Religion

Respondent: "But the Bible says that God does ________. How do you explain that?"
CDV: "God works in mysterious ways, no one can truly know the nature of God.

Respondent: "But you just said that you know what God thinks or wants."
CDV: "STOP QUESTIONING my beliefs, why do you hate on religion so much!"

Can anyone explain to me why so many fundamentalist debates boil down to this?
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You don't need a treaty to have free trade. M Rothbard
{Self-Hating Token Asian of the Ivory Tower's Zionist Elite}

I don't think that you're using cognitive dissonance correctly. The theist in your example seems to be ignorant of his own belief system, and unwilling to learn more. Cognitive dissonance would be if the theist had powerful feelings both for and against his beliefs, and attempted to justify them by appealing more to one side. This person only has one side, and it's their own uninformed beliefs.
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Me to this random girl : Mygirlfriendsayswhat? Random girl: What?
Me: Zing!

Ahhh, I see. Okay I didn't even catch on to that. I thought that you were asserting something else.

Yup, that'll do it.
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Me to this random girl : Mygirlfriendsayswhat? Random girl: What?
Me: Zing!

Two reasons I can think of:

-Christianity has always been a religion of mystery. It is difficult for rational beings to accept that there are some things they cannot know, so we often speak with certainty when we are not always actually certain. Some people will recognize that Christianity contains unknowable truth, but not actually accept it.

-Apart from mystery, the Bible also contains tension. God is merciful, but he is also just. God is transcendent, but he is also immanent. Sometimes these things are truly mystery and cannot be fully understood, but sometimes they are merely contradictory on the surface, but have real explanations. But oftentimes they require a level of deep thinking and meditation on Scripture and reality which many are unwilling to attempt. So they resort to the adage, "God works in mysterious ways."

Also, you need to recognize that there are such things as mystery religions, and that practitioners of faith are often called to certainty amidst uncertainty. For example, I believe that God is three and that he is one, as that is the teaching of Christianity. And I can even explain it to a degree, but it is still a mystery that I cannot fully explain. It is a precept of my faith that I accept what I cannot fully explain. As someone once said, "try to explain the Trinity, you lose your mind. Deny the Trinity, you lose your soul."

Perhaps those who you are talking about are just as uncomfortable as you are with the apparent contradiction, and have not fully accepted that they are a part of a mystery religion.
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Lockstep with my God and King; move in perfect harmony.
~The Christian Hedonist~

king_gimpy posted...

Often it seems that God's opinions stem from the beliefs his followers already held, not the other way around.

That's because that's what happens.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18216-dear-god-please-confirm-what-i-already-believe.html
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Abortions for some, miniature American flags for others.