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Originally Posted by Tordok
Quisqueya & Deelt,
We could reduce my beliefs into Deism. I'm open to the presence of a spiritual reality but based on the use of reason and not supertstition. It blends scientific rigor with mystic awe, and no rituals nor dogmas are needed to feel the blessings of Nature and to be in communion with mankind.
My statements essentially reflect my view that there are many things for which science is the best tool around, but quite insufficient to help us grasp our whole 'perceived' reality. I am therefore unable to profess the more extreme materialistic- "soul-less" - views. So religious beliefs and myths are metaphors for something we perceive to be there, but cannot decode. Maybe divinely preordained, maybe a species-specific delusion.
I happen to think that there are forces that are a mystery to us. I do believe that there are forms of communication among humans and nature for which we can't find the right 'frequency' or physical mechanism. But I am always tempted to consider something mopre simple, like tricks of consciuosness coming from overachieving neurons. Such beliefs IMO do not invalidate the transcendentalism and benefits of meditation or prayer. It is when people start telling me that they KNOW what God wants because it was so written by some tribal goatherder several millenia ago, I get a bit testy.
But I do respect even those kinds of beliefs because I expect mine to be considered just as valid. We are allowed to fantasize about the ethereal realms of our lives in different ways and still share and grow in our humanity. It would be much less colorful without the cultural legaciy of our ancestors, whom with their limited knowledge of science developed a variety of cute pagan rituals but also other not-so-cute folk faiths, like blood rites and cannibalism in many cultures. Talismanes and other regalia, evil eye, etc IMO is pretty harmless stuff really, and very rich in human psychology. Those things are remnants of our superstitious past as a species. The real danger comes from religious fanatics with political agendas in today's world. Those rigid, and often brainless, dogmas keep many people divorced from their own natural qualities and away from forming a genuine brotherhood of mankind.
- Tordok
for more info on Deism:
http://www.deism.org/frames.htm |
Interesting post, Tordok.
Here is something to think about...
Well, first and foremost, I (as a Dominican and I suppose this is almost expected) was born into a Catholic household. I think I know every prayer there is in that religion, but currently I am not too close to Catholicism, despite the fact that if people ask me what my religion is, I will say Catholicism.
However, I am more akeen to reading the Bible (whether most of the stories were true or not is irrelevant to me, each story has a moral significance behind them that is good for the most part, thus its a good source of getting one's life in the good trajectory, in my opinion) rather than going to church and hearing the opinion of a preast of what the Bible says.
I think, if you do good, God will redeem you even if you never stepped foot in a church, but that is my own personal belief and by default, that makes me a non-Catholic since in order to be a real Catholic, one has to believe 100% in what it teaches, but that is besides the point.
However, pertaining to the existence of God, I stumbled upon an interesting fact using religion and science that has lead me to come up with interesting questions and I will present them here, just for the purpose of bringing this to light, as oppose to creating a debate around this.
According to religion, God was the creator of all things. God is everywhere, God is in everything, God has always existed, but God was never created and will never be destroyed, and God is not a being, but a spirit or a thing out there.
I never fully believed that inside of me, but I accepted it just how many religious people accept that today, though I think most people have some level of doubt as to how true that may be.
As I have stated, I did not fully believed in that until I read in a science book the definition of matter.
According to Science, Matter is everywhere, matter is in everything, matter has always existed, it cannot be created or destroyed. Matter forms part of every living and non living thing, in the air, in space, in everything.
This, of course, automatically leads to the belief that when ever some is created on its own (ie. a fetus forms with hands, legs, head etc, automatically out of thin air. Some how each cell which is identical in the Zigot stage evolves into distinct body parts, etc) what is creating that thing is matter. Matter is within that living creature, matter is around that living creature, matter is everything that creature is and everything that creature is not.
My questions are the following:
Given that the definition of what religion calls God and what science calls Matter is the exact same, is matter God? Is God matter?
Is what we call God, really matter? God is a hard consept to describe and so is matter.
I don't know the answer to these questions and I don't expect anyone to know, but whatever the answer it surely would be very interesting.
On the other hand, why do humans have an urge towards the spiritual?
Every civilization, group of humans, advanced or backwards have some form of spiritual belief, with a central God or the notion of Gods. Why is this the case? Why are we drawn to these beliefs, beliefs that may be different but all revolve around the notion of God or Gods?
If matter is God, and matter is in all of us and everything as Science has proven, then God or matter, is truly our spiritual being that we yern for so much and given that we are made up of God or matter, this perfectly explain the human urge to please some form of super natural being that we all sort of know exist, but given the hardship involved in proving this, we often attempt to distance ourselves from such notion of a God existing.
And guess what, as we use Science to "distance" ourselves from the notion of a God existing, Science is now giving us hints of the exact same description religion gave us when describing God, except that in Science we give it a different name.
What an interesting finding.
I think this is one of those questions that I know the answer deep down inside, but given the fear or inability to fully prove it, I would refrain from fully answering my very own questions, but I think what I have "discovered" here merits some extra attention from religions and scientific leaders of all kinds.
Is matter God? Is God matter?
Hmm...