Before you read this understand that I have purposely made some contradictions. Why? Because I want to get everyone thinking and I want to leave room for discussion from many different viewpoints. If something I say offends you or you think is completely ludicrous then GOOD, that way we can discuss it, while at the same time gain some insight into what others believe. Anyone that has read anything I have ever written understands my style of just saying the first thing that pops into my head. With that in mind, my God can kick your God’s ass…
Who am I and why am I here? I have always believed this is a question that everyone ponders at least once in their lifetime. Lately this has changed. I now believe this is THE question that everyone ponders. The human need to know who we are and why we are here has caused us to create many answers. What are the answers? Which answer is true? Are any of the answers true? How do we know if they are or are not true?
When you take into account the size of the entire universe our planet has no meaning or purpose at all, let alone the life on our planet. But of course we couldn’t take into account the size of the entire universe, because we can’t actually grasp what that size is.
All of this has to have a meaning, right? Why else would we be alive, thinking, breathing, eating, loving and creating if there were no meaning? Is that meaning God? Is God the reason we do anything? Yes? Then the next question would be which God are you talking about? Or maybe I should say (g)od…
The journey to prove a god exists and the journey to prove a god doesn’t exist is like having two NASCAR drivers race without a finish. They continuously go around and around a track with neither ever winning. They’re driving different cars with different engines, but both are on the same course.
I feel as though many people who claim no belief in a god are actually claiming a belief in no God. That is, a lack of belief in a particular god. For example… the God in the monotheistic religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This particular God gets more shit from non-believers than any other God in our modern time. With over half the world’s population (estimated 3.5 billion+) practicing one of these monotheistic religions it makes the most sense these religions get the most criticism from non-believers. What exactly is the debate? Is it that there is no possible scientific way Genesis is accurate? Of course using a book compiled and written by other humans to justify the reality of a God is understandably irrational. It’s just as irrational as using Greek mythology to prove that Zeus threw lightning with his hands. But, does it need to be rational? Why is it rational to believe everything we know and see came for one extremely dense location that suddenly expanded some 14 billion years ago? That is only a belief that the majority of the scientific community views as the most feasible idea for the creation of the universe, based on ‘tests’ of course. In contrast, those who practice the monotheistic religions believe with absolute certainty that their God is real and all they have to go on is faith. Is it that we can digest a theory because it is in some ways measurable but we can’t digest the ‘feeling’ religious people have because science has no way of measuring that feeling? Then there is also the issue of evolution, which is supported by VERY strong evidence and completely debunks the Adam and Eve creation story. Hmmm. It’s easy to take something that is written and use science to disprove it on our physical level.
If Judaism, Christianity and Islam are religions that believe in the same God, then why are they labeled as different religions? Why do they all read from different combinations of similar books? This one God that they all believe in, does he want a label put on the way he is worshiped and viewed? Out of the 34,000 or so denominations of Christianity, which is the best or purists? They are all interpretations of the same stuff. Aren’t they? If the history of what you practice isn’t fully understood, then how do you know what it is that you are practicing? What this all comes around to, is nobody knows who they are worshipping or even if they are worshipping this ‘who’ the correct way…
If an Atheist is to say someone shouldn’t believe in a god, they should also explain which god they are talking about and what is the reasoning for not believing. If you take away all of the writings and stories handed down over time there is really no evidence an atheist has against the existence of a god except we haven’t found one yet. The big bang possibly explaining the creation of our universe doesn’t mean that this creation rules out the workings of a god. Maybe the big bang resulted from the hand clap of a god. I say this assuming you believe the big bang is how it all began. I try hard not to give this possible god human characteristics. That would be like trying to describe the smell of a leprechaun or the taste of fried Tianlong meat. I’ve never seen a god nonetheless focused on one’s characteristics and features.
Sorry, but I have to ask… what is a god? Are humans so self-centered and consumed with their self-appointed superiority in the universe that we have allowed ourselves to create a single idea of what a god is to be like? This means an ultimate force that resides over everything or a force that has some power to control and manipulate things. If this is the case then it could be argued we all believe in some form of god on a certain level. Whether or not it’s only mythological, we still have created this idea of god. The WE I am referring to in this case is the entire human race, instead of WE meaning you and me as thinking individuals. Could there not be a small possibility of something completely outside our understanding that had a say so in the way everything is? Maybe even a .1% of a chance there was something? Is the fact that we haven’t detected it with our instruments, tools or 5 senses enough reason to say without a doubt that there is no god (something) out there? I think that too is irrational. The back and forth dialogue, “there is no god.” “prove it.” “you prove there is.” is absolutely retarded. They are both the same. Of course you can’t prove something if you don’t know what you are trying to prove and you can’t disprove something if you don’t know what you are trying to disprove. As I said both sides are constantly trying to prove or disprove a particular idea of god and I think it is just pointless on both ends.
Throughout our human history we have created stories, creatures and other things to try and explain who we are and why we are here. In this case, WE can be us as individuals or the entire human race. As individuals we do have our own understandings of why we are here. As an entire human race we all have an understanding of why we are here. I don’t know wtf i’m saying … Anyway, that understanding of why we are here could possibly be that we are here for no purpose at all. That we are simply atoms and other universal particles placed together in such a perfect form that we have gained consciousness, but that ultimately none of us are really alive. It is true that if we were able to break ourselves down bit by bit one atom at a time, we would cover the same amount of space and be exactly the same but without our consciousness. Nobody, I am sure, is willing to give this a try, but we needn’t to because our bodies do that for us. It’s called death. For some reason we all die but we don’t change physically, our bodies are the same. It’s our mind that shuts down leaving our body in a state of stagnation and allowing all our little pieces to go on to become dirt or dust in the bottom of a box.
Is it death that we are looking to explain or is it life? Life could be said to be even more interesting than death. Having something that breaks down to a dusty form and having something created from what most would view as much of nothing (sperm and egg) are extremely contrasting. When we are born we receive this special spark of something that kick starts our system, and then eventually grants us conscious thoughts. If this life we’re given is a miracle, then what happens to that spark when we die? Is our consciousness even all that great? If we compare our brain’s computing power to that of other living things around us on this planet then of course we would have to see ourselves as something special. This takes me back to the idea of exactly how incredibly large our universe is… which even a fraction of a fraction of the universe’s size makes our brain’s computing power look like nothing more than a single spark on the surface of the sun, and that’s being generous. We live and die because of the way things are structured in the world around us. If a man is hit by a stray bullet and he bleeds to death, the actual event of his death is easily explained through science and there is no more reason necessary to explain it. It’s called exsanguination. The problem we have with this comes from the consciousness we have developed. If you take steel and form it in a way that it is able to hurl a projectile at a high enough speed making it able to pierce skin, then it would damage organs and veins. Why wouldn’t you expect that, in enough time, the person hit by this projectile would ultimately bleed to death? Instead, when these types of things happen we look for a reason beyond ourselves to explain why. Why do people die? Why does an innocent man sitting and having a cup of coffee get hit by a stray bullet and die? What is the reason we need to know why? The ‘why’ is not important in any of it. There is no why. Nothing caused this to happen. This is the same as with a person sickened by cancer. There is an answer to why this happens that science has already explained for us and there is nothing more beyond it. What humans do is look for a reason as to why death has to happen. Does it matter how a person dies? If a 100 year old lady dies after living a life that would be said to have been good, does anyone question why she died? It’s obvious her age finally got the best of her particles. We search for reasoning to explain the things we don’t wish to happen.
Is this lack of ability to cope with death the reason over time we have developed different ideas of religion and what cause us to be here and have thoughts? Do we really care what our purpose is while we are actually on this planet or is it just the before and after that we need answers to? Is it for comfort? Some people say religion is a crutch and I understand that metaphor, but I think it is more than that? Just like science, the idea of god is here because humans need somewhere to place responsibility for what we do and experience on a daily basis. What about the wars that we constantly fight with each other over religious beliefs? Is there a question of why soldiers are killed? We accept their deaths as having a purpose but they are still deaths none the less that could have been avoided if arguments about why we die, why we are here, where we came from and where will go, never were. I understand not all wars are fought based on religious ideas, but the ones that are I can’t comprehend.
Now that I have gone all over the place, let me attempt to pull together what is going on in my head.
Those who spend their life trying to spread their religious beliefs to everyone as if they are the ultimate truth are missing the big picture. Those who have a problem with people not believing in their God are missing the big picture. The belief in something outside of yourself or this reality is an individual choice. The problem is religion in our current day and society is much more than just a belief in God. It is a commercial machine that pushes and pushes and pushes. Islam and Christianity are at war over something that is completely human in nature. We fight each other over documents that we have translated certain ways. The guilt that religion puts on so many people on a daily basis is disgusting. The key to a good healthy life is happiness. That is what gives you determination to keep going every day. If your happiness comes from your belief in God then that should be all you need. When we introduce all these separating ideas into the mix, the belief in God becomes so much more. For the human race to really thrive and continue to develop we should aim for something along the lines of pluralism. Different religious groups should work together, but not to spread ideas about what god is better than another god, but to spread happiness and increase the quality of life on this planet.
Those who spend their life trying to make people stop believing in a god are missing the big picture. Even though it is easy to discount certain writings and teachings because of their historical insignificance or the simple fact that some of the teachings are unbelievable, there is nothing wrong with believing in something higher than us or even that after our bodies have stopped living our mind may go on. I know there are a lot of extremely religious people who live everyday of their life trying to spread whatever it is they believe, but that is the beauty of being an individual. At the same time there are plenty of religious people who are just simply happy within themselves and don’t care whether or not you believe in their god. Who is to say these people are wrong? Taking the bible or other religious text literally word for word can be dangerous, but those who see these texts as a good starting point for living a good life shouldn’t be put in the same category. The United States has a strong religious population and many of the teachings in those religions have shaped what I would believe is a pretty decent society. Nothing or no one is perfect but to bash people for having a belief that makes them happy is the same as them calling you strange or wrong for not holding those beliefs.
Who can say which is right or wrong? Nobody I know based on the way things are now will live forever. Unless we are able to die and come back and share what happens after death, let’s leave those happenings to after death. I can’t say parents shouldn’t raise their children with religious beliefs but at the same time, once we become adults we should allow other adults to decide for themselves what will allow them to live a happy life.
-X
