Secular Faith - Krutulis, Jon

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Résumé :
Secular Faith revolves around the friendship of two men, one Christian and the other atheist. The difference in their perspectives, where faith and reason seem to diverge, forms the underlying tension that propels the storyline. When an unlikely sequence of fortune and misfortune seems divinely influenced and leads them to interpret events differently, it produces conflicting judgments on how to react, and their friendship is put to the test. Counteracting the wedge that pushes them apart is the human drive to grasp the spiritual meaning of existence. Because it is not enough to agree to disagree, each is driven to bring the other to his view in order to affirm that it represents truth. Their actions are influenced not by a God who intervenes in the matters of mankind, but by belief of whether or not He does. Ultimately they discover that a man is defined by his actions and not by what he believes to be true. Morality exists to guide actions, not thoughts. The story of Tom Dagney and Christopher Pierce represents the struggle between belief and non-belief within men who, by their very nature, doubt that which they profess to believe, and struggle to understand this dichotomy. How belief translates into behavior proves far more intriguing than scholarly debate about philosophical perspectives. Caring about what people think pales compared to the passions aroused by how they live. This story of friendship, love, envy, tragedy, and redemption gives breath to philosophy and life to the struggle to identify human purpose. Above all Secular Faith exemplifies that, without a doubt, a man who puts aside his faith to serve his friends will always be a better man than one who puts aside his friends to serve his faith....

Sommaire:
Secular Faith revolves around the friendship of two men, one Christian and the other atheist. The difference in their perspectives, where faith and reason seem to diverge, forms the underlying tension that propels the storyline. When an unlikely sequence of fortune and misfortune seems divinely influenced and leads them to interpret events differently, it produces conflicting judgments on how to react, and their friendship is put to the test. Counteracting the wedge that pushes them apart is the human drive to grasp the spiritual meaning of existence. Because it is not enough to agree to disagree, each is driven to bring the other to his view in order to affirm that it represents truth. Their actions are influenced not by a God who intervenes in the matters of mankind, but by belief of whether or not He does. Ultimately they discover that a man is defined by his actions and not by what he believes to be true. Morality exists to guide actions, not thoughts. The story of Tom Dagney and Christopher Pierce represents the struggle between belief and non-belief within men who, by their very nature, doubt that which they profess to believe, and struggle to understand this dichotomy. How belief translates into behavior proves far more intriguing than scholarly debate about philosophical perspectives. Caring about what people think pales compared to the passions aroused by how they live. This story of friendship, love, envy, tragedy, and redemption gives breath to philosophy and life to the struggle to identify human purpose. Above all Secular Faith exemplifies that, without a doubt, a man who puts aside his faith to serve his friends will always be a better man than one who puts aside his friends to serve his faith....