Virgil’s Apology

The last part of this post was done last week, but I’ve reposted it with this explanation. It seems that even Virgil can be a bit hypocritical. I went to a Buddhist gathering over the weekend and mouthed things that I do not believe to be literally, factually true, and it didn’t bother me a bit. It was ok for me to say them, because they helped me focus and they have been said by others for centuries. I tend to be harder on Christians, Muslims, and, sometimes, Jews than other religions, probably because of smoldering anger from the crap I was taught as a child.

At the Buddhist gathering, I met Christian Buddhists, some Protestant, some Catholic. I met a lesbian Catholic and a gay Free Will Baptist, who take parts of their own religions with huge grains of salt, but still draw comfort from their faith. My friend, Peter, (Yes, he is a Big Fisherman) differentiates between belief and faith and has no trouble mouthing the mantras.

I had forgotten the Bokononist precept that all religions are based on foma, but that doesn’t mean that they are not worthwhile. I apologize to those religions of The Book and to some extent myself since I’m a Buddhist, Bokononist, Christian. It’s ok to mouth stuff that you don’t believe as part of a religious ceremony. (This apology does not apply and the original post still applies to those who believe that their path is the only one. ) I still highly recommend The End of Faith, though I believe that The Big Fisherman is correct when he says Harris confuses belief with faith.

The Apostle's Creed

For Virgil, going to Church and mouthing mantras such as the Apostle's Creed is soul killing dishonesty. He doesn't believe that:
Jesus Christ, is God's only son, that he was born of a Virgin, descended into hell, arose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of God, that he shall come to judge the living and the dead, or the resurrection of the body. To say that he does would be to condone and to help perpetuate the potentially deadly exclusivity that Sam Harris discusses in The End of Faith. Why are we so afraid to tell the truth? Why prop up an orthodoxy that suppresses the truth that will make us free? John 8:32. Why do we go through contortions to make our beliefs fit what someone believed a thousand or more years ago? Jesus had the courage to go to the cross for what he believed. Don't we deny him by cravenly telling the ignorant that they are correct because it is easy, safe, and doesn't make waves?