Sunday, March 22, 2009
Well I Guess We'll Start At the Begining
Hey guys I'm at a really weird place in my life right now, and there are a lot of things that I can't figure out mosly with my beliefs. This is probably not the best place to seek religious advice but i need people who i feel i can truly speak my mind to. I have taken a good hard try at Christianity but the thing is that there are so many things in Christainity that I just basically don't believe. So here's what we'll do I'm gonna post one thing every week and I wanna get a discussion going. First idea. The theory of evolution against the story of Adam and Eve. Theories on the origin or life . These are the two that I am most familiar with but any ideas will find interested ears. I'm gonna be on the Evolution side for this one, and the thing is that I seriously think that everyone would accept this theory if they fully understood it. I could try to do a full explanation but I don't know where to start so what are the problems you guys have with evolution? Is there anyone who thinks they understand evolution or even have a good grasp on it and still belive in the story of Adam and Eve? If so I'd also really like to hear ideas as to how these ideas could co-exist. The symbolic argument is a very cool angle, but I don't see any clear correlation. Seriously let me know what you guys think.
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Chuck, read your reply to my post over at Progressive Buddhism. Besides for the more refined arguments against Christianity (the ones that Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris could do a better job of giving) a big issue I have with Christianity is that I don't understand how the god of the Bible could ever condone the murders of innocent children, putting aside their parents and what ever they did to offend Yahweh. I'm talking about the children in the "Old Testament". Some Christians would say that either their god wouldn't allow such a thing these days (apparently he does since he is also condoning the "just war" in Iraq), or his thoughts are higher than ours. Regardless, I couldn't get behind a god that could ever justify such a barbaric act.
ReplyDeleteI usderstand what you mean, even the story of Abraham always used to creep me out because the idea that the most divine being in existence would order a man to kill his own child in order to prove his faith just seemed bazzare and even scary. Death of innocent children in the world today causes me trouble as well because in church people talk constantly about the idea of a perfect creater. what divine plan caused my cousin to get cancer and die before he was even old enough to play competative sports. This world is by no means perfect in my opinion, and if there is a plan it is well hidden in the entropy and randomness that seems to rule this planet. But then again there are so many things about the idea of God that seem right to me. From a functional standpoint the idea of God is great. One who embraces God and follows God is in many cases much happier and successful than someone who doesn't. The act of prayer itself is a thing of great power. I has it's own meditative qualities, and most importantly it's a time for self assessment, planing, and unselfish thought for the benefit of others that many never make time for otherwise. Praying in a group for something is many ways nothing more than identifying a goal and making a uniform resolution to carry that goal out. People wonder why christian organizations get so much done. These are the types of things about Christianity that I don't necessarily believe in, but they show me why so many people have such strong faith. I believe it is a perspective that works really well for a lot of people. I respect people with strong faith in Christianity(and really in anything) and as far as I'm concerned the core ideals of Christianity could very well be the best, most truthfull description of this Universe. But I also don't think there is anyway for me or anyone to know that or not. It's a perspective, and the sooner we can come to understanding that the sooner we will be able to accept the parts of Christianity that are true to us, without being caught up on the parts of the bible that don't line up with modern history or science. Which again are perspectives.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that it's about perspective. It's hard to be totally objective, in fact, I would say darn near impossible. I would compare it to the Buddhist idea of dependent origination... everything is connected like Indra's Net. It's only natural our perspective is colored by past experiences. We have our own preferences and desires that color how we view our world. For Christians it's hard to imagine a world without "God". The same could be said of Muslims, Hindus, and even atheists about their own perspectives.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't have a problem with a god belief. I make no effort to force my opinion on others and appreciate that they do not force their opinions on me. The only time I take issue with religious belief is when it causes others to suffer. Like how the religious right in this country have made it their missions to force their beliefs and opinions on those who do not see the world as they do.
I will have to disagree with you about a person with "God" being more successful and happier. Studies have shown (Pew and Barna) that religious belief doesn't necessarily predispose a person to being more successful. Happiness is relative and fleeting, success the same. The same with Christianity giving the best description of the Universe. Science gives the best description by far.
Anyways, good discussion. With metta, JG
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ReplyDeleteI'm not trying to argue that everyone that believes in God is happy or successful, but rather that people who are able to fully grasp the idea of God and ignor the faults and problems that go against God have something that they can believe in and live their lives by. I do believe that the advice that is presented throughout the Bible is very good advice. I think its really important for everyone to have something to believe in, and I think that for the most part if someone lives their life in accordance to the Christian faith, including the acceptance of others, for the most part will be overall better off than if they had nothing to believe in, that's i guess what I really mean. But as far as whether science or Christianity does a better job of explaining the Universe, I don't think that there is any real way of comparing them, because afterall they are completely different approaches at description. They are based on completely different modes of thought. Lets talk about why me and you like science. We are logical thinkers and we like things that can be figured out through reasoning and logic, and we think we're right about everything because there is pretty much evidence for the concepts of science. But here's the thing, not everyone thinks like us. Science doesn't make a lot of sense to a whole lot of people, and expecting them to belive in science is stupid. It may seem like they are ignorant, but then again so are we in so many ways. Science has come so far in the past hundred years and it is certain to continue for the next hundred. We've come up with scientific explanations for things that have been right under our noses for all of history, and what makes us think that there won't be a hell of a lot more? The problem is science can't explain everything, and the holes in science are about as big as in religions and in most examples science lets us know that we don't know more stuff than it actually tells us. Think about this: Statically charged objects being stuck together seemed like magic to people before science. We now know that this force of attraction is caused by polorization in the particles in an object where the negatively charged electrons built up on one side of the object are atracted to the positively charged protons on the surface of the other object. Pretty simple right? We totally figured that out. Except for why do negatively charged particles and positively charged particles attract one another? Umm they just do. So really we're just back to magic.
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