Bonsoir mon petit Honors chums and chumettes, we meet again:
Please, may I direct your attention to the following link for your listening and viewing pleasure? Merci beacoup.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g
i have decided to expand upon the one end of the extremes when it comes to faith and reason:
what happens when your faith is what drives your reason; meaning when religious teachings and thought processes get in the way of liberating your mind: hence the Monty Python link and my subject:
The Puritans: clearly not Enlightened thinkers I daresay. They were so consumed with their moral and rigid upbringing that it warped their minds and warped their usage of reason. Literally, they were brainwashed; much like Pangloss and even Candide. [until he saw the light at the end of the story]
The Puritans' faith caused them to have a skewed perception of reality; anyone who was different or perhaps didn't exactly follow the way of the commonwealth was immediately put under suspision and later, once the trials at Salem had commenced, many were executed.
Reason and faith really co-mingle with one another quite well if one uses them in a responsible way together. Had the Puritans really thought about it and used sound logic and reason, I'm almost positive that there would not have been as many accusations, deaths, even preventing this castasrophe from happening altogether. Instead, by allowing too much faith and not enough reason, reality became confused and splintered and the bond between faith and reason became broken.
So, the moral of the story? I wouldn't go out and find a witch and burn her just because she looked funny or turned me into a newt [but got better?] and I suggest that from reading Candide and thinking about the Salem Witch Trials that you all make sure that your reason drives your faith and your faith drives your reason with equal partnership and not one extreme or the other.
[commented on Amy's blog "The Optimist In Me"]
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Couldn't agree more. I've met too many people here in the 'Bible Belt' who allowed their faith -- blind faith in a topic they didn't even learn in detail about -- to control their words and actions. Probably the most notable atrocities in the mid-south region of Alabama is the 'elders' (basically anyone over 40 who has lived in this area their whole life) vs. the 'punks' (anyone of any age who has either lived a few memorable years outside of the area, or has had access to outside cultural influence). You wouldn't believe how many people I've actually seen and heard threatened with harm or even death just because they either wore clothes that were 'not appropriate' for their sex, who had piercings, or who just didn't believe in the Baptist system -- it's not even a matter of if you believed God or not, it's that you agree with everything they have to say altogether.
ReplyDeleteAnd almost all of the 'elders' faith originates from stories told from their parents and grandparents. Why use reason, why even think about it at all, when you have the "reliable and always-effective" words of the people who raised you?
So, again, I agree. Reason and faith have to work together, for I've already personally witnessed the damaging and discriminating effects of relying on just one of the extremes.