Dear David F

Indeed, and McCulloch goes on to make a similar point to what I think Peter and indeed Crossan are saying about miracles:

“Is Shakespeare’s Hamlet ‘true’? It never happened, but it seems to me to be much more ‘true’, full of meaning and significance for human beings, than the reality of the breakfast I ate this morning, which was certainly ‘true’ in a banal sense. Christianity’s claim to truth is absolutely central to it over much of the past two thousand years, and much of this history is dedicated to tracing the varieties of this claim and the competition between them.”

(page 11 also – it looks like the page numbers are the same even though I have the Kindle version and I guess you have a hard copy).

From what I can discern about you I’m pretty sure the answer is “yes”, but have you tried attending a Quaker meeting? They have a less strident take on orthodoxy and are less inclined to proselytising (nowadays) than most denominations, I think.

Dear David F.,

«Descending into superstition is cleansing the mind?»

Obviously it cannot...

It is not the superstition (when present) which cleanses the mind, it is the worship which does.

But sometimes it is superstition which entices people (especially primitive people) to worship. Otherwise they probably wouldn't.

You see, children hate going to the doctor to have an injection, a painful needle, so often their parents tell them: "if you come with me nicely to the doctor then I will give you a lolly (or some desired toy)". Obviously lollies cannot cure you, lollies in themselves cannot increase your immunity, but they can at times help you to get to the doctor.

Sadly, we also see some parents who only remember the lollies and the toys but forget to take their children to the doctor.

Modern adults like us do not require such lollies. For us, pure logic and medical understanding should suffice.

Dear Yuyutsu,

You are a modern adult because you are an adult living in a modern age. By that definition you are a modern adult. However, you preserve and venerate the superstition prevalent in a past age. That is true of many modern adults.

Dear David F.,

«However, you preserve and venerate the superstition prevalent in a past age. That is true of many modern adults.»

The topic is about faith, spirit, miracles, the living dead and the dead living, etc., not about myself and my possible personal bad habits.

At this particular juncture you quoted MacCulloch on the topic of worship (or religious liturgy), to which I replied, and at which point you introduced the issue of superstition.

As per my previous post, superstition could indeed also be present, but has little to do with worship itself. In terms of logic, this is a red herring.

Dear Yuyutsu,

You wrote: "The topic is about faith, spirit, miracles, the living dead and the dead living, etc., not about myself and my possible personal bad habits."

As far as I am concerned faith is a kind of superstition. Therefore, my comments relate to the subject. Your personal failings are regrettable but shared with many. I feel you are a decent human being but not an enlightened one.

I was thinking about mobile phones.
A phone has a processor, and is in fact a computer.
Add an operating system, and it becomes capable of many forms of communication.
Without such a system, the phone is inert.
Its active operating system can be 'turned off' if desired, and turned on again at a later time.
It will then work as it did before.

Humans have a computer too. We call it a brain.
It has an operating system.
It has fixed memory, (instincts) and also variable or volatile memory.
These equate to the ROM and RAM in a conventional computer.
But our brain is a living organ.
It requires nutrition to stay alive.
The physical body provides this.
Without nutrition, the brain would stop functioning.

The brain directs the body.
The body nourishes the brain.
So they are co-dependent.
Should one fail, so will the other.
Everything a person is will be stored in his living brain.
If it stops completely, the intelligence it contains will disappear.
And there is no way to reboot or restart a brain.
So the person can and will no longer exist, except in physical form.
Without an active brain, a person is said to have died.