Maybe faith is more a relationship than an idea in our head? More a something, a someone we cannot let go of even as we ignore it, as we wish to let go of it, than a lesson we keep in our heads. It is quite possible to hate God and grieve because He is not good and continue to love the one who is good. And it's quite possible to grieve because He doesn't exist and to be angry at Him for that. But this is really more the kind of thing we do with our friends or with people we hoped would be our friends but who, for whatever reason, never did become friends, or more the kind of thing we do with our dead parents.
None of this of course is the indifference you are talking about, which is a very very different thing.
But maybe some part of it is how horrible it is to deal with ourselves. I know that for me, I like to ignore God and pretend He has nothing to do with anything because it's just so uncomfortable -- as soon as He's there, your own self is there too, and one's own self is such a thing to have to drag around. We cannot make it go away, we don't exactly want to make it go away, but it's such a dragon, we don't want to see it either, and it's way too much work to consent to have it be something other than a dragon. Cowardice begins to look like the coziest option. The problem with God is that He doesn't let you be cozy at home -- He doesn't let you veg. He wants to set you off on an adventure, and they really are tiresome things. But this is an ancient -- no doubt, a primordial -- problem and not a new one. But what do you bet it makes up some part of religion being irrelevant?
“Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? 8 If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children … Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of justice to those who have been trained by it…18 You have not come to something[f] that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest,” Hebrews 12:7-8, 11, 18.
Maybe faith is more a relationship than an idea in our head? More a something, a someone we cannot let go of even as we ignore it, as we wish to let go of it, than a lesson we keep in our heads. It is quite possible to hate God and grieve because He is not good and continue to love the one who is good. And it's quite possible to grieve because He doesn't exist and to be angry at Him for that. But this is really more the kind of thing we do with our friends or with people we hoped would be our friends but who, for whatever reason, never did become friends, or more the kind of thing we do with our dead parents.
None of this of course is the indifference you are talking about, which is a very very different thing.
But maybe some part of it is how horrible it is to deal with ourselves. I know that for me, I like to ignore God and pretend He has nothing to do with anything because it's just so uncomfortable -- as soon as He's there, your own self is there too, and one's own self is such a thing to have to drag around. We cannot make it go away, we don't exactly want to make it go away, but it's such a dragon, we don't want to see it either, and it's way too much work to consent to have it be something other than a dragon. Cowardice begins to look like the coziest option. The problem with God is that He doesn't let you be cozy at home -- He doesn't let you veg. He wants to set you off on an adventure, and they really are tiresome things. But this is an ancient -- no doubt, a primordial -- problem and not a new one. But what do you bet it makes up some part of religion being irrelevant?
Great comment—thank you, N.N! And thank you JDW!
“Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? 8 If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children … Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of justice to those who have been trained by it…18 You have not come to something[f] that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest,” Hebrews 12:7-8, 11, 18.
Is there a way to listen to your posts for those of us with visual challenges?
At the top of the post in the app at least, there is a "play" button which presumably plays the text in audio.
Thank you, Eirik! I’ll look into downloading the app.
My iPhone and mini-iPad are both IOS 15.8.3, and the app requires 16.0.
Oh well, that solution will need to wait for now. 🙃