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Is belief/non-belief a morally culpable state?
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Meowzltov
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When I was a child, I assumed people chose what they believed. Then I grew up.
Here is the problem:
1. Our senses are not entirely accurate. Our eyes, ears, etc., don't always work the way they should and there are many things that exist for which we have no ability to sense.
2. Our perception is not completely reliable either. Perception is the ability to properly interpret sensory data. Even if our bodies are functioning as designed we make mistakes. Optical illusions are well known, as are hallucinations, and these things are far more common than people want to think. Do you realize just how common it is for people to not quite hear a word, and insert the wrong word into the blank spot?
3. Contrary to popular thinking, human beings are incredibly irrational creatures. We have inherited biologically ingrained cognition errors that literally block us from reaching accurate conclusions: confirmation bias, primacy effect, projection, need for closure, illusion of control.... I could probably list 30 different cognitive distortions that keep us from the truth.
IMHO, it's a miracle that human beings can function as well as we do.
Do I think we have a moral imperative to try to find the truth? Yes. But I would say we have just as strong a moral imperative to humbly realize just how fallible we are, and to extend grace to those who are "wrong," because after all, that wrong person could be us.
I am not Christian, and quite frankly I find the Christian notion that God will eternally reward or eternally torture someone due solely to their honest errors seems morally outrageous to me. It would be the worst sort of injustice to punish a person for something that is beyond their control. And folks, that's just not the God I love and serve.
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Your comments here are wonderful and all, but I wouldn't call that last point you made a 'Christian notion' if it's not something that Jesus Christ Himself, or His apostles and immediate disciples, mentioned.
Just something to think about where Hermeneutical acumen is an important part of reading and understanding either the Tanakh or the New Testament. I'm sure we have some concurrence in sentiments about this.
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Fervent
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All of this is true, there are factors that play into what we believe or don't believe that are not within our control. But the issue isn't quite as black and white as entirely voluntary or beyond our control, and the choices we make often accumulate into the things that we believe to be true.
Again, it's not an all-or-nothing issue. We can hold firm to convictions about what we think to be our best approximation of truth while recognizing that these convictions are not purely a product of our own intellect or ethical character or some other quality that sets us apart. Yet we remain culpable for the choices that aggregate into our beliefs.
You seem to be hanging what to my understanding is a vocal minority position as the normative Christian position. There is a wide array of understanding that falls within orthodox Christian conversation on such matters, even arguably extending to a form of universalism where through Christ all of humanity(and in fact all of creation) is delivered from sin and death. While it is not a position I agree with or believe fits within orthodoxy, there is room for discussion on the matter such that your characterization of such a notion as "the Christian notion" is uncharitable and not reflective of the diversity of thought within Christianity.
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