A Skeptic

Yesterday, while watering the 1,000 native trees, bushes, and grasses planted by the community two Sundays ago . . . I heard in a Scottish sounding German accent something like this:

All religions have one thing in common: THEY WANT YOUR MONEY . . . the Bible's been translated and copied so many times IT'S NOTHING LIKE THE ORIGINAL . . . Oh, Jesus, HE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS . . . today the the money changers that Jesus would be throwing out--THEY'RE THE ONES TRYING TO GET YOUR MONEY

That's just a few excerpts. He gave lots of reasons to reject religion and too much thinking about the hereafter and heaven. To be fair, the guy was very tolerant of us (being Christians). I was glad to hear his opinion. I didn't need his tolerance, but he assured us several times:

Hey, if you find a religion that works for you, that's great! You should practice that. I just think you should think for yourself and ask lots of questions.

I tried to assure him that I had asked lots of questions and still do. In fact, I've asked all the ones related to his grand skeptical discourse, (though I've didn't ask them all in the same half hour).

The conversation, though mostly one-sided, didn't discourage me at all. We thought, "What a blessing to receive such clear thinking from someone in spite of the fact he must have thought we disagreed with him!"

At several points he was telling me about Freud and Marx and "the opium of the masses" kind of thinking. I told him I sort of agreed:

I said, "Yeah, Freud and Marx made some good observations about some varieties of religion, but have you heard of William James? He--"

Then, I was cut off. "No, I haven't heard of him--" And then, since he hadn't heard of Williams James, he went on sharing all his skepticism with me (again), mostly relating to the Catholic Church (even though I'm no Catholic). Part of his skepticism may have resulted from his experiences growing up in Nuremburg, Germany. You know, that's where they had all those trials after the Nazis . . . I don't even want to talk about that.

I told him, "Well, even though I'm young, I believe I've experienced a lot of the ugliness the world has to offer, but I still have hope." Again, I couldn't get much more of an opinion out than that.

I most appreciate him telling me how to water the dry plants on the hillside more efficiently. And I don't mind him lumping my faith in with weak and naive varieties. And I don't need his tolerance. My faith is tougher than that. Or maybe I should say, my God is tougher than religion no matter which variety you choose to pick on.

It was a positive experience.