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From: kovsky@netcom.com (Bob Kovsky)
Subject: Re: Question
Message-ID: <kovskyCyC970.M7M@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
References: <28c.137.1046.0N15DBB2@htp.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 15:47:23 GMT
Lines: 44

In article <28c.137.1046.0N15DBB2@htp.com>,
John Monaco <john_monaco@htp.com> wrote:
>
>
>         I have a few questions.  I hope you can help.  Can people who
>claim faith in God be considered irrational people?  Is the belief in
>God a psychological disorder?  What is Faith?  How can the word faith
>rationalize the belief in something incomprehensible (God).  I just
>don't understand the whole religion thing.  I try...but it all seems so
>very childish to me.  

	Consider the hypothesis that the processes that generate 
experience are limited and infected with systematic error.  There are 
good arguments to support this hypothesis.  Indeed, this hypothesis is 
useful in accounting for much of the phenomena of the real world.

	Despite our limitations and errors, we can nonetheless conclude 
that reality makes sense.  We can figure out some of it, but not all.

	Consider also the hypothesis that we have different kinds of 
experience, and that the limitations and errors of the different kinds 
are also different.  There are good arguments to support this hypothesis 
also.

	One form of experience is to quiet the mind in prayer and 
meditation.  Some of us practice this form of experience and develop 
skill in it.  After practice, it is our experience that we find in these 
activities a source of strength and freedom.

	As a consequence of these thoughts and experiences, there is a
rational basis in the notion that there is an extra-human force that
unifies reality and that is a source of strength and freedom, i.e. faith
in god. 

	Many persons of refined intelligence and balanced character have 
pursued these questions and developed faith in god.  The caricatures of 
faith commonly presented in the media bear as little resemblance to them 
as Dr. Frankenstein bears to a real medical researcher or as the "nerds" 
bear to real computer scientists.
-- 

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    Bob Kovsky          |  A Natural Science of Freedom 
    kovsky@netcom.com   |  Materials available by anonymous ftp
                        |  At ftp.netcom.com/pub/freeedom
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