Challenges to Faith Journal

Key Point of the Chapter -

Challenges to Faith

There are many challenges to faith/Faith in today's world. The main three challenges are; atheism, scientism, and dehumanization. "The Attack from Atheism", as stated by our Readings Book, is illustrated by 3 main people; Neitzsche, Thomas Hobbes, and Ignatius de Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. Neitzsche said "God is dead" and "Christians are idiots." He was a nihilistic pessimist. He basically believed that nothing had a reason, and that humans are just a jumbled random mess and then we die. Hobbes agrees with Neitzsche on morality, both men say that it is relative to each person. I think Hobbes' most interesting point is that humans are no different than any other animals, just more advanced and more intelligent. Is he saying that other animals will one day catch up? Ignatius is different from these two men as he was religious, starting his own Christian Order, the Jesuits. He says theres is a clean cut, definate morality, a sure right and wrong. I agree with this. I also agree with his beleif that everyone has the same purpose in life. The next challenge is scientism. Scientism is the belief that science can give us all the answers to the world and because of this religion is outdated and not needed. Many people believe this, whether they admit to it or not. Many educated scientists will admit that science isn't exact, it can only provide educated guesses. There are 3 big problems with scientism; presupposing a uniformity in nature, emphasizing empirical knowledge, and not giving certainty. The last challenge is dehumanization. Dehumanization is the act of taking away someone's human qualities or rights as to make yourself more human than they are. These threeChallenges to Faith/faith are all to common in today's society.

1) "Advertising Circle"

Advertising is a good way to make people buy your product, but does it go to far? It most certainly does. Advertisers will do anything and everything to make money and sell thir product. They show people what people want to see to make the biggest possible product. The main point I took away from "The Merchants of Cool" was the "giant feedback loop" and the question that it raises: Who controls the market? Do advertisers just make something up and kids pick it up and run with it, or do advertisers watch kids and then base their comertials and ads off of what kids are already doing. "The Merchants of Cool" suggested that it was a giant loop. Advertisers ask kids what is "in" or popular, then they advertise that, making the rest of the kids want to buy it. The problem with this is, by the time evryone has bought the original thing, the trendsetters have moved on to something else, so the Advertisers have to keep up and try not to let the fads burn out too quickly. It is amazing to me how much thought, money and effort goes into advertising.

2) "Nietzsche"

Friedrich Nietzsche said "gott ist tot" meaning God is dead in German. Neitzsche also said "christians are idiots" and that they use their religion as a crutch to support themselves because they are uneducated. He was a nihilist. He believed not in logic or reason, but in emotion and gut feelings. He appealed to people by showing value. He used things that people wanted to lure them into his teachings. He thinks that eventually humans will evolve into a super race and take control of every life form on the planet. He also believes that life is what you make it. There is no set meaning for everyone, it is all relative. Being a nihilist, he didn't beleive in reason, he believes that humans should be controlled by their desires. I think Neitzsche is a very interesting person to study, though his teachings are a little fanatical, thye are still however, worthwhile.

3) "Science Vs. Faith"



There are Three main periods of the History of Science Vs. Religion. The first is Unreflective Unity(500 B.C. to 1500 A.D.). This was the period when everyone agreed with the church and based their whole life on religion, not even considering science as a possible answer. Then came Reflective Disunity from 1500 to 1900 A.D. This was the period following the Rennaisance and the Enlightenment where people started to question the teachings of the church. One example is Galileo's helio-centric theory, which is correct, but many church followers refused to believe his discovery because the bible teaches differently. Galileo was recently apoligized to by Pope John Paul II, for the strife he went through in these times. Reflective Unity (1900 to present) is the realization that science and religion can co-exist as long as neither tries to be too powerful. The scientific method was developed as a way to hypothesize and test natuaral things to see how they happen. (I heard on NPR 2 weeks ago that Science deals with the how questions and Religion deals with the Why questions.) There are however, three problems, limitations to the scientific method. First off, Science presupposes a uniformity of nature. The world isn't always the same, it changes. This leads to the point that science can never be exact because if the world isn't completely uniform, data will always be slightly off. The best science can do is make an educated guess, never the truth. Next, science emphasizes empirical knowledge. This means that science can only tell us mathematical answers. An example from the text is neanderthals. If we found fossils of two identical Neanderthals, one of whom having a soul, we wouldn't be able to tell which was whcih using science. Lastly, Science doesn't give us certainty. This goes back to my previous point. Sccience cannot give exact answers, onlyeducated guesses. The state os reflective unity that we are currently in is the best system for science and religion to co exist, but I am afraid that soon one will try to become to powerful (hence, andswering the how AND why questions) and we will re-enter reflective disunity, possibly for eternity.

The greatest challenge to my faith/Faith here and now is the current era. Rebellion is cool. Skipping church on sunday makes you a cool perosn today. Bad-mouthing Jesus makes you a bad-ass, and that is cool in today's society. Atteending SLUH makes this a lot easier because I don't get made fun of for being a Catholic and going to church, as many people did at my old school, a public school. The rebellion of kids against religion I think is my greatest challenge to faith/Faith.


?Question?
Will science ever be able to be perfectly exact? They are getting closer and closer, but will they ever be able to be dead exactly correct?

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