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The mission of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science is to support scientific education, critical thinking and evidence-based understanding of the natural world in the quest to overcome religious fundamentalism, superstition, intolerance and suffering.
The Magic of Reality
for the iPad
Sean Faircloth:
Attack of the Theocrats!
I recently faced similar treatment as a Christian, by other Christians, for my views on evolution. You can read that story here.
First and foremost, you must realize that you represent a threat to her established way of living which does not include questioning oneself. As one person regretfully put it to me, she "doesn't care about your damn evidence." With such people, even if Christianity is true, such a person is likely not a Christian.
In Martin Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics, he characterizes such nominal "faith" as "not faith, but a convenience." It is "an agreement with oneself to adhere in the future to a doctrine as something that has somehow been handed down. This is neither having faith nor questioning, but indifference."
I wholly agree with his assessment. If you wish to bring your mother to a point where she can genuinely inquire of the truth, you will have to impress upon her the importance of genuine belief versus mere agreement with oneself to believe in a certain manner. One good way to do that might be to work within her framework, using scripture and so forth. Favorite passages of mine to this effect include Proverbs 1, especially verses 20-33, and Luke 8, namely with regard to Jesus' explanation of the parable of the sower. The latter of those is a good deal more complex, but if you are interested, I will explain it to you.
Permalink Tue, 13 Dec 2011 05:22:19 UTC | #898471