> [Photo] I miss this [Photo]I DO NOT miss thisI c...

2009-02-02T02:19:00.000-08:00

> [Photo] I miss this [Photo]I DO NOT miss this

I can relate to that. : J

> It's very complicated to explain
> without sounding condescending

You say you might sound condescending, but it is more probable that you would sound naive.
For example, the term "religion" might include very different, opposed things; it might include the human sacrifices performed by buddhists in Mongolia and the cursing prayars practiced in Lamaism. The term you use isn't appropriate even for what you are describing (e.g. the sometimes blind faith displayed by your Buddhuburam friends).
Your use of such term without further clarification of what religions you mean might be a sign of a nearsightedness which, i might say, is somehow common to the critics of "religion".

That reminds me of an anecdote I heard just yesterday (in Russian, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA9oY47Wmpo). In 19th century, a priest and a student are travelling in the train. Student, proud with his new-founded atheism, says to priest: “Do you know, I do not believe in God.”. To which priest replies: “Neither do I”. To the astonished student, the priest then explains: “In the God you don't believe, neither believe I”.
Fr. Kuraev, who retelled the anecdote, explains, that the level of religious education was such a poor one that people criticised essentially what they themselves imagined, not the real religious views of the Church.

As for the blind faith, maybe you would be interesting in the opinion of an Eastern Orthodox Christian metropolitan, Anthony Bloom, who tries to explain what faith might mean and that a “blind faith” might be in fact different from “faith”.
http://books.google.com/books?id=bXkEDYYBmDoC&printsec=frontcover#PPA31,M1

Also, you might look at this linguistical explanation of “faith”: http://artemgr.livejournal.com/83814.html
Met. Anthony only tries to explain in modern language what has been an axiom from the prehistoric era.
Faith meant relationships with God, not a scientific assertion.
America is mainly a Protestant country and "faith" there was largely redefined after the Luther's silly theological exercises (although the modern Protestantism goes farther than Luther went) and even before that, by the cold rationalism of the western thought.
Speaking of religion, faith, and Christianity outside of the historical contexts doesn't makes sense, as the modern historian of the Church, Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, says.

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