The faith or fear dichotomy

The faith or fear dichotomy

I wrote a post yesterday, called Where is our prophet? In that post I discussed the religious belief or tradition, that during times like this of great calamity, sometimes a great thinker and leader, is sent into the world by the deity of the believers, to help ManKind through this time of difficulty. My post inspired some comments favoring the existence or nonexistence of God. Which inspired this next discussion.

I think faith in God involves embracing a set of moral principles and/or rules, which govern ones life, including interactions with others. I think these principles and rules can be “good” and produce “good“ people. I also believe people without faith in a God can embrace and follow principles and rules which govern ones life, including interactions with others. I think these principles and rules can be “good” and produce “good people. I think these two dichotomies are not mutually exclusive, but can coexist.

Interestingly enough, recognizing this dichotomy also makes me think about another dichotomy “fear or love”.

In that dichotomy I ask myself do people embrace the moral principles of their chosen religion out of fear or love? Do they embrace the moral principles of their religion because they fear their God or because they love their God? I think religion has many carrot and stick type of enticements to follow the rules as benefits of being a good and faithful servant abound in religious texts, as well as multiple examples of the consequences of having little faith.

But upon that dichotomy I also layer the same dichotomy facing those of having no faith in God, do they embrace the moral principles which make them “Good People” out of love for those principles or out of fear of societal retribution in the form of ostracism or worse : imprisonment.

The contemplation of that dichotomy brings me to the contemplation of another. If people profess to love God or if people profess to love being good. Do people love God out of fear or appreciation? And in the absence of a belief in God, but in the presence of a belief in Goodness, do people love being good or fear of the consequences of being bad or love/appreciation of the benefits of being good?

Hmmmm.... food for thought and rumination. Thoughts to chew on with your mind again and again.