(no subject)
In Christianity, as I know it, there are a lot of things that aren't explained. There are a lot of things that somehow just don't seem right. Anyone who is intelligent, and has pondered on this stuff for any amount of time will find questions that don't seem to have any real answers. My faith isn't as strong as it should have been, I guess, because when I was old enough to really start thinking seriously about a lot of the stuff in the Bible and taught in Church, I started asking those hard to understand questions. I was hopeful for some revelation and insight, but I got something quite different. When I asked tough questions to people, I guess they realized that they didn't know, and it made them nervous enough that they either got upset with me, or told me that I didn't have faith. I felt like if this Christian God made us with the ability to think, then why shouldn't we think? And if he gave us the ability to have free will, and choose, then why shouldn't we also try to understand, and make informed choices? So I asked more questions, and it always went back to two distinct answers: 1) Well, the Bible says.... or 2) We can't possibly understand, you just have to accept it on faith.
My problems with this are that the Bible was written by men, and has been retranslated and altered for ages. It seems fallible, and more a work of man, than of God. There are so many people through the history of the world that have lived their entire lives without ever hearing of Jesus. I refuse to believe that that condemns them to some eternal suffering. It just seems very ridiculous. And as far as the faith aspect goes, it seems to me that as soon as you just stop trying to understand, and just accept something on faith, you're copping out. You're ceasing to use your abilities that God gave you. If there is a God out there, and if we really all exist, then there has to be certain truths that can be discovered. These truths don't take a special book to figure out. You just have to start small, and think a lot.
So, coming back to the original topic... I was a Christian, and then I started asking questions. I found out that nobody knows the answers to my questions, and that made me doubt. And once I doubted, I decided that it was of extreme importance for me to not blindly believe something simply because my parents told me that's what I believed. I decided the only way to come to some sort of truth that I felt I really could believe in, with my whole heart, was to do a lot of self exploration and thinking.
I started small. I asked myself what do I KNOW:
1) I exist. This is something that I can prove. The simple fact that I am aware, and have a consciousness is proof enough. Even if I'm simply a dream of someone else, or a computer program or something, I still exist in some way, thus proving existance.
2) I did not create myself. Anyway you look at it all explanations for why I'm here really don't have anything to do with me creating myself, which seems like a paradox anyway. I was either born through nature, being offspring of my parents. I am the imagined dream or creations of something else much greater.
3) I can think and choose. The fact that I have questions to ponder on helps to prove this. I can observe my options and then decide what is best for my given situation, and then resolve to choose one over the other. I am capable of thought, and it is one of my primary abilities.
4) I can interact with my surroundings. When I choose to do something, or choose not to do something, a different outcome will follow. Often I know or suspect what the outcome will be, and can act accordingly. There is a cause and effect relationship that seems to be a universal constant. I can manipulate my environment to affect changes. This includes physical things, myself, people around me, etc.
5) Living things attempt to continue living. From the smallest living creature all the way to the most advanced, we all have a self preservation instinct and attempt to survive, and reproduce. When something is wrong, you hurt, and you don't enjoy it. When things are going well, you feel good. As time went on, people found that they were able to live even better, by working together and helping each other. Aside from any social implications, working together for the common survival is a characteristic that we can observe in many, many creatures of the world, that don't have religion.
Those are the basic things that I can prove right now. Of course they're all extremely basic, but in my search to discover truths, I refused to take anything for granted. And, from these basic things, I can develop an ethos for myself which is shockingly close to Christianity and many other major religions. Let me go on a bit further, and maybe you'll see where I'm coming from.
Because of all of this stuff, I'm positive that there has to be some higher power, or God. For ease of our understanding and description, we can just call it/them God. This Creator started everything. It is impossible to imagine a situation where existence always WAS. It had to have begun at some point. Whether God is still present and watching or not is fairly irrelevant. One must assume that if existence can be set into motion, then God must inherently be beyond such things as time and existance. Therefore, God created us for some purpose that we cannot hope to guess about. The only things that I have to go on for sure, are those things I've listed above. All of nature and life and existence is carrying forward in a seemingly random, but ultimately understood (for God anyways) form. I owe my existence to God, perhaps not in a specifically direct and literal way, but in a philisophical, and general way, for sure. God gave me existence, the ability to choose, the ability to affect change, and the instincts that guide me toward survival and life.
From that I can come to a set of choices: Do I want to hurt and destroy, thereby struggling against those basic truths of nature that have always been in place on this Earth (which is part of a creation that I cannot understand, but part of the Creator's created existence)? Or do I try help, build, and survive? The understanding that I've gained through learning and experience is that helping others is a good way to go about this. So do I try to help people, and treat them how I would want to be treated? Or do I go against those natural instincts for the simple purpose of railing against something that I don't really understand well enough to make an informored choice to struggle against?
