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Reach for the Star and you might just reach the Moon
This is a comment I made on the Spyglass, in response to a post about witnessing to and proselytizing to Muslims that focused on Father Zakaria Botros and Pope Benedict XVI.
As Skarbutts points out in Faith Against Faith, there is no belief system that lacks faith.
A belief system based solely upon the science of reason is more limited than a system based upon faith in a Creator, in that, man as the exclusive source of knowledge is limited. Since a materialistic system of thought seeks to exclude things that cannot be verified, gaps in knowledge are created which must be bridged in order to be logical. This creates a paradox, for to fill these gaps in knowledge, the materialist must resort to faith. The faith of the materialist, however, is an antifaith. His thought process is not in the spiritual but the in the physical. He is, therefore, forced to manufacture knowledge based on circumstantial evidence, or create and rely upon theories and assumptions in order to connect pieces of knowledge and arrive at any explanations. These explanations often tend to create even more questions which in turn demand an even greater faith from the materialist. Thus, in many cases, the materialist is no less believing, no less devoted, no less fanatical, nor any less evangelical than his religious counterpart. When an idea gains enough traction in intellectual circles it becomes widely accepted as a reality; therefore, many things that are treated as fact are unknown to man.
In other words, there is no practical reason to choose the secular outreach over the religious one. A religious belief system is complete where a secular one is not (as Skarbutts proves), and the fundamentalist Islamic belief system is nothing if not complete. You cannot replace a complete belief system with an incomplete one. The incomplete belief system will not hold if challenged.
To add to the previous paragraph, a secular belief system ends up being as complete as a religious one because faith becomes incorporated in it. However, the nature of that faith can change based on circumstance. So the real danger of a secular belief system is that it is unstable, and therefore it might not last. The faith basis of a religious belief system comes from the core beliefs and moral structure of religion and is not susceptible to casual changes. Therefore it is stable. Stability increases happiness and satisfaction. Instability leads to flailing for answers and to a change in beliefs.
If we make our strategy one of conversion or moral neutralization, and our target either all Muslims or only the Idolaters of Jihad, there is no good reason to choose either the lesser target or strategy. Failed neutralization does not reduce the number of Jihad-worshippers in the world. But a failed conversion might still neutralize. Likewise, reaching out to all Muslims will necessarily include Jihad-worshippers as well as those who do not idolize Jihad, and will reduce the human ocean in which the Jihad terrorists travel.
Imagine the winking five-pointed star perched above the crescent moon. Reach for the star and even if you fail you might reach the moon.
Technorati Tags: Christianity, Islam, Counterjihad
As Skarbutts points out in Faith Against Faith, there is no belief system that lacks faith.
A belief system based solely upon the science of reason is more limited than a system based upon faith in a Creator, in that, man as the exclusive source of knowledge is limited. Since a materialistic system of thought seeks to exclude things that cannot be verified, gaps in knowledge are created which must be bridged in order to be logical. This creates a paradox, for to fill these gaps in knowledge, the materialist must resort to faith. The faith of the materialist, however, is an antifaith. His thought process is not in the spiritual but the in the physical. He is, therefore, forced to manufacture knowledge based on circumstantial evidence, or create and rely upon theories and assumptions in order to connect pieces of knowledge and arrive at any explanations. These explanations often tend to create even more questions which in turn demand an even greater faith from the materialist. Thus, in many cases, the materialist is no less believing, no less devoted, no less fanatical, nor any less evangelical than his religious counterpart. When an idea gains enough traction in intellectual circles it becomes widely accepted as a reality; therefore, many things that are treated as fact are unknown to man.
In other words, there is no practical reason to choose the secular outreach over the religious one. A religious belief system is complete where a secular one is not (as Skarbutts proves), and the fundamentalist Islamic belief system is nothing if not complete. You cannot replace a complete belief system with an incomplete one. The incomplete belief system will not hold if challenged.
To add to the previous paragraph, a secular belief system ends up being as complete as a religious one because faith becomes incorporated in it. However, the nature of that faith can change based on circumstance. So the real danger of a secular belief system is that it is unstable, and therefore it might not last. The faith basis of a religious belief system comes from the core beliefs and moral structure of religion and is not susceptible to casual changes. Therefore it is stable. Stability increases happiness and satisfaction. Instability leads to flailing for answers and to a change in beliefs.
If we make our strategy one of conversion or moral neutralization, and our target either all Muslims or only the Idolaters of Jihad, there is no good reason to choose either the lesser target or strategy. Failed neutralization does not reduce the number of Jihad-worshippers in the world. But a failed conversion might still neutralize. Likewise, reaching out to all Muslims will necessarily include Jihad-worshippers as well as those who do not idolize Jihad, and will reduce the human ocean in which the Jihad terrorists travel.
Imagine the winking five-pointed star perched above the crescent moon. Reach for the star and even if you fail you might reach the moon.
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Technorati Tags: Christianity, Islam, Counterjihad
posted by Pangloss | 5/01/2008 11:47:00 PM
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