"Insecure believers sometimes cling to a rigid and simplistic faith."
- David Brooks, "The Subtle Sensations of Faith", New York Times, 2014-12-23
The insecure believers make the headlines or the history books. Think of all the "Islamists" who want to kill anyone who does not believe as they do. Think of the Ku Klux Klan, the Protestants and Catholic gunmen of Northern Ireland, the Communists of North Korea, and many more "true believers".
We also have so-called non-believers who have to attack those who claim to believe.
Maybe I'm being a hypocrite here because I have questioned the texts that many base their beliefs on. However, it is only the texts I question, not the belief in something greater than oneself. But I have no problem with people who believe in something I don't believe in. My problem is with those who want to "prove" that they are right because of something somebody long ago wrote as "fact".
For example, did Adam and Eve really exist? Or are they metaphor for our hubris that we "know better than God"?
What we really should consider is "moral truth" over "mythical truth". For example, was God really tempted by Satan to severely test Job, or is the Book of Job an exploration of why bad things happen to good people?
