Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2006 1:37 am Posts: 2465 Location: A dark place
I have been on a spiritual "quest" for some years now. I really, really want to believe in something, anything. I have many christian friends that I truly respect and love that seem to have this depth to them that I don't have. That "depth" is spirituality. They have a quite reserve and calmness to them that is something to be admired. My mother is a Buddhist that attends Unitarian Universal meetings and after decades of soul searching, has really seemed to find an inner peace. I have many Mormon friends that I have respect for and even though I don't agree with the politics, most of them seem to have an inner peace that I just don't have.
Then my father died and I realized that he, like me, always seemed to be searching. And then it dawned on me, searching for the truth is a kind of spirituality. The search for meaning is what it is to be human and maybe us agnostics/searchers are really the most spiritual people on Earth. Maybe these people that have found "inner peace" or the "holy ghost" have really just given up or have let fear taken over. It would be a lot easier for me to believe in God, then to know that when I die, that's it. I won't see my family in the "afterlife."
So I have come to realize that this "depth" that religious people seem to have, the thing that makes them seem so stoic and full of inner peace, is really just emptiness. A void in their quest for knowledge.
None of this is to say that agnostics are better than religious people. I just think that this void - the void that allows really smart people to believe in god - is a built-in defense mechanism that allows people to get on with their lives.
I didn't sleep much last night...
_________________ Do you like crappy amateur photography? Check out my photo blog here.
Standing above the crowd, He had a voice that was strong and loud and I Swallowed his facade cuz I'm so Eager to identify with Someone above the ground, Someone who seemed to feel the same, Someone prepared to lead the way, and Someone who would die for me.
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:17 pm Posts: 13551 Location: is a jerk in wyoming Gender: Female
turned2black wrote:
None of this is to say that agnostics are better than religious people. I just think that this void - the void that allows really smart people to believe in god - is a built-in defense mechanism that allows people to get on with their lives.
I wouldn't disagree, but feel it necessary to note - that's the point of 'belief' - to get on with one's life. If that's what people need to get through- even really smart people, that's fine. If you don't need that, that's fine too. What's not fine is to waste a lot of effort on searching for something to believe in - you either do or don't (unless you're ready to join a cult) Not wanting to be a dick, just stating an observation.
Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2006 1:37 am Posts: 2465 Location: A dark place
malice wrote:
turned2black wrote:
None of this is to say that agnostics are better than religious people. I just think that this void - the void that allows really smart people to believe in god - is a built-in defense mechanism that allows people to get on with their lives.
I wouldn't disagree, but feel it necessary to note - that's the point of 'belief' - to get on with one's life. If that's what people need to get through- even really smart people, that's fine. If you don't need that, that's fine too. What's not fine is to waste a lot of effort on searching for something to believe in - you either do or don't (unless you're ready to join a cult) Not wanting to be a dick, just stating an observation.
I don't think the search for some deeper "belief" in life is ever a waste. Even if that "belief" is that science holds all the answers. If we as agnostics shut out everything "spiritual" than we are no better than evangelical christians. I'm not searching for something to believe in, I'm searching for the truth. That's the problem with politics and religion today, everybody seems to know the "truth" even though they have spent very little time searching for it.
_________________ Do you like crappy amateur photography? Check out my photo blog here.
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 11:32 pm Posts: 1061 Location: Baltimore, the Land of Pleasant Living
There were two young college girls drinking on top of a bridge last night in Ellicott City Maryland. They were 19 years old sitting there looking out at the city from the railroad overpass that goes over main street, as their last get together before school starts. It is cool spot on the bridge as there is a sidewalk for people. One of their girls was going to James Madison University, the other University of Delaware both Juniors.They took pictures on their phone of them playing and their feet hanging over the road below and posted them to their twitter, "Levitating" they wrote and and put up the photo at at about 11:51. Behind them a CSX freight train rumbled past at 25 mph. About few moments later the CSX train out of West Virgina derailed suddenly topping over, spilling its contents and burying the best friends in coal. Police recovered thier bodies this morning from under the mountain of coal still seated on the edge of the span.
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
that just makes them go blind
Oh wait. maybe they didn't see the train!
_________________ "Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."--FDR
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
I used to be a 'religious people are stupid' style atheist. But one of, if not the, smartest people I've ever met was a deeply religious man, and that really caused me to rethink my position. However people respond to the fact of their small place in an infinite universe is up to them. Religion becomes troubling when it undermines the skeptical doubt that makes it possible for people to live alongside one another peacefully. But non religious views can lead to the same place. The problem isn't religion. it is fundamentalism.
_________________ "Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."--FDR
I used to be a 'religious people are stupid' style atheist. But one of, if not the, smartest people I've ever met was a deeply religious man, and that really caused me to rethink my position. However people respond to the fact of their small place in an infinite universe is up to them. Religion becomes troubling when it undermines the skeptical doubt that makes it possible for people to live alongside one another peacefully. But non religious views can lead to the same place. The problem isn't religion. it is fundamentalism.
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 9:44 am Posts: 3539 Location: England Gender: Female
turned2black wrote:
I have been on a spiritual "quest" for some years now. I really, really want to believe in something, anything. I have many christian friends that I truly respect and love that seem to have this depth to them that I don't have. That "depth" is spirituality. They have a quite reserve and calmness to them that is something to be admired. My mother is a Buddhist that attends Unitarian Universal meetings and after decades of soul searching, has really seemed to find an inner peace. I have many Mormon friends that I have respect for and even though I don't agree with the politics, most of them seem to have an inner peace that I just don't have.
Then my father died and I realized that he, like me, always seemed to be searching. And then it dawned on me, searching for the truth is a kind of spirituality. The search for meaning is what it is to be human and maybe us agnostics/searchers are really the most spiritual people on Earth. Maybe these people that have found "inner peace" or the "holy ghost" have really just given up or have let fear taken over. It would be a lot easier for me to believe in God, then to know that when I die, that's it. I won't see my family in the "afterlife."
So I have come to realize that this "depth" that religious people seem to have, the thing that makes them seem so stoic and full of inner peace, is really just emptiness. A void in their quest for knowledge.
None of this is to say that agnostics are better than religious people. I just think that this void - the void that allows really smart people to believe in god - is a built-in defense mechanism that allows people to get on with their lives.
I didn't sleep much last night...
I don't think its fair to say it's a void, that's just your interpretation. I gather spritual people would disagree about there being a void. That's all, surely?
pure atheism seems to rely on a belief that we can quantify the unknown and unknowable so its almost as absurd as religious belief IMO, but definitions of atheism and what a God could be seem to vary from person to person.
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