Thread:User talk:WaitingforGodot/Answering your own question/reply

Yes, I know. but it still bugs me. There is a common concept of cognative dissonance that quite rational intelligent people use when dealing with their religion that stuns me constantly.

In the legal office I do research for, every single one of them, highly skilled, highly intelligent mostly modern (my direct boss is 90ish, and can't use his phone, his computer, his email, etc...) lawyers and paralegals who all believe in God. Either the christian god, or some Native American version of that god. They rarely talk about it, cause it's not (for the non native Americans) a big part of their life, but I still look at them when they say "I went to church for Easter" and wonder "how do you do that.  How do you manage to put everything aside for the 5 or so hours you contemplate this god things dying and rising for your sins, and yet having such suffering around the world such as you deal with almost daily?" How do you read a bible that blatantly says "gays suck", yet manage to say "well, our church accepts gays and allows homosexual marriage so it's ok".

That aspect of human identity is beyond me. "I need this religion to be true,cause it's always been true and it defines me, even if only a small amount" vs. "I live a rational life where the arguments I make must be grounded in legal precedent, so I have to remove all emotion from the scene."

(PS, why are cats insane. mine are chasing each other upstairs, and i'm hearing patter patter patter over my head".)