While I know that for many people, their religion has been a source of great comfort for them during the last couple of weeks, I’m suspect that for others it has been a time of great doubt.
I don’t want this to become a debate about whether there exists an ultimate being or not, I’m just curious about the impact September had on people’s existing ideas and beliefs.
I personally didn’t believe in a God - as defined by any of the world’s major religions - or creator or supreme entity before 11 September. There have been times over the past couple of weeks when I’ve almost wished I could talk myself into believing in such an entity, because doing so would allow to to believe there was some kind of higher purpose purpose behind what happened.
The only belief I find has been re-affirmed by the events of the last couple of weeks is my belief in the very worst and the best of humanity. YMMV
I guess I’m more like you, reprise, in that I don’t belong to “organized religion.” For a fleeting moment I thought about popping into a church, but the urge was not strong enough. Had I been in Europe I would have only because I love those old cathedrals and the atmosphere therein. My faith has been mostly in believing in myself and my personal values regarding my own character and integrity. I was shocked by the murderous events and I was deeply moved by the worldwide outpouring of empathy & support.
I respect those who have chosen religions.
But to answer your question, there has been no change in my existing beliefs and ideas with respect to religion.
This is an exceedingly difficult question for me to answer. Has it made me more faithful to the organized religion that I’ve sorta been following? Well, not really.
Has it caused me to be more introspective, to wonder more about faith in general, to want to embrace more tenets of the world’s faiths that emphasize kindness and goodness and peace and justice (over, say, piety to a god or gods)? Definitely.
Maybe it makes the most sense to say it has made me more *spiritual. *
What it has done is make me more determined to not see this same kind of fundamentalism take over our nation and to fight it however we can. Having come from a fundamentalist Christian background, it now scares the bejesus out of me. I am still a Christian, but one with a much different view of what religion’s place in society is supposed to be.
I’m sure I’m neither a better nor a worse Christian than I was three weeks ago. And I doubt that my trust in God has either increased or decreased in the aftermath of September 11.
But it has heightened my awareness and my reflectiveness about my faith; I’m perhaps a little more engaged in my relationship with Christ as a result. That’s not a bad thing, and can over time lead to more tangible changes. But it’s too early to say whether that will happen.
It helps, of course, that my faith doesn’t rest on a personal and loving Power that looks out for everyone. To avoid debate, I’m pretty much just in line with the great Dan Savage (the only advice columnist worth reading that I’ve found–you can find him in The Onion’s AV Club section among other places)–if your faith does rest on that, you’ve got problems when faced with such things as a young child wailing over the casket of his dead and single mother.
Not insurmountable problems, but problems nonetheless. I’d be worried if you didn’t.
If you’re talking about problems with one’s own faith as a result of that, I can’t see why that must be so.
In the course of thirty years as both a Christian and a fairly reflective person, the question of why the world is the way it is, and whether God couldn’t have designed it somewhat better, hasn’t escaped me.
And while I don’t expect to convince the nonbeliever, I’m satisfied, for my own purposes, that if God brought humanity into existence because he wanted to talk with someone genuinely other than him - not automatons, not sycophants - then the way this universe works is about as good as it could be.
(I’m not going to debate it here; I started a GD thread once about this, which quickly degenerated into comedy, but that’s neither here nor there. I just want to make the point that the problem of genuine, bona fide wrong in the world is something that any believer must face up to and handle in some manner - and many of us have done so.)
If you’re talking about having problems with what to say to the child, I don’t think that either the believer or the nonbeliever has any advantage. There are no good answers either way.
Mental contortions and gymnastics to face up to such things while holding to the faith resting on the narratives it rests on, are things I consider problems. That consideration is in…well, see, the forum involved.
Just so. We disagree, and the existence of the disagreement is entered into the poll.
It hasn’t changed my faith at all. Existing means grappling with these kinds of questions from the get-go, and this event is hardly the first of its kind. I relfected on free will and forgiveness, but my faith wasn’t changed.
Then the burden is on you to provide evidence that those contortions exist. Though this is not the place:
Actually, no. To quote the OP:
That is exactly where you have taken it; your ‘disagreement’ with me is centered around your finding a belief in a loving God to involve, by definition, the contortions of which you speak. I declined to debate the issue because the OP requested that we not do so.
neither. 11 sept was not an “act of god.” it was an act of men using their god given right of free will.
perhaps the acts of god on that day were: sending an old friend across your path so you didn’t reach your office on time. or touching your heart so you helped someone and were out of the way of falling debris. or that you chose to stay by the side of a friend and were with him until death claimed both of you. or helping you trust in strangers to stop the act of a man, giving your live for others.
there is a big difference between being touched by the divine and being touched by the devious.
My faith in God remains just as strong as ever. My faith in people has gone way up. I stand in awe of the way people came together and finally showed that they really can join together for a common cause, no matter how much they fight in everyday life.
The 9/11 event increased my belief that the more faithful an individual is, the more irrational they are.
I am bothered by some people’s belief that a survivor’s fate, or a victim’s fate was an act of God. Attributing a particular result to the action or non-action of a supernatural entity is the same kind of irrational thought that caused the terrorists to think that they were carrying out the plans of their God.
Well, actually, yeah. To quote the Straight Dope Forum Homepage:
What I wrote is my frank view on why my faith is as it is, and a frank expression of the kind of reflection that I personally feel has much to do with why mine wasn’t shaken. Now, I’m not at all surprised there exist many people who take exception to that personal feeling, finding it simplistic (quite probably), insulting (not my intention), or whatnot–that’s their right. There’s no more burden of proof on that than there is a burden on proof on you for feeling otherwise.
I’m not angry about it, but you’re welcome to be if it helps. GD’s on one fork, the Pit’s on the other, if you feel strongly that either are necessary. Sorry your dander’s up.
It hasn’t changed my personal faith (or lack thereof) at all. It has made me fear the heavily religious and especially the fundamentally religious much, much more, and decreased my respect for such folks a lot. I’m not necessarily proud of it - especially that last bit - and I can’t help it. I’m hoping things will go back to normal (for me) soon.
Not religious before, not after. I’ve always believed that most people are good, and the worst brings out the best in them. I’ve never respected, liked or appreciated religious fanaticism, which can bring out the absolute worst in people.