God... again

Because I've got nothing better to say.

While I'm waiting for the next episodes of my favourite TV shows to finish completing their transition, I'm going to blog. And because I'm a relatively boring person, theres nothing to blog about in my life.

My sister and I were having this discussion the other day, after she read my previous blogs. Actually, she refers to it an as argument, but I don't think I was really trying to argue anything, I was trying to understand something. Everyone seems to comment on hers like I'm the bad guy. Well fine, I'm the one who's going to hell by their standards, so whatever.

What I was trying to understand was the issue of faith. I had a lot of trouble trying to figure out why some people do make that 'leap of faith' and choose to believe in some higher being. The way I understand it now is that nobody actually understands God well enough to answer all the questions that seem to crop up about his existence. So in the void created by the lack of understanding, people have filled it with faith.

I don't think anybody really knows this, but sometime in year 12, when I was having one of those 'meaning of life' crisis, I went round to the local Christian gathering. This was about the time of the 9/11 thingy, so there were some flyers going around saying something like "Why did God let this occur?". So, procrastinating instead of studying for my exams, and trying to solve my rather bad state of depression, I figured I'd go and listen to what they had to say.

After a bunch of loud shouting (which seemed to be directed at me, I think I was the only gentile silly enough to read the flyer and attend), their arugment in a nutshell to explain the suicide flights was that God works in mysterious ways. I thought, omg, this sounds familiar. But nonetheless, I stayed behind to ask questions. Nothing they could come up with could actually go any further than that. Shouting at me doesn't really help the situation. I was after reason, not noise.
"We don't profess to know God's will." was their general gist of evading questions they didn't know how to answer. Well, neither do I, but I know that if I were God, the 'much greater good' would overcome the free will of a few suicide bombers who didn't really believe that I existed anyway. The sacred free will vs sacred humans lives thing. Maybe its because free will outlasts human life. That makes sense at least.

So I think that congregation still has faith that God let that happen because its all part of his plan. The preacher that night thought that part of that plan of sacrificing 4000 lives was to bring me into the fold. I guess he read that one wrong. There was another bloke who wrote this small book about God. It attempted to explain things. I read it, and it didn't really say anything I didn't already know (or hear about at least e.g. God loves us all awwwww *hugz*). I think I've still got that book somewhere.

Anyway, lets not get into the whole FW vs GP debate again, we've been over that.

So the hole that faith seems to fill is a big one for me. For others, its a matter of simplicity: God obviously exists, because He makes a big impact on my life. He creates a world where I'm mostly happy, and I have things which make me so. I should be thankful for the things He has done. Theres two problems (at least).

1. One is in the explanation: They assume that God exists or that the scriptures tell the truth, and then use this to justify the events. Normally I'd like to infer things from other things which are quite likely to be true. E.g. Pens write, I have a pen, therefore I can use the pen to write. Whereas 'believers' tend to think, I can write, pens can write, therefore I must have a pen. You could have a bowling ball dipped in paint and roll it around a large piece of canvas, but I'm not sure if thats writing. Assuming the conclusion and then using the conclusion to explain things isn't a very good approach.


2. Another is in the way they form the causal link between God and all the things that happen. Oh crap, I just realised this goes into all that FW and determinism shit again. Nup, screw that. Wait... I've got something. People pray to God asking for things. (E.g. "Please help me to do well on my exams...", "Help me get some more friends who are nice", or a more altruistic one: "Help me to help others") Let's see where I can take this without touching on determinism.
   Theres a lot of conflicting views on how God is meant to be a part of your life. To some, he heals illnesses, solves worldly problems, and generally does nice things. To others, he's only a spiritual guider, supposedly leading people towards what they imagine he wants them to be. There are a lot of published instances where poeple have said that their belief in God has somehow allowed them to escape some life draining disease which the doctors said was terminal. Somehow, I don't see how they get to that conclusion. Don't rubbish me with that 'Oh it must be God, what else could it be?' thing. It could be anything. Maybe it was a misdiagnosis. Maybe the doctors don't actually understand the disease well enough to explain why it happened. We don't even understand how or why we develop different types of cells yet, so understanding the rest of the body could take a bit of doing. Jumping to a conclusion of a higher being, wayyyyyy beyond our level of understanding, imbuing one person with the ability to overcome a terminal disease, the silently retreating, isn't exactly rock solid. Maybe aliens landed during the night and transplanted their prostate while they weren't looking. I think thats got about as much of a chance as the God one.

Faith does not remove the need for reason and justification. It just bypasses it. When people talk about testing faith, I think they're referring to testing whether their rational thinking would overtake their somewhat hard to justify beliefs. I don't see why people resist. Unless reason is the devil, and heaven is the ultimate mindnumbing place where absolutely no rational thought takes place, I'd be inclined to go for reason.

Forgive me for being blunt, but I think faith is a layman's way of looking at the world. Its like saying... 'Oh I can't be stuffed figuring it out, I'll just go by what you said even though it doesn't really make sense'. Seeking to understand something, and having the ability to admit the lack of understanding in something is more wisdom than just having the faith to believe. I know I always say "Whatever you say" or just agree with most things, but a lot of the time its to reduce conflict. But for the things that really matter, I'll take a stand.

As for Fi's idea of listening, yeah, sometimes we're not always right.
"god's always listenin to mE i can vouch for that" (Fi, 2005)
"God exists because I say so" (The implcation?)