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Originally Posted by planets
Of course then there would be many things to question. How does a person who was not borne into a religious family seek to 'find' his faith? Do we develop faith out of nothing? Is our capacity for faith inherent in us?
One big subset of which deals with these issues asks whether we are born with our minds a 'tabula rasa', a blank slate. Which brings me to the baptism issue. It is heartening that there is at least someone who believes that baptism is not a necessary rite for catholics. I would go so far as to claim that in fact, no rite is necessary for any religion.
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Think back when we were cave-dwellers. Well, imagine back. You didn't know anything about how the world worked, so whatever strange event wasn't tangibly explainable was attributed to a powerful being. Lightning storms, floods, earthquakes, rainbows, etc. Has to be a powerful creature capable of such things, and yet I never see him. He must live in the sky.
Humans are curious and imaginative creatures. And who wouldn't want an all-powerful being looking after them? Making sure that life has a plan, that things happen for a reason, that evil is punished and good rewarded, if not now, then in the afterlife. Very seductive, and compelling against the sometimes painful churn of life.
But eventually, religion is politicized and bloody, which makes it difficult to accept the message when the messenger is the erring human. The wars declared in name of God end up costing both sides dearly in the eyes of history, but they continue because you can get so many people under your banner so quickly. This is what propels the extremist Muslim terrorists--why fight for something as temporary as nation, when you can send the enemy to Hell with God's wind at your back? That never gets old.
Anyways. It is my personal belief therefrom that organized religion is a symptom of Man's flaw, while faith is a symptom of his hoping spirit. But over the stretch of history, it becomes difficult if not impossible to separate the institution from the imaginative spirit that created it. It becomes easy to doubt the messenger, especially as science marches into the fringes of reality without bumping into divinity.
I also believe doubt is healthy. To question means to be aware of a potential problem. To be aware that a problem could even exist. I doubt too much to give myself over to a being I am not aware of having ever experienced. I don't sense the presence of the closet behind me, but I know it was there because I saw it earlier. I am open-minded, but skeptical in the face of having no evidence. And I think that's healthy.