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A
"leap of faith" is a religious term and
means to believe something with no proof at
all. If you are talking about “God,”
that’s all there is. Take it or leave
it. There’s nothing else.
Why do we say that?
Because
the transcendent unknown that we refer to with words
such as "God" is the
ultimate and most profound mystery of life.°
It is simply impossible to know with provable
certainty anything at all about
"God."
Thus,
everything said about that transcendent unknown is
speculation, guess work, or pure
fantasy. With absolutely no facts to
go on, the only way to accept any religious
belief is by way of "A leap of faith."
Every
religion is based upon numerous leaps of
faith. Those who say they know
because their sacred text tells them it's so, have
simply moved their primary leap of faith onto a
book. With no proof at all, they
declare their book to be God's instruction manual for
all human beings. They also declare their
book to be the one and ONLY book God ever wrote or
inspired to be written.
How
do they determine which of the numerous sacred books
is the one and only sacred text. Most
people base their faith upon the sacred book their
parents believed in. And where did their
parents get the wisdom to know which book is "the
one and only sacred text?" From their
parents who go it form their parents who got it from
their parents, and in some cases, the chain goes all
the way back to those who believed the Earth was
flat. Mindless true believers don't seem
to question the logic of this determination process
nor do they question the antiquated belief system
that it produces.
And
the bottom line: They may be
right. But so may those who believe in the
tooth fairy and the Easter bunny. None of
us knows anything about God with provable
certainty.
Everything
religious is based upon one or more leaps of faith
-- upon numerous, un-provable assumptions --
upon stories handed down to us for generations -- upon
guesses, speculation, wishful thinking -- and
upon an inherent need for answers to unanswerable
questions.
Here
are just a few assumptions / leaps of faith:
Humans
are separate from God,
Man is made in the image of God,
(What
do you suppose that really means? Imagine
the
ultimate source of all that is stuck in an
insignificant puny,
physical body.)
Human beings are inherently evil,
My religion is the only true religion,
Our sacred text is the only sacred Text,
Our sacred text is the literal word God,
My religion has exclusive access to God,
If I die while murdering those who believe in a
different religion, I'll
have a special place in heaven,
God murdered his son to prove he loves me,
I'm acting on instructions form God, and so whatever I
do is OK,
Only Catholics go to heaven,
Our religious leader is infallible,
Heaven is a place above the clouds.
Here
are some more extensive discussions of Leaps of Faith:
God's
Conception-Magic Act°
Anti-abortionist's
Five, Core, Un-provable Assumptions°
Three
Religious Theories / Assumptions°
More
Cherished, Un-provable Assumptions°
Imagine
the God of Fundamental Christianity°
If
you pray, you might add this to your
prayers: "Dear God, protect us from
those who think they know the truth and are intending
to force their fantasies onto the rest of us."
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