If you reject Christianity and it is true, then you have lost everything." This is astounding, is it not? It suggests that our nature is not to love truth and seek it, but to love comfort and to play the odds. Such a utilitarian view strikes at the heart of faith itself, which is powerful because it is real, not because it is utilitarian.
Perhaps I should not make too much of that. But the narrow common ground we secularists have with Christians is in part the assumption that they have found religion in seeking the truth. If they have found religion simply in seeking the best deal, that's a different story — it tends to make one less sanguine about the sanctity and power of that belief.
At any rate, if you discover the truth and it makes you uncomfortable, what are you to do? Ignore the truth in order to stick with what makes you comfortable? No, I do not think that is the admirable choice. I think the admirable choice is to face what makes you uncomfortable.
The unfortunate thing is that the 'Christian' argument cited there is all too commonly used. I've ranted about similar things in days of yore (from an eastern shore –well that's the closest one at least– but oh well, and if you don't get the reference well you clearly picked the wrong school to attend :P) so I won't do it again, except to say that I like Tennis's articulation of what I think is unfortunately a big part of the rot and decay in modern Christianity.
esa lengua celestial 