On the sins of Christians and Atheists:



For Private Use Only: With literal interpretations of Christianity, we are not supposed to be human, making it a sin to fail in the attempt at impossible goals and yet at the same time a sin to recognize the gathering evidence of such failures … a sin to settle with the probable. Stepping back for a larger perspective, Christian literality clamps us into a mental framework from which any discovery of our actual behavior is a refutation … of our worthiness. It is an inverted morality.  Sin is our institutional failure while on the verge of cognitive success. With Christian literalism, “light” is a word for darkness. 

If we want light, we need to open our eyes to who we really are. It is only fearless honesty with our own reality that can redeem us from such “sin.” Even figurative aspects of the Christian narrative can aid our adjustments here! To reject the use of a figurative expression, just because its origins lie in our Christian heritage, is institutional atheism.  An institutionally imposed concept-structure now whips conscience in the name of “being rational.” Ironically, pure rationality is closer to the species of impossible literalism than to the subjective struggle toward scientific achievement, an achievement which necessarily requires a narrative.  Knowing that any figurative can be dispensed with does not mean that we understand our predicament as humans if we then insist that certain metaphors must be exterminated.  We have not freed ourselves of the problem, we have only made it so subtle that we no longer recognize it. This is only an Atheist’s sin by a different name … and the same old inability to view the figurative in our Christian heritage. 

If there were such a thing as a “scientific mind,” then we would have no need for scientific procedure and effort.  Getting to science requires a subjective struggle with our human machinery. This subjective struggle is not worthless without declaring ourselves worthless. Again, it is only fearless honesty with our own reality that can redeem us from such sins.
 

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