why not wes? what else is there to do?
Quote:
Originally Posted by GOODOLEDAYS1016
... I dont want this turn into another debate about whether He is real or not. I simply want to know. I am sure you will scoff and mock me for what I am saying or trying to accomplish, but that is beside the point. The simple fact that the other thread was started, to me, means that you are looking for some sort of an answer. That there is something deep down inside of you that is missing. Something that is needing to be filled or answered. ...
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sorry to delete most of the original post, just left the non-rambling part. but I do promise not to scoff you. you're entitled to your opinions and beliefs, as long as you are willing to reconsider them from time to time. blind faith without any rhyme or reason is unacceptable in a debate.
I wholeheartedly agree with the bolded part of your statement, as long as you replace YOU with WE. you, too, need to fill a void as do the rest of us.
it's human nature to NEED to answer every question. an unanswered question creates stress in our brain (a chemical imbalance) until it is resolved, releaving the stress.
there are two basic types of questions that I'm referring to - technical, and philosophical. HOW things are, and WHY things are the way they are.
some of the questions from ancient times are answered today, just as questions from today will be answered in the future. how does lightning work? what causes a flood? how does the moon overshadow the sun? how does cancer and HIV work? how can we get unlimited energy from a pistachio nut?
along with these are the WHY questions. why did lightning strike? why did a flood destroy our village? did something I did or didn't do cause the moon to hide the sun? did my uncle deserve to die of cancer?
when you answer the how, it usually answer the why. not always. and the answer to the why is usually the same (once the how is answered) -
there is no WHY! a flood is a natural event. lightning is static electricity. an eclipse is the predicatable alignment of the sun moon and earth. cancer and HIV are simply (insert answer here in the future). and then you realize that the WHY questions are irrelevant - nothing I did caused the flood or the eclipse of the lightning. nothing I could do would prevent them. my uncