184-I-DOUBT-IT: 'The Hotline Project' Launches To Help Those Struggling Between Faith And Atheism

[cbayer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/27/atheism-hotline-project_n_6772764.html

Religion News Service | By Kimberly Winston
Posted: 02/27/2015 6:14 pm EST Updated: 02/27/2015 6:59 pm EST

(RNS) A new crisis hotline for those struggling between faith and atheism launched Friday (Feb. 27).

Called “The Hotline Project,” the 24-hour free service will match volunteers with people who are considering leaving religion. It is a project of Recovering From Religion, a Kansas City, Mo.-based nonprofit that aids those transitioning out of faith.

“When people are reconsidering the role religion plays in their lives, they risk losing their families, their spouses, their jobs,” said Sarah Morehead, executive director of Recovering From Religion. “These people are isolated, excluded, shunned. It rocks these people to the bottom of their hearts. It is heartbreaking.”

The hotline’s purpose is to offer a listening ear, support and resources. Volunteers will not argue with people about religion or try to convince people to leave their religion, Morehead said. The hotline’s motto reflects its intended neutrality: “When faith is on the line, so are we.”

more at link

[ladjf]

1. I think that the basic real challenge is to decide

between objective and subjective basic thought processes.

I mean by that, whether your thinking style primarily uses objective or subjective processes to create your basic set of beliefs.

As I understand the definition of "faith based", it means that one believes certain things that have never been proven systematically, i.e. by objective scientific processes.

On the other hand, atheists might choose to build their beliefs following totally subjective methods which could still be described as "faith based" but using a "no God" starting point.

So, it's misleading to talk about the struggle between "faith" and "atheism" in that they could have the same outcomes. The statement in the title really means between believing in the existence of God or not believing in the existence of God.

It's a meaningless mental exercise based on the individual's unwillingness to admit and define their position on the argument. They are wasting their time on an unsolvable loop.

Further, one could decide that they believe in the existence of a God. So what? That single belief gives no suggestion whatsoever as to how their lives should be conducted or how we came to exist or what is really going to happen in the future.

No knowledge base is created in human minds by the single minded belief that God exists.

The ancillary information, purported to come directly from God's thoughts, is the combination
of countless statements, either written words or word of mouth comments presented by
humans who assert that their renditions of God's ideas came directly from the mind of God.
Believing that some or all of the assumed ideas are the "true words of God" is the incredible leap of faith that requires people to use supernatural sources as the basis for the personal knowledge base.

There is solid scientific evidence that the Universe is between 12 and 14 billion years old, that the Earth is a little over 4 billions years old, the Sun is about 4.6 billion years old and will burn out within 4 billion more years, destroying Mercury, Venus and Earth. There are thousands of planets with environments conducive to life as me know it. It is highly likely that life is either still on some of those planets. Due to the distances, it's very unlikely that any of the lives of any of the planets will ever have physical contact due to the vast distances.

On the "faith" side, i.e. "Christian Faith" group, the seminal event, according to Christian legend, was the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem 2100 years ago. The documentation that supports the divinity of Jesus and the beliefs of Christians is the Bible including the old and new testaments. The Bible itself is a large body of religious thoughts attributed to many sources
include divine authorship, Hebrew prophets and Christian disciples and others.

In order to join the "Faith Based" group one has to consider that idea that after many billions of years, the true word for the human race appeared incarnate 2100 years ago and that the
conglomerate of biblical sources put together a cohesive and informative body of knowledge whose source was the very essence of the God's thoughts, powers and actions.

Some questions may arise for the believers such as why did God wait so long to send Jesus to Earth? Is Earth the only place in the Universe that has sentient life forms? Why was Earth chosen as Jesus' destination 2100 years ago? or Did Jesus visit all of the life forms, if they exist, in the Universe? Are all of the Biblical texts sacred or could some of them be invalid?

In the final analysis an individuals basic choices are between (1) theologically based ,(2) existentially based systems of knowledge or (3) a combination of the previous two.

[cbayer]

2. While I appreciate your analysis of the dilemma that some face,

I think this is much simpler than that.

It is aimed primarily at people who are considering leaving their religion because they no longer believe, or, in other words, have lost their faith.

That can be a life-changing decision with lots of social, familial and even vocational ramifications.

Offering support to those who are facing this situation seems like a very positive thing to me. I'm not sure they need to get into the existential debate about the existence of god.

[ladjf]

3. Honest and caring people dispense information with good

intentions. Statistics show that people who loose the faith later in life are more at risk than those who change earlier. It's a matter of the psychiatric dangers of experiencing extreme disillusionment. Young people can overcome it better than older individuals.

Consider one of the verses of "Abide With Me",

"I need your presence every passing hour.
What but your grace can foil the tempter's power?
Who like yourself my guide and strength can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me"

I am keenly aware of the dangers surrounding disillusionment and would never communicate any concept that I believed to be against someone's best interests. That was precisely the concept that prompted me to enter into this discussion today about believing or not believing.

In my opinion, the "faith based" position leads toward cataclysmic outcomes in far too many cases. Further, those who have adopted the "FB" position have slandered and misrepresented the validity of "existentially based" beliefs. The underpinnings of existential beliefs are not likely to be dramatically taken away from those who follow that system.

On a personal note, I almost always read your posts and never for a moment doubt your desire to make positive contributions to the DU readers.

[cbayer]

4. Thank you for your kinds words ladjf.

It means a lot to me, and I mean that sincerely.

I agree that losing ones faith later in life is going to present much more risk, particularly if one's primary community has revolved around their religious affiliation.

It is also particularly hard for those who have built their professional lives around religion. The Clergy Project is an excellent source for those people and I believe has really saved some people (no pun intended, lol).

I would like to see a day when there is room for all kinds of beliefs and that no one uses their beliefs to threaten the freedom or rights of anyone else.

Thanks for your contribution here. It is both refreshing and enlightening.