Thinking certainly erodes religious fundamentalism... (Main Forum)

by desi , Australia, Saturday, April 28, 2012, 20:30 (392 days ago) @ Brian Coyne

All institutions over-claim for themselves and end up believing more in their own existence than in the vision that propelled them into existence in the first place. This is particularly true of religious institutions. Religions may begin as vehicles of longing for mysteries beyond description, but they end up claiming exclusive descriptive rights to them. They segue from the ardour and uncertainty of seeking to the confidence and complacence of possession. They shift from poetry to packaging. Which is what people want. They don’t want to spend years wandering in the wilderness of doubt. They want the promised land of certainty, and religious realists are quick to provide it for them. The erection of infallible systems of is a well-understood device to still humanity’s fear of being lost in life’s dark wood without a compass. ‘Supreme conviction is a self-cure for infestation of doubts.’

Holloway, Richard (2012-03-01). Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt (p. 152). Canongate Books.