CURRENT MOON

Sunday, June 03, 2007

No Holy Book, No "Faith"


Digby's spot on, as usual, but as an aside to her overall point, I found this bit of information creating a definite WTF moment for me:

Notably, just one-quarter of adults possess an active faith, meaning they engage in all three of these activities (pray, attend church, and read the Bible in a typical week).

WTF? I mean, seriously, WTF?

At the very least, two out of these three activities (attending church and reading the Bible) simply aren't part of my religion. Some Wiccans will argue that spellwork is a form of prayer, and I suppose that I'd be willing to call it a form of co-active prayer. But, seriously, WTF? If you to to the Synagogue, pray, and read the Torah you don't have "an active faith"? If you go to the mosque, pray, and read the Qu'aran you don't have "an active faith"? WTF? Even the use of the word "faith" betrays how thoroughly xianized this study is. Wiccans, for example, don't say that they have 'faith" -- that's an Abrahamic concept. I don't have faith in the Goddess, I know the Goddess, I embody the Goddess. Faith is no part at all of my religion.

It all just reminds me of how far we still have to go.

3 comments:

Reya Mellicker said...

Studies are just theories with credentials. They don't mean a thing.

Hey, what's wrong with faith? I like it, and I have it in spades, too.

Reya Mellicker said...

p.s. I have no faith in statistics or studies.

Hecate said...

reya,

There's nothing "wrong" with faith -- it's defining having a spiritual life as having faith that's irritating to me.