The Problem of Belief

Religious beliefs in themselves are not necessarily always problematic, but that the anti-rational nature of religious belief formation crushes free thinking and limits the creative capacity to think and to reason.

‘The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.’ Albert Einstein

The choice to be critical, curious and creative in one’s exploration of all knowledge is stifled by religious belief which counters the flexibility and revision that are a fundamental part of increasing knowledge and independence of thought.

Religious beliefs block our ability to see the world as it is rather than how we want it to be based on our prejudices and religious allegiances. Religious belief formation is clearly a form of manipulation, even when the intention behind its dissemination may appear positive.

Human actions take on a vicious and inflexible character when they are driven by beliefs that are unresponsive to reality.’

All beliefs are by their very nature problematic; not just the religious ones. Furthermore, beliefs do not establish facts, or truth.

Belief requires faith in something. It’s a certain sort of cognitive activity that requires holding to a script or story some sort of a narrative or image or information about a non-existent state of affairs. If the state of affairs is present and real, there’s no need to believe it. That’s what we call knowledge; it’s this acceptance of what’s in front of us

Groupthink

This type of bias is the result of increasing consensus among group members. Critical evaluation of alternative views is avoided, internal critique is abandoned and members of the group seek to avoid conflict by actively suppressing dissent and alternative views. This is carried out in part by isolating themselves from the outside world. Groupthink is typically the result of an exaggerated sense of morality, sometimes defined in religious circles as purity, and an excessive form of optimism about the group’s value and potential.

Spirituality

Spirituality is one of those terms widely used today by Christians and yet frequently misunderstood. Much of our understanding of the term comes from popular religious usage, which often is plagued by a dualism that draws a sharp contrast between body and soul, material and spiritual realities. In this view, the "spiritual" is generally valued as good, and all material, earthly things are considered evil.

Christian Spirituality

In order to appreciate what Christian spirituality is, we must first clarify what it is not. Christian spirituality is not a Gnostic renunciation of the created world, nor the Platonic flight of the soul from the body.

In the Gnostic view, there is a true, ultimate and transcendent God, who is beyond all created universes and who never created anything in the sense in which the word “create” is ordinarily understood. While this True God did not fashion or create anything, He (or, It) “emanated” or brought forth from within Himself the substance of all there is in all the worlds, visible and invisible. In a certain sense, it may therefore be true to say that all is God, for all consists of the substance of God. By the same token, it must also be recognized that many portions of the original divine essence have been projected so far from their source that they underwent unwholesome changes in the process. To worship the cosmos, or nature, or embodied creatures is thus tantamount to worshipping alienated and corrupt portions of the emanated divine essence.

Christianity

The world is the object of God's love (John 3:16), and we are to glorify God in our bodies (Romans 12:1; 1 Corinthian 6:19-20). Furthermore, such attitudes fly in the face of appropriating the Christian doctrine of the creation and the incarnation.

Spirituality must be practiced in this world, which God made good (Mark 7:19) and which God is in the process of redeeming (Roman 8:18-25). As in the Old Testament, spirituality does not imply that one is to flee this world to find God, but that one must find God and grow in grace in this world, even discovering avenues (i.e., spiritual disciplines) in and through the physical realm for spiritual growth.

With this foundation clearly in mind, Christian spirituality has to do primarily with sanctification (to make holy). It requires divine grace (first and always) and deliberate human cooperation. This combination is epitomized by Paul in 1 Corinthian 15:10).

So, spirituality has to do with holiness, which is the restoration of the human person to what he or she was created to be. One could say that holiness involves the recovery of wholeness the integrity of our lives as they are being restored by the Spirit.

This is a process, depicted by several metaphors in Scripture. We are to be trees whose roots are firmly established in Christ, planted by streams of nurturing water (Ephesians 3:17). We are people of "the Way", sojourners on a journey (Acts 9:2; 1 Peter 2:11 ). We are "born again" and meant to grow from infancy to adulthood, sustained on a diet of rich spiritual food (John 3:3; Heb 5:12-14).

The goal of the process is to be renewed in holiness, righteousness, and knowledge after the likeness of God (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10), or, what is the same thing, to become more like Jesus Christ by whose stature our maturity is measured (Ephesians 4:13-16). The goal is to acquire a Christian definition of everything.

How does one acquire such a Christian construal view of everything?

The process is similar to that which we have found in Hebrew spirituality. It is formed by what one reads and listens to, the people with whom one associates, the activities in which one engages, the way one eats, and so on, but above all it is formed by what one loves. When a Christian mixes the Christian definition with other definitions (such as a materialistic conception of the world), then there is a kind of double vision that leads to conflicts, hypocrisy, and the like (Matthew 6:19-24). We need a single focus, a total devotion to God (Matthew 6:33). This is simplicity, and it requires the grace of God and our response of total sacrifice and the transformation of our minds (Romans 12:1-2).

Developing and keeping this single focus is accomplished by spiritual disciplines like Bible reading, meditation, prayer, and fasting, church attendance, giving things away, and serving others. Initially, this begins by repenting turning our spiritual eyes away from our former conceptions of the world to see life from Christ's vantage point. This is followed by concentrating on, focusing on, conceptualizing, and even imaging Christ's character and God's presence and activity primarily through Scripture reading and prayer in the context of the fellowship of believers. (Recall the Hebrew and later Jewish focus on God's presence and the law.)

These disciplines mold and shape the embodied self. They are activities of mind and body intentionally undertaken to bring our entire person into effective cooperation with God's work. This put us in a condition whereby God's grace can really work on us. Our minds and bodies are then usable as instruments of righteousness (Romans 6:12-14; 12:15).

By these disciplines the Christian is not simply copying Jesus Christ as a model (as in Charles Monroe Sheldon, “In His Steps,  what would Jesus do?" though "putting on Christ" might mean that the Christian sometimes Acts like Christ even if he or she does not yet understand why (Romans 13:11-14 ). Nor is one merely accepting the values of Jesus (as in nineteenth-century liberalism). The Christian is learning Christ likeness by sharing Christ's life in an organic way (John 15:1-17; 17:20-24). We share in the life of the risen Christ through the Holy Spirit who indwells us and who groans in us for the completion of our redemption (Romans 8:22-27). This indwelling is creative and transforming. It has been called "sanctifying" or "habitual" grace because it is not just a momentary help, but a vital source of holiness. Through this work of the indwelling presence of the Spirit of Christ and our response we come to have the "mind of Christ" Christ's way of seeing the world that becomes "second nature" in us (Philippians 2:1-5). The result is that obedience to God is "from the heart"; we become "slaves to righteousness" (Rom 6:17-19). We are now free to serve God and others with self-sacrificial love.