Some people would argue that the only reason that people have a natural inclination toward cooperation and life is because our society tells them that that is the way things are done. And while in a sort of weird way, that may be true to some extent, I believe that society itself initially formed because of the much more basic needs of life, and the fact that survival is made easier when people work together and help each other. I think those natural tendancies inherent in all of creation make the forming of societies a natural evolution of life. In it's most basic form, society is simply a way that we can all help each other to strive for improved life together. We see this in nature, from clusters of microscopic organisms, to ant colonies, to prides of lions, and on up.
I believe that most religions were created to accomplish a variety of different goals. Among them are such things as:
1) Providing explanations for things that we cannot understand.
2) Due to our natural insticts toward living and survival, religion is a way of helping us cope with the end of our own life.
3) Helping people to have community and helping to provide for those that are less fortunate.
4) Social control.
So, basically, I don't really have a religion right now. I have truths that I believe in, and by examining them, I can determine that I prefer to make the choice that helps to continue what existence is all about... existing. I help those around me, and try to make life better for everyone that I interact with. And while I'm doing this, I'm still searching. I'm searching for new truths. I don't want to ever stop looking for more truths. I think that to not have all of the answers is fine. To stop looking for them is a shame. I believe that I can't presume to know what my purpose is, but I do know what I can do to help improve life for myself and the world around me. I think that is what is important. And surprisingly or not, those goals that I've given myself, so far, are very much in line with many of the major tenants of much of the religions that I've been exposed to. Maybe someday, I will witness things, or listen to someone's words, and it will make me realize that there is more out there than just those things I've listed above. If that truly happens, then I will be joyful indeed, and I will feel that much closer to God's will. Until then, I don't think that I'm approaching life in a bad way, and I don't think that God would disapprove of my search for truths.
In a nutshell, my beliefs system is extremely basic, without a concept of an afterlife or any of the tools upon which a transition into such depends. I'm very open minded, but I also need to understand something before I think I can decide that it is something that I will believe in. I don't necessarily have a concept of sin either. I only have a concept of having a choice, and understanding that some choices lead to hurting and others to harmony. I have a concept of the natural order of things (overshadowed by a Creator who made it for a reason that I cannot hope to fully understand) and I see that I can fight against that natural order, or play a role in its continuation.
I know I'm not perfect. I make mistakes. But I do my best. I do my best, and I do pray. I pray to God when I feel like I want to think about the uncertain choices before me. Mine is a life of introspection and responsibility. I do not feel ashamed for my choices, only sad that there are those that cannot accept me, or understand that I really am searching and trying to grow as a person.
That's me. Hope you're not scared now.
My problems with this are that the Bible was written by men, and has been retranslated and altered for ages. It seems fallible, and more a work of man, than of God. There are so many people through the history of the world that have lived their entire lives without ever hearing of Jesus. I refuse to believe that that condemns them to some eternal suffering. It just seems very ridiculous. And as far as the faith aspect goes, it seems to me that as soon as you just stop trying to understand, and just accept something on faith, you're copping out. You're ceasing to use your abilities that God gave you. If there is a God out there, and if we really all exist, then there has to be certain truths that can be discovered. These truths don't take a special book to figure out. You just have to start small, and think a lot.
So, coming back to the original topic... I was a Christian, and then I started asking questions. I found out that nobody knows the answers to my questions, and that made me doubt. And once I doubted, I decided that it was of extreme importance for me to not blindly believe something simply because my parents told me that's what I believed. I decided the only way to come to some sort of truth that I felt I really could believe in, with my whole heart, was to do a lot of self exploration and thinking.
I started small. I asked myself what do I KNOW:
1) I exist. This is something that I can prove. The simple fact that I am aware, and have a consciousness is proof enough. Even if I'm simply a dream of someone else, or a computer program or something, I still exist in some way, thus proving existance.
2) I did not create myself. Anyway you look at it all explanations for why I'm here really don't have anything to do with me creating myself, which seems like a paradox anyway. I was either born through nature, being offspring of my parents. I am the imagined dream or creations of something else much greater.
3) I can think and choose. The fact that I have questions to ponder on helps to prove this. I can observe my options and then decide what is best for my given situation, and then resolve to choose one over the other. I am capable of thought, and it is one of my primary abilities.
4) I can interact with my surroundings. When I choose to do something, or choose not to do something, a different outcome will follow. Often I know or suspect what the outcome will be, and can act accordingly. There is a cause and effect relationship that seems to be a universal constant. I can manipulate my environment to affect changes. This includes physical things, myself, people around me, etc.
