Hi Everyone, thanks for all of your responses! I enjoy reading what everyone has to say, even if I don’t agree with it. One thing I can say about myself is that I am really open to others opinions and like to hear what you think!
In other news, here’s some individualized responses to different questions and comments….
HRH- On the topic of….
Whereas you're saying, well, I'm not really sure what you're saying. You said, "Engineers don't initially create things in their likeness" but that blanket statement hardly seems strong enough to be the basis of something as important as belief about how the world started.
I completely agree with you. This is by no means the foundation for any of my beliefs, it’s just an idea I contemplate from time to time. I could see where one would create something in his likeness because he is more familiar with his own workings than that of others. It’s just one of those things I like to think about, and tug-of-war the idea back and forth.
One thing you had mentioned in one of your replies was something about feeling, emotion, and thought process- I used to think that way too, but as I learned more about biochemistry, physiology, etc., the less mysterious I found these processes to be. It’s insane how much is known at this point (and of course, how much still remains unknown), and I would like to see what the common knowledge about these topics would be 100 years from now vs. what physiologists already know. There’s a lot more to it the further you dig. I think this is true for any profession, and I am in no way trying to belittle anyone for not possessing this knowledge. Ask me how a bill is passed, how a car is designed, or how to paint, and be prepared to get a naïve answer.
Side note- I didn’t know Word had an auto-umlat feature. Nice.
Also, thank you for the $0.02. Hearing a different perspective on things is priceless. I’ll try to return the gesture sometime.
Laurenelizabeth- I completely agree with you. This is one of the observations that led me to reject the man in the sky theory. Being stuck in the middle isn’t necessarily bad, I think a “hybrid” spiritual belief is best for anyone instead of a “preset religion”, no matter what their general view is. Sometimes I wish we could all know for sure what’s going on, but I just accept that we can’t.
Arhipgeo86- I haven’t found any loopholes that disprove anything in my eyes, but someone will find loopholes in any belief based on that person’s personal experience and feelings about whatever. I more or less just wanted to acknowledge the idea that others may find flaws because of this aspect. As for the hell part, that was sarcasm. I don’t think I’m going to hell, I don’t think there’s an afterlife, but I can’t truly prove anything. But mooching Britney’s money would be nice sometimes. Lol.
Percivale- I like your quote. Even though I do have a different belief than true atheism, I don’t think we owe our driving force any type of praise or a search for the exact nature of whatever got the ball rolling. I accept that maybe this is what’s going on, maybe it isn’t. I’ll never know for sure, but this all makes sense to me.
MSSpin- As for the comment about not believing in god being depressing-well, not believing in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and Yoda all made some hard hits on my psyche at one point in my life. Religion did the same. I started studying religion around age 5, but the more I looked, the less I wanted to know. I felt a little sad for a while, but then I felt relieved and happy that I was seeking my own perception of spirituality and was drawing some conclusions that were satisfying to me. Once again though, I’ve stated that I’m not a complete atheist but only have different ideas about the nature of the driving force behind our existence. In my mind, this force, energy, whatever you want to call it- is my god, but just not a diety that craves praise or has a desire to manage our life. One of the main reasons I don’t call my “driving force” God is because of the misconceptions it creates with others who expect me to have the more common view about spirituality. I like “driving force”, but it has such a Luke Skywalker feel that I don’t think anyone could keep a straight face. Sometimes I think this driving force would have the same attitude towards us that we would towards a machine- care and pride for what the force created, but no feeling of indebtedness or expectation for repayment. I agree with you- the world is so intricate- if you’re familiar with DNA, you know how perfect it is. I could never invent such a machinery that can replicate, unzip, turn on/off, make proteins, etc. with such a high rate and timing. If you’ve seen the odds, or calculated how fast these reactions have to occur, you’re probably as amazed as I am, even if for different reasons. Once you get to the professional level of study in the field, you realize just how amazing these things are, and that they need some type of “driving force” to push them in the right direction. At one point I was a complete atheist, but the more I thought about it, the more I didn’t like that just as much as I didn’t like the thought of the vaporous man in the sky.
One thing I think almost everyone can agree on, no matter what view about the spiritual world- Treat others as you would like to be treated.
Once again, thank you all for your comments, and I look forward to hearing more!
LQ
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