comments

1. Deron Bauman on February 15th, 2010 at 9:49 am

   the lord is risen indeed.

2. Daryl Scroggins on February 15th, 2010 at 10:17 am

   “Hello! I’m John Frum. My aircraft carriers and cargo ships are anchored out there just over the horizon. After we have had a thirty-day feast I’ll go out there and call them in….”

3. Deron Bauman on February 15th, 2010 at 10:22 am

   Andrew, do stories like this have any impact on your perception of the Christian artifacts?

4. Andrew Simone on February 15th, 2010 at 10:30 am

   That’s a big question. Short answer is “of course,” but that doesn’t mean I draw the immediate parallel that Daryl does (funny as it is). For one, I think stuff like this suggests that all cultures are deeply religious and wish for some sort of savior. One could, depending on how it is spun, make a case for or against religion as a consequence. The particularity of one religion over another. Well, like I said, that’s a big question.

5. Andrew Simone on February 15th, 2010 at 10:30 am

   If I am really honest, it takes a lot less than this to doubt my faith.

6. Deron Bauman on February 15th, 2010 at 10:51 am

   Yep, I was going to make a similar observation — that stories like this point out the strength of the human impulse for some sort of transcendent assumption but at the the same time, once enough of these examples are collected, negate any ability for faith in the particulars. Which leaves the whole thing . . . .

7. Daryl Scroggins on February 15th, 2010 at 1:19 pm

   I used to think the Christian habit of trying to dissuade people from studying “other” religions arose from a desire to head off a person’s being tempted to accept some other faith. But now I think a greater fear implicit in their thinking is that a view of how many ridiculous faiths there are and have been will cause the whole impulse to be questioned. I’m always amazed at how often in history humans have been led to say “yes but this is different; we got it right this time!” For all of our history humans have shown a concern for mysterious powers that may help or hurt one’s aims and hopes–but given that it’s an inclination so ubiquitous, how can it serve as a warrant for any specific faith? If belief in an imaginary friend is regarded as an inferior faith (when compared by some to Christianity or a Cargo Cult)–how does one assert this inferiority without positing a means of knowing this that supercedes the authority gained by saying we have always had this impulse? In my view the impulse is a basic artifact of consciousness: to be conscious is to live in two (or more) worlds simultaneously, and the persistence of a need to escape has always led us to call out across boundaries. On the battlefield, we call out to loved ones who are far away.

8. from the comments : clusterflock on February 15th, 2010 at 4:07 pm

   [...] Daryl Scroggins: On the battlefield, we call out to loved ones who are far away. [...]

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