Faith - Chapter 18

As someone who teeters between atheism and agnosticism, I found the discussion of faith in the text interesting. In particular, Fowler's six stages of faith explain different mindsets within the context of faith that I have never really gone through. Of course, I think most of us go through stage 1, similar to how we go through a stage where we believe in Santa Claus. However, I have never gone through stage 2 in which I've ever taken stories from the Bible, Quran, Torah, etc. literally. These stories have always been stories that I questioned and critically analyzed as a child and adolescent. I know the text also says that many people do not follow these six stages in direct order, or do not follow some stages at all. I would be interested to hear from my peers what their experiences have been with these six stages. Has anyone followed these stages, and where are you all at in terms of these stages currently? Stage six to me is a stage that I am very interested in because so many of the people who I hold up to be people who I look up to have achieved entry into this stage, such as Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Cornel West, and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Though I do not subscribe to any of their theological beliefs, I do subscribe to their beliefs of human interaction and civil rights that arise from those theological beliefs. Overall, I wonder how many people have experienced the mid to higher levels of Fowler's six stages, and what are peoples' reasons for subscribing to these faith-based beliefs. I certainly do not mean this to sound condescending, as I respect these various beliefs and find them to be largely beneficial to the construct of human lives.