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Comment by shadowsun7 | Hacker News Reader

One recurring theme I found was that ministers and priests always ended up doubting or renouncing their faith. It was terribly depressing.

I'm curious: why?

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Probably a combination of things, but I suspect one reason is, from a relatively young age they make themselves a standard bearer for a belief system and from then on are never allowed the freedom to question it.

They spend their lives attempting to persuade others of the truth of a belief system that many people naturally question as they mature, but priests/ministers have to suppress that tendancy.

It's not until they're on their deathbed do they realize how trapped they were their entire lives, how invested in being trapped they were, and resent it.

Reminds me of the scene at the end of No Coutry For Old Men:

Sheriff Bell: "I always figured when I got older, God would sorta come inta my life somehow.

And he didn't."

I really don't know. They never gave a reason. Loneliness was common for those poor guys.

This is very, very true. Ministers of most all religions are among the loneliest of the lot. Because confidence is crucial to their social function and because people breed politics (i.e., backstabbing), many feel they cannot have friends in their congregations/parishes/communities/whatever. Too often they are right.

Would it be helpful to create a forum or community site specifically for them? Then they can vent and bond anonymously, or with people far away who don't have conflict of interests with them.

The path to enlightment is a lonely one

Some old Buddhist sayings is "Concepts act as robbers, consciousness becomes waves". So, one should avoid memorizing sayings and living inside conceptual consciousness. ^_^

Concepts are just tools. The map is not a territory.

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