I observe this same behavior in so called Bible Thumpers or Biblical Academic Scholars, especially here on FR.
They become like the Pharisees who are legalistic, not ever feeling Love, the most important element in any spiritual growth.
It has to do with people owning their knowledge as a possession and forming an ego identity around their possession of the knowledge. They become so afraid to lose their ego identity that they will attack anyone who even asks a question, the answer to which undermines their knowledge. (This is also the basis of Trump Derangement Syndrome.)
I presented a lecture and demonstrations at a major divinity school to a large audience of academics across many departments, including many MD’s.
One man in his late 70’s left the lecture three times, and then returned to hear more each time. He was a retired psychology professor at the university whom I had never met prior.
A month later, I was presenting a similar lecture at the medical school and this same man came up to me and explained that he didn’t believe a word I said as it didn’t fit with all his education through PhD, or in his 40+ years of teaching at the university, or in actual experiences in practice. However, when I demonstrated it, he explained that his body started physically shaking and wouldn’t stop shaking, so he left my lecture and walked the halls of the building until he calmed down. His eyes saw the demonstrations which undermined his knowledge. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing and it created an internal paradox. He then returned to the lecture and the same thing happened again, and again, three times in total.
He was not ready for me to explain that his response was normal for an injured ego. My demonstrations undermined the knowledge he possessed and had formed an ego identity around it. (This is why “dying daily” is so important in spiritual growth. It is the death of the ego that blocks us from perceiving and experiencing God. In Buddhism, they call this same process as “achieving No-Self. It’s the same thing.)
I was presenting Jesus’s teachings, explaining them, and then demonstrating why Jesus taught what He did by reading the detailed stored memories in people’s souls, without them saying anything. I demonstrated that sin is actually a physical obstacle to Love in a person’s soul, and when I touched it, many feet from the person’s physical body, it often knocked them off their feet. I also demonstrated that anger attached our soul to the person we are angry at, thus giving them control over us. Forgiveness sets us free. (If a person closed their eyes and thought of the person they were angry at, my moving the stored memory in their soul moved their physical body in the same direction, even though I was many feet away and their eyes were closed.)
I try to pull Thomas Kuhn’s 1962 essay, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” every year as a reminder of how an injured ego responds, and why. His essay is very accurate and describes the journey of academics. I highly recommend it to everyone. It helps me to have compassion for all the people, even here on FR, who attack me as being delusional. I just allow them to hold onto their own delusions as my individual identity that is based upon my relationship as a servant of Jesus and God are not influenced by the attacks which often become vicious. I have no need to convince others.
I share this for people to gain understanding, not to glorify my own ego, as to do so would lead me into forming a spiritual ego identity, a trap that everyone encounters on their own individual spiritual journey.
“...sin is actually a physical obstacle...”
Please explain how, or why you believe, sin is a physical obstacle. You might have to start by defining “sin”.
A persons “beliefs” and we ALL have them, are like a tree.
This tree grows and has roots, it also has branches that extend into every aspect of our life, how we see things.
When you show someone that how they see things might not be entirely correct, and you can do this in a very convincing way, it’s like shaking that tree, with them standing on a tree limb.
It makes them very uncomfortable.
It even makes them feel insecure.
The normal reaction will NOT be a “thank you” for enlightening them.
Rather it will be a vitriolic and fallacy based reaction attacking “you.”
Sadly, people are not taught to have these deep conversations.
They are not able to accept other views, and to realize that things they hold as absolute truths and believed all their life might be bullshit.
Thank you for posting that. It was necessary.
“I observe this same behavior in so called Bible Thumpers or Biblical Academic Scholars, especially here on FR.”
I think the difference is the amount of sway they can exert. Secular academics exert power over a huge swath of government, business, and culture. The bible thumpers are more focused on minute details surrounding why they are going to heaven and you are not. Most people just ignore them.
It has to do with people owning their knowledge as a possession and forming an ego identity around their possession of the knowledge.
Read Retired’s post. Read it again, read it a 3rd time and let your lips move.
Religion is about knowledge. God wants a RELATIONSHIP with you. God doesn’t want your obedience, he want your hearts.
Conservatism is a way of thinking it is not a particular position.
https://kirkcenter.org/conservatism/ten-conservative-principles/