mmm... interesting - not so much as the topic itself, but the development of the topic from its inception. Where one had begun with the question of logic ended with the question of 'what do you feel?'

Religion to me, the belief in God or god or gods or anything otherwise, is not so much any question of logic. And, I'm sorry if my own opinions offends anyone, but I very much staunchly believe that anyone who uses the question of logic or rationalism to show why they cannot believe in God is missing the point entirely. Those who do believe face exactly the same questions of how or why and for what. The difference is those who believe continue to believe despite such questions. It is, quite simply, faith.

And what is this faith? It isn't something or anything that's measurable. It simply means to believe - even without any logical foundation.

How is it then that we are able to draw a distinction between religion and pseudoscience? Tarot cards and fortune tellers - these things people believe in without any logical foundation as well. Where religion differs however is that the act of faith and believing is a form of transformation in the 'spiritual' self. Another way of putting it is that the act of faith and believing gives meaning and purpose to our own lives whereas pseudoscience does not answer the questions of 'so what?'

I don't mean to attack people who don't believe in God or religion. My own father is an atheist, more staunchly so than anyone else I've met in my life. However, believing to believe is something that gives meaning to the human life (in my opinion). I don't have or understand any more than anyone else, but without faith, life to me is meaningless. I don't live, and can't live, for me, and the idea of living without purpose is something that might as well be suicide to me. This idea of God is much closer to the emotional self than it is to the rational self, but all this is still far, it seems, from the spiritual self. Spirituality is not emotional, and while people argue that spirituality is really an emotional attachment, I find hard to believe that when spirituality can cause just as much pain as it can joy, spirituality is not a creation of emotional desires and needs - although they do interact closely.

Where I believe is the roadblock for people to not believe in God is not rationalism or any logical excuse. (I'm sorry that I'm talking as though all people should believe in God, but I don't know how else to phrase what I'm trying to say) I think it's really other people. Those who do believe in God aren't any different from those who don't, and moreover, those who do tend to hold it above those who don't. (I'm really trying not to be one of those, but I do realize that this paragraph is coming off as such) Religion, then, becomes an excuse in the eyes of those who don't believe, a convenient way to relieve oneself of emotional baggage and stress of guilt and sin and somehow some idea we have of right and wrong - all while becoming 'righter' than anyone else. At least, in the end, that's what I see, that's what I hear from other people, and that's what I think is one of the greater struggles of being religious in today's society.

posted by Bryan Lee   [8:15 AM]

[ website ] :: [ contact ] :: [ home ]

XML