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{"id":19127,"date":"2015-05-25T16:38:23","date_gmt":"2015-05-25T21:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?p=19127"},"modified":"2015-05-25T16:38:23","modified_gmt":"2015-05-25T21:38:23","slug":"if-you-believe-in-fairies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/05\/if-you-believe-in-fairies.html","title":{"rendered":"If You Believe in Fairies…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"tink-tinkerbell-24563094-409-575\"$ <\/a>\u2026clap your hands.<\/p>\n

You \u00a0may remember that episode in\u00a0Peter Pan<\/em>\u00a0when Tinkerbell is about to perish and all the children in the audience are asked to clap their hands if they believe in fairies. Their clapping makes Tinkerbell come back to life.<\/p>\n

Tinkerbell seems to have invaded the mindset of modern man. That is to say, too many people think that if you believe something it makes it so, and if you do not believe something that makes it so. How often have you heard people say, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t believe in Hell.\u201d Then they go on living like the devil\u2013imagining that just not believing in Hell makes Hell go away. (Here is a connected post:\u00a0Do You Believe in Hell?<\/a>) Likewise a good number of religious people think that just by believing a particular doctrine makes it so.<\/p>\n

This is practical relativism. It is sometimes expressed as \u201cIf that belief works for you, then that\u2019s good. It doesn\u2019t work for me.\u201d Thus belief is relegated to a kind of utilitarianism. \u201cChoose a belief you like, and the belief you like is the one that \u2018works for you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Truth, however, is not something you make up for yourself. \u00a0 Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

Image<\/a> via Bing<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"