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As a passionate atheist, it was quite interesting to listen to the "no dumb question" podcast - a pretty down to earth priest (Matt Whitman) just chatting casua
by seer 4y ago
As a passionate atheist, it was quite interesting to listen to the "no dumb question" podcast - a pretty down to earth priest (Matt Whitman) just chatting casually with a renowned engineer (Destin from "smarter every day").
The questions of faith and christianity often come up, but the most interesting episode for me was the one when Matt was telling about his travels to Jerusalem and how different the American version of christianity felt compared to the one practiced in the holly lands.
It's better to listen to it yourself of course but in brief his idea was that the closer you are to the "source" of christianity the more its old school, filled with pegan beliefs and the need for divine objects, miracles etc - concrete manifestations of the religion itself. And further out its more abstract - like your personal belief and values that don't depend on anything specific.
It was fascinating to me to discover how different and "realistic" christian faith in US can be, as it seems it has distilled the essence of the value system itself, shedding away the pageantry and mysticism and other unnecessary trappings, making it a lot stronger to my mind in the process. By this point I could easily see myself following the commandments and values, while not having a shred of faith in the religion itself, since they are quite nice and consistent system.
It's just a model to interpret and react to the world around us, and as the saying goes - all models are flawed and imprecise, some models are useful.
- physicles 4y agoThanks, that sounds like an interesting conversation and I'll check it out. Btw, not sure if you were aware but Destin is a Christian. He's a great guy who does cool stuff. > By this point I could easily see myself following the commandments and values, while not having a shred of faith in the religion itself, since they are quite nice and consistent system. If you're looking for a turnkey solution for a community of good people with good values, you could do a lot worse than certain kinds of Christianity. It's definitely been a struggle for me to find a similar community that isn't built around faith, but that's important for me because of my own journey.
- seer 4y agoIts more about shared passion than shared values, but Social latin dances (salsa/bachata/kizomba) has allowed me to easily connect with so many people in the far corners of the earth. Since all of you have soo much invested in training for the dance people usually have a lot of respect with one another, and people also come from so many diverse backgrounds its quite interesting to listen to everyone’s stories. You could end up with carpenters, government security experts, philosophy professors, yoga instructors and regular ol IT guys like me all hanging around at a single table, everyone sharing their opinions in a non judgmental way, quite magical I must admit.