You have the ability to sense and know a higher truth.

[caine2000]

Someone once asked me what I thought faith was. I said that to me faith is the obsessive compulsion to believe in something despite a complete lack of evidence or preponderance of evidence to the contrary. He asked me if I had faith enough to believe in God. I told him that beliving in God was not nearly as important as understanding why. I

Comments

I concede the point... that you are a girl. (I've checked)

[caine2000]

I did mention in the post that I didn't know how it works for girls. I'll now follow that line of thought through to the logical conclusion which is "I'm sure it works differently for girls than for guys" as I've gotten a fairly constant "I disagree" responses from girls and "I feel ya" from (some) guys. And one "I concede the point" but we'll let that go... ;) The bulk of my post pertains pretty much exclusively to guys since fathers and daughters have an inherently different relationship. So there you go. On the other hand, I'll tell you that this is how it works between (most) fathers and sons.

It's funny that the religious, atheists, and agnostics have to try so hard to distance themselves. Agnosticism isn't a unique mindset; it's a measuring system on which Atheism and Religion are just extreme viewpoints. Everyone believes in something, it's just a question of which way you lean and how far.

As for God, I never said He was an actual man. And don't go quoting "God is a man" from my journal; it was part of a larger point. That point being that God is not a being, He is a reason. He is not the answer to the question of why, He is why we ask it. His personification is just an attempt to fill a basic need. I can understand why you might not think of Him as a guy since I'm sure we look for different things, but since men have pretty much written the books since the way-back, He's a guy. Plus I say so. :)

measuring systems and checking...

[eeeniebean]

"I'm sure it works differently for girls than for guys"
Right, and I'm certainly not trying to derail your recounting of your experience of Father and Son. Really, the details about my difference of experience as Daughter and the Void matter very little (though I love any experience to reminisce about my Grampie, thank you for that). What is relevant to the point is the -room- for maneuvering.

I like the flexibility that I'm hearing (because I like to hear what I want to hear) in your standpoint, which is that the conclusion is a factor of the experience. Since I have both a different experience (no authoritarian figure) -and- conclusion (no belief in God) - it seems clear that our raison d'etre is variable rather than static.

His personification is just an attempt to fill a basic need.
Yes, I would say that the concept of a God -is- an attempt to fill a need, but I would argue that it is not basic (read: universal). It is subjective and requisite on experience. If, in someone's life, they find the need to concede authority, seek approval and have faith in a higher, controlling, order-seeking being (possibly, as you posit, because of the experience of an authoritarian father), then a conception of God can fill that need.

Clearly, not everyone has the same experience.. Although I rambled about the feminine/masculine power trope for a while there, in the end, I suspect it is an individual/circumstantial thing rather than primarily gender based.

When it comes down to it, I think we're saying essentially the same thing - that which metaphysical belief system you subscribe to (if you make an effort to subscribe at all) is a function of your needs, experience and desire.

(by the way, I love it when you post)