5) Living things attempt to continue living. From the smallest living creature all the way to the most advanced, we all have a self preservation instinct and attempt to survive, and reproduce. When something is wrong, you hurt, and you don't enjoy it. When things are going well, you feel good. As time went on, people found that they were able to live even better, by working together and helping each other. Aside from any social implications, working together for the common survival is a characteristic that we can observe in many, many creatures of the world, that don't have religion.
Those are the basic things that I can prove right now. Of course they're all extremely basic, but in my search to discover truths, I refused to take anything for granted. And, from these basic things, I can develop an ethos for myself which is shockingly close to Christianity and many other major religions. Let me go on a bit further, and maybe you'll see where I'm coming from.
Because of all of this stuff, I'm positive that there has to be some higher power, or God. For ease of our understanding and description, we can just call it/them God. This Creator started everything. It is impossible to imagine a situation where existence always WAS. It had to have begun at some point. Whether God is still present and watching or not is fairly irrelevant. One must assume that if existence can be set into motion, then God must inherently be beyond such things as time and existance. Therefore, God created us for some purpose that we cannot hope to guess about. The only things that I have to go on for sure, are those things I've listed above. All of nature and life and existence is carrying forward in a seemingly random, but ultimately understood (for God anyways) form. I owe my existence to God, perhaps not in a specifically direct and literal way, but in a philisophical, and general way, for sure. God gave me existence, the ability to choose, the ability to affect change, and the instincts that guide me toward survival and life.
From that I can come to a set of choices: Do I want to hurt and destroy, thereby struggling against those basic truths of nature that have always been in place on this Earth (which is part of a creation that I cannot understand, but part of the Creator's created existence)? Or do I try help, build, and survive? The understanding that I've gained through learning and experience is that helping others is a good way to go about this. So do I try to help people, and treat them how I would want to be treated? Or do I go against those natural instincts for the simple purpose of railing against something that I don't really understand well enough to make an informored choice to struggle against?
Some people would argue that the only reason that people have a natural inclination toward cooperation and life is because our society tells them that that is the way things are done. And while in a sort of weird way, that may be true to some extent, I believe that society itself initially formed because of the much more basic needs of life, and the fact that survival is made easier when people work together and help each other. I think those natural tendancies inherent in all of creation make the forming of societies a natural evolution of life. In it's most basic form, society is simply a way that we can all help each other to strive for improved life together. We see this in nature, from clusters of microscopic organisms, to ant colonies, to prides of lions, and on up.
I believe that most religions were created to accomplish a variety of different goals. Among them are such things as:
1) Providing explanations for things that we cannot understand.
2) Due to our natural insticts toward living and survival, religion is a way of helping us cope with the end of our own life.
3) Helping people to have community and helping to provide for those that are less fortunate.
4) Social control.
So, basically, I don't really have a religion right now. I have truths that I believe in, and by examining them, I can determine that I prefer to make the choice that helps to continue what existence is all about... existing. I help those around me, and try to make life better for everyone that I interact with. And while I'm doing this, I'm still searching. I'm searching for new truths. I don't want to ever stop looking for more truths. I think that to not have all of the answers is fine. To stop looking for them is a shame. I believe that I can't presume to know what my purpose is, but I do know what I can do to help improve life for myself and the world around me. I think that is what is important. And surprisingly or not, those goals that I've given myself, so far, are very much in line with many of the major tenants of much of the religions that I've been exposed to. Maybe someday, I will witness things, or listen to someone's words, and it will make me realize that there is more out there than just those things I've listed above. If that truly happens, then I will be joyful indeed, and I will feel that much closer to God's will. Until then, I don't think that I'm approaching life in a bad way, and I don't think that God would disapprove of my search for truths.
In a nutshell, my beliefs system is extremely basic, without a concept of an afterlife or any of the tools upon which a transition into such depends. I'm very open minded, but I also need to understand something before I think I can decide that it is something that I will believe in. I don't necessarily have a concept of sin either. I only have a concept of having a choice, and understanding that some choices lead to hurting and others to harmony. I have a concept of the natural order of things (overshadowed by a Creator who made it for a reason that I cannot hope to fully understand) and I see that I can fight against that natural order, or play a role in its continuation.
I know I'm not perfect. I make mistakes. But I do my best. I do my best, and I do pray. I pray to God when I feel like I want to think about the uncertain choices before me. Mine is a life of introspection and responsibility. I do not feel ashamed for my choices, only sad that there are those that cannot accept me, or understand that I really am searching and trying to grow as a person.
That's me. Hope you're not scared now.