Is faith old-fashioned?
Well today's lecture in (Post) Modern Perspectives, really awed me. I have so many questions and thoughts that I don't know where to start! I thought I should separate them into a few separate posts.
The first point that really struck home was the "collapse of meta- narratives" and "cultural fragmentation." In today's culture knowledge and 'truth' need authenticated, need to be proved to the masses before people will believe it. What has happened to our ability to believe in the unbelievable? To have faith without needing proof? I guess I am slightly biased on this topic. I am a Christian and so I have faith even though people try to prove it wrong. With so many theories which try to disprove a greater being, with religion falling to the wayside in way of a new culture, has faith become part of our history? A fashion of the past now laughed upon by the majority of people? We live in a consumer culture, a 'selfish' culture. Our morals have been twisted and altered, what is acceptable today would not have been so twenty years ago. Why is this? Why are we so skeptical about everything? What has happened to trusting our feelings?
I was recently watching a popular television show, 'Sex and The City', and one of the characters, non-religious, was baptizing her child. She goes to a Catholic church and gives the priest a lot of conditions e.g. no mention of the devil. The voice over tells us that the church is just glad for the 'business' with so many people turning from religion. IS it so desperate that people can dictate which parts the y want to believe and which they don't?
In today's society it is so easy to forget about religion, the churches you see dotted about the place just meld into the surroundings. The Overgate shopping center here in Dundee is built around not one but two churches. Yet it took someone to point them out to me for me to actually stop and notice them. Is it the same with religion? Instead of it being taught from birth as it used to be, it takes people to point it out to us?
Again I come to the question why? It must be, I believe, to do with our cultural norms and society. What we are subjected to. Media is such a great influence on today's world. The lecture said "We are so surrounded by the media that the narratives they project are the ones we absorb and live by." In saying that very few television shows project a good opinion of the Church and Religion and belief. If you look at the 'Simpsons' quite a few episodes are based around religion, you have episodes were Homer speaks to God, episodes were Homer doesn't want to go to church, and you have the character of Ned as the typical Christian. Homer not going to church, God being vengeful, Ned projected as an annoying character? Is this what children are listening to? Again this is only one example of what is projected in today's society, there are shows which show good views of the Church, '7th Heaven' being one of them.
I have gone off topic slightly I realize so I will back track on myself and go back to my main question. Why do we need proof to have faith? Is it to do with what the media projects as normality and society? Is it just the natural progression of a society? That we have moved beyond the need to fill in gaps of knowledge with faith in a greater being. Are all those gaps now filled by science and so called 'proved' facts? Darwinism eradicated the need to believe in divine creation, it gave people an 'out'. Is media now doing the same? By showing people how we can live without faith are we giving society an 'out' to having that faith in our lives? Is believing without proof so hard today because knowledge and information is so available? Are we overloaded with so much information that we have no questions we can't answer? Why believe in a greater being when we know everything?
To end on a point from the lecture. "Information which can't be projected by digital media will be lost in the future."
Is faith then a lost cause?
posted by Ceara Nissa @ 11:57 am
7 Comments:
I recommend reading The Gospel According to the Simpsons" which analyses the religious themes in the series and finds positive things about them. Might change your views!
Hi I am trying to put together a blogger teleconference with Beverly Mitchell for the CW in support of 7th Heaven. Would you be interested in participating? Please email me at gedwards@mprm.com
Am currently waiting on the book advised (see above) so I shall see if that changes my thoughts. Been listening to music recently some lyrics seemed right to point:
"It's hard to have faith when faith is a crime" - Nerina Pallot
There does seem to be so much in our culture telling us it's "different" to have faith. Seeing as it seems our inner self does everything it can to fit in to the crowd then we don't want to be different so we?
Then again if you look at lyrics from other artists...
"I see every blessing so clearly
And I thank God for what I got from above" - Christina Aguilira
"Well that was God tellin' me, Everything's gonna be alright" - Jack Johnson
So maybe if you look hard enough in todays culture religion is trying to prevail! Although in some cases I do wonder if it's just for an image. For a person to promote themselves as "good"...if that makes sense.
Just another thought...
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No that isnt quite my opinion, I think you've picked it up wrong. Hinduism, Judaism thats all based on believing without proof. I wasn't trying to say that the only way is Christian if that's what you've picked up. My point is about faith! Whether you believe in Jesus, God, Buddah or Extra Terrestrials, it's about believing without somebody handing you a load of facts saying this is scientific fact. I'm very sorry that you think my post was narrow minded saying that I don't believe in other religions, that was not my intention at all. All I'm trying to ask is are we in a society where we need proof to believe in something? You can't prove religion but you can try to prove scientific theories.
I myself do believe in a lot of Darwins theories but along with religion not seperate from it. I was just trying to make the point that when Darwinism did begin a lot of people did use it as an out for not having to have faith. As in they had alterior motives for believing it
The irony being, of course, that Darwinism is as much a faith as any religion in that it hasn't been proven, only 'observed'.
You might also be interested in 'The Selfish Gene' by Richard Dawkins, a chap I used to respect but who seems to be a bit of a religion-basher now to the extent that he is quasi-religious himself!
But the chapter on 'memes' might (might) interest you as it led to the development of meme theory which often uses religion as an example. So worth a borrow from the library if only for that one chapter.
Dawkins's most recent book is a bash at creationism, I think.
True about Darwinism, my friend gave me a well interesting book with the view point that Darwins theory are completely wrong. I don't agree with it but I do find it interesting, to see how 'evidence' can be used to prove he is wrong in some books, and the same data used to prove he is right in others.
I've a feeling the memes thing you are talking about is something I discussed with my dad. Is it the fact that a certain element, without which life couldn't exist, is so unlikely to happen by chance that it is impossible. Therefore 'proving' that life isn't by chance. It depends what way you want to use the data of course, whatever your point of view I'm sure it can be manipulated as almost everything can. I might be completley on the wrong track with that one so will check it out.
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