Reproducible effects
Here's a fact: I don't know everything. In fact, even after the multiple degrees and years of living, there will be much I won't know.
It's part of the human condition. Maybe hundreds of years from now, human beings may evolve into something else, but right now, our cognitive abilities and acquired knowledge have only taken us so far. Thus, a part of the act of being alive is the stupefying wonder of it all.
Back when I was religious and later, when I was "spiritual", I chose a set of explanations that helped me cope with that 'unknown'. Later still, when I realized that these didn't serve me and I declared myself agnostic, I swung toward science in an attempt to explain my world. Science, however, has as many holes and hypotheses regarding the nature of existence as religion and spirituality do.
From where I stand now, it just feels like I just swapped a set of stories for another in an attempt to address the unknown. Scientists claim that their explanations are more sound because of the scientific method, the presentation of evidence and the fact that, if things are done properly, results should be easily reproduced. However, the Universe isn't that neat. Things STILL happen. Real things. Chunks of experience occur in the Natural World all the time that won't fit that label of 'reproducible effects'.
People of Faith (and I say 'faith' with the capital 'F') of any path claim that their explanations are good too. They feel energies and the prescence of the Divine (no Ted, not the drag queen....lol....and not Bette Midler, either) and they feel fairly confident that if you feel something it's evidence enough, even if you can't explain it or reproduce it and that seems to work for them. The reason why that didn't work for me anymore was that I couldn't really distinguish that 'feeling' from other effects of my own biology. How could I separate that 'feeling' from other effects of my own brain chemistry? How could ANYONE, really? I have had moments when I truly felt the presence of God. I have also taken ecstasy and felt the same thing. Or chanted. Or danced naked... in the moonlight... in a drum circle. So which ones are valid and 'real' and which ones are purely 'chemical'? What makes one valid and not another?
Nothing really has changed. I just swapped mysteries and explanations. And yet, the 'oddness' is still there. The 'unexplained', the creepy, the awe-inducing is still there.
But now....I think I'm just going to live my life and stop trying to explain it. Regardless of whether it's the Hand of God or the cusp of biology that makes the Universe go 'round....
I think it's possible to live with a sense of Opennes, Awe and Wonder, with a thirst for knowlege, but at the same time letting go of our 'need to know'. That's MY theory, at least, but I think it's one I can get behind on.
It's part of the human condition. Maybe hundreds of years from now, human beings may evolve into something else, but right now, our cognitive abilities and acquired knowledge have only taken us so far. Thus, a part of the act of being alive is the stupefying wonder of it all.
Back when I was religious and later, when I was "spiritual", I chose a set of explanations that helped me cope with that 'unknown'. Later still, when I realized that these didn't serve me and I declared myself agnostic, I swung toward science in an attempt to explain my world. Science, however, has as many holes and hypotheses regarding the nature of existence as religion and spirituality do.
From where I stand now, it just feels like I just swapped a set of stories for another in an attempt to address the unknown. Scientists claim that their explanations are more sound because of the scientific method, the presentation of evidence and the fact that, if things are done properly, results should be easily reproduced. However, the Universe isn't that neat. Things STILL happen. Real things. Chunks of experience occur in the Natural World all the time that won't fit that label of 'reproducible effects'.
People of Faith (and I say 'faith' with the capital 'F') of any path claim that their explanations are good too. They feel energies and the prescence of the Divine (no Ted, not the drag queen....lol....and not Bette Midler, either) and they feel fairly confident that if you feel something it's evidence enough, even if you can't explain it or reproduce it and that seems to work for them. The reason why that didn't work for me anymore was that I couldn't really distinguish that 'feeling' from other effects of my own biology. How could I separate that 'feeling' from other effects of my own brain chemistry? How could ANYONE, really? I have had moments when I truly felt the presence of God. I have also taken ecstasy and felt the same thing. Or chanted. Or danced naked... in the moonlight... in a drum circle. So which ones are valid and 'real' and which ones are purely 'chemical'? What makes one valid and not another?
Nothing really has changed. I just swapped mysteries and explanations. And yet, the 'oddness' is still there. The 'unexplained', the creepy, the awe-inducing is still there.
But now....I think I'm just going to live my life and stop trying to explain it. Regardless of whether it's the Hand of God or the cusp of biology that makes the Universe go 'round....
I think it's possible to live with a sense of Opennes, Awe and Wonder, with a thirst for knowlege, but at the same time letting go of our 'need to know'. That's MY theory, at least, but I think it's one I can get behind on.