Holly Ordway is a professor of English at MiraCosta College in San Diego County who has turned from secularism to religion and has written a
book about the experience. As an
article in this week's Christian Post (which we all read) explains, she grew up in a non-religious household and viewed religious stories as made-up fables. So why the conversion? Dr. Ordway points to the certainty that religion offers about life:
"On the other hand, the theistic worldview was both consistent and powerfully explanatory: it offered a convincing, rationally consistent, and logical explanation for everything that the naturalistic worldview explained plus all the things that the naturalistic worldview couldn’t."
A humanist would not be surprised by this. A life without doubt is a powerful incentive. Religion helps some people some of the time. But the next part protrudes into the downside of religion, as the demands begin:
Her intellectual pride was broken and she was humbled by God's goodness as she began to see herself as a sinner.
The fairy tales of the Bible do not count as "logical explanations" of anything.
ReplyDeleteLike many religious people, Ms. Ordway has a problem with self esteem. She allows a non-existent Invisible Wizard to "humble" her and make her feel like crap. She is full of guilt--that's what religion is all about. When you reach this point, religions can say, "Gotcha!" Religion has been used for thousands of years to control people and make them obedient and docile.