{"id":1092,"date":"2010-07-23T22:46:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-23T22:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/07\/faith-from-a-jar\/"},"modified":"2010-07-23T22:46:00","modified_gmt":"2010-07-23T22:46:00","slug":"faith-from-a-jar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/07\/faith-from-a-jar.html","title":{"rendered":"Faith From A Jar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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Not everyone has the time or skill necessary to make Italian tomato sauce from scratch. Most of us eat sauce from a jar most of the time. But you can certainly improve even store-bought sauce with relatively little effort. Grow your own basil in your garden, or if necessary in a pot or box on a window sill. Add fresh basil to your sauce from a jar, and you\u2019ll be amazed at how much it improves the flavor \u2013 and thus your dining experience.<\/p>\n

I think that our worldviews have a lot in common with this. I don\u2019t think anyone can ever put together a worldview entirely from scratch. But few of us have the time or skill even to put together our view on a particular subject from scratch. And as in cooking, what \u201cfrom scratch\u201d means is debatable. Do you have to grow your own tomatoes? Can you say you researched a subject yourself when you are dependent\u00a0on \u201cdata in a can\u201d?<\/p>\n

<\/a>Nevertheless, everyone should try to broaden their experience from \u201cfaith in a jar\u201d \u2013 by which I mean a viewpoint, whether it is belief in God, or belief that you are skeptical enough to know there is no God, or anything else, which you have largely taken over in its details from other people, whether they be family, friends, or people on the internet whom you hardly know. Take some detail about which you have nagging doubts or puzzling unanswered questions, and take the time to slow cook your own viewpoint. Don\u2019t take any shortcuts. Don\u2019t even rely too much on someone else\u2019s \u201crecipe.\u201d<\/div>\n
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You may never have the time to cook your own perspective entirely from scratch. Let\u2019s be honest: no one does<\/em>. But you can add some fresh ingredients. And what you\u2019ll discover as a result is perhaps more important than being able to cook your own sauce, or faith, from home-grown raw ingredients. You\u2019ll find out from your own experience that jarred faith, like jarred sauce, is something you settle for<\/em>. It provides convenience at the expense of taste. It sacrifices richness and authenticity for expediency.<\/p>\n

Few if any of us can ever attain a \u201cfully farm fresh faith.\u201d But I like to think that everyone<\/em> can expand their horizons\u00a0by adding\u00a0a few fresh ingredients. Because if nothing else, you\u2019ll realize as a result of doing so\u00a0that the arguments you\u2019ve been having about which jarred worldview is better are missing a much bigger picture. You may have both been arguing over the difference between two mass-produced imitations, without ever having tasted anything close to the \u201creal thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Buon appetito!<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
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Not everyone has the time or skill necessary to make Italian tomato sauce from scratch. Most of us eat sauce from a jar most of the time. But you can certainly improve even store-bought sauce with relatively little effort. Grow your own basil in your garden, or if necessary in a pot or box on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFaith From A Jar<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Not everyone has the time or skill necessary to make Italian tomato sauce from scratch. Most of us eat sauce from a jar most of the time. 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