Thank you for the journey of this diary, Gary. I was struck today by the thought that our whole individualistic society, born of the “Enlightenment”, has deeply ingrained in us the opposite idea from what we profess in “WE believe.” The support of and belonging
to the community of the faithful, through the ages, takes a distant 2nd place to figuring it out, deciding, ON OUR OWN. Far from, as you
mention, having to trust a source in order to believe, we distrust ALL sources–unless we ourselves have done the vetting! It is positively
weak minded, even cultish (!), to belong to a community for support in a belief that one may or may not have, but for which one hopes.
It surrenders our own agency, autonomy–even, responsibility. “I just KNOW I can figure it out! And if I can’t; well, I just can’t subscribe
to the whole enterprise.!” Once again, and probably forever, the church is as counter-cultural as it gets.
soulwerker 
Thank you for the journey of this diary, Gary. I was struck today by the thought that our whole individualistic society, born of the “Enlightenment”, has deeply ingrained in us the opposite idea from what we profess in “WE believe.” The support of and belonging
to the community of the faithful, through the ages, takes a distant 2nd place to figuring it out, deciding, ON OUR OWN. Far from, as you
mention, having to trust a source in order to believe, we distrust ALL sources–unless we ourselves have done the vetting! It is positively
weak minded, even cultish (!), to belong to a community for support in a belief that one may or may not have, but for which one hopes.
It surrenders our own agency, autonomy–even, responsibility. “I just KNOW I can figure it out! And if I can’t; well, I just can’t subscribe
to the whole enterprise.!” Once again, and probably forever, the church is as counter-cultural as it gets.