tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5988034724227049154.post7410726597896068923..comments2009-08-12T09:06:07.375-07:00Comments on Taken On Faith: Does family count?Religion writerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12622679230427628405noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5988034724227049154.post-48951800708585102372009-07-31T20:14:47.273-07:002009-07-31T20:14:47.273-07:00I would definitely argue that they are not mutuall...I would definitely argue that they are not mutually exclusive, in and of themselves. That said, some religions will certainly ask adherents to make that sort of awful choice, and Scientology can be one of them. They don't make you choose when you join, but if your family is all Scientologists and you decide to leave, they will make your family sever contact with you. So in the case of Scientology, they try to make it so you can't have your family and *abandon* Scientology. The reason is obvious; it's all about controlling the members. But the practice has roots going way way back. Puritans called it sending a person to Coventry.<br /><br />Of course, I think it's worth making a distinction between faith and religion. Faith is personal; it's what a person believes in (spiritual or otherwise; you can have faith in your fellow man as easily as you can have faith in a deity). Religion tends to be more organized, with rules and processes ostensibly to help guide a person's faith. Religion can exist without faith, though, and I think that when a religion becomes *really* restrictive, the original faith is usually lost, replaced by a fanatical devotion to the religion itself.<br /><br />You may enjoy the book "Small Gods", by Terry Pratchett. He explores this idea, and others, on the fantasy world called Discworld, where magic is real, and so are gods, but the gods are literally a product of human belief.<br /><br />I think I'm going to really enjoy reading your blog!Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09084448575391717129noreply@blogger.com