HOWEVER, if I’m misreading you (and I hope I am because I prefer to give everyone the benefit of the doubt!), I’m more than happy to continue – but only via email, since the Middle Zone isn’t really the venue for this type of thing. Drop me a line at rhruzek@sbcglobal.net and I’ll be happy to dialog with you further.

Don’t confuse love with religious faith.

What good is that?

:Thorne

Interesting statement about faith – I’ve never heard that one before. And it’s odd that you keep going back to the physical heart when it’s clearly the spiritual heart I’m talking about.

But what I find most fascinating is your last statement! Would you elaborate a little more on that and explain what you mean?
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One last thing, Thorne; just out of curiosity, what, specifically, caused you to comment on this post? Not that I mind – far from it! I’m just wondering.

I don’t see how religious faith is anything more than an “intellectual activity.” It’s quite like mathematics in that regard.

It’s just something we think about. Absent thought, faith does not exist. It certainly has not much to do with our cardiovascular systems.

Methinks the imagery that we use to discuss spiritual matters (e.g., following our hearts, rather than our minds) betrays our doubts about them.

Thorne, there’s no make believe to it. To me, religious faith is much more than just an intellectual activity because human beings are so much more than simply physical envelopes. There are, depending on how you look at it, at least two other aspects as well – emotional and spiritual. Why pretend the physical is all there is?

Faith — religious faith — is like belief; it’s like fear, hope, despair, and desire. The seat of these things isn’t the heart or the liver or the pancreas; it’s the nervous system.

Religious faith is an intellectual activity. Why make believe it’s not?

This is true!

Jeanne

What a wonderful exposition on faith and the Law–and a hard WILF act to follow, to be sure! You are so right about faith: Once we’ve placed our faith in Christ, we “do by nature the things contained in the Law.” It’s definitely a “heart thing.” Another important point is that “the Law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient…” If everyone were righteous, we wouldn’t need laws.

Thanks for sharing those wonderful truths!
Jeanne

“Why go on and speak of the heart as anything more than a pump? Isn’t that like turning our backs on reason?”

Now, obviously the “heart” I was talking about is that spiritual part of who we are. As far as I can tell, I wasn’t advocating the abandonment of reason. Faith is most definitely not the absence of reason!

But my question back to you is, why not acknowledge the spiritual part of us as the “heart” of who we are? And I don’t see why doing that eliminates reason. No, I think in reality it enhances reason.

The ancients may have thought that the heart was the seat of reason, that the brain was about as useful as eyebrows, but we know better.

Why go on and speak of the heart as anything more than a pump? Isn’t that like turning our backs on reason?

I’d love to get back to Holland one day. The good news is my job may bring me there next year. Maybe we can get together for a cup of coffee or some genuine Gouda (but not both at the same time!)