Pretty interesting take, I especially liked your mind-shape idea.
Another way to view faith is an attempt to find “God’s will” which is like a vector pointing toward an undefined point (God) which represents an idealized version of the best possible outcome of things. Ideally, a person of faith is always adjusting the vector of the direction of their lives (based on the outcomes of things), and not intentionally taking a vector known to point away from God (sin).
Some people think religion is useless, but actually, this approach is similar to the process of achieving any complex goal. Only, goals can be wrong to begin with unless the goal is God, which is the correct goal by definition. The Bible is a set of stories, rules, and lessons that provide a shortcut to a well-aimed vector (rather than pure trial and error, which is a costly process).
The “idealized version of the best possible outcome of things” is an intimidatingly ambiguous concept, but why would we want to aim for anything less? Religion is a method to achieve this goal that has been refined and field-tested over thousands of years.
Pretty interesting take, I especially liked your mind-shape idea.
Another way to view faith is an attempt to find “God’s will” which is like a vector pointing toward an undefined point (God) which represents an idealized version of the best possible outcome of things. Ideally, a person of faith is always adjusting the vector of the direction of their lives (based on the outcomes of things), and not intentionally taking a vector known to point away from God (sin).
Some people think religion is useless, but actually, this approach is similar to the process of achieving any complex goal. Only, goals can be wrong to begin with unless the goal is God, which is the correct goal by definition. The Bible is a set of stories, rules, and lessons that provide a shortcut to a well-aimed vector (rather than pure trial and error, which is a costly process).
The “idealized version of the best possible outcome of things” is an intimidatingly ambiguous concept, but why would we want to aim for anything less? Religion is a method to achieve this goal that has been refined and field-tested over thousands of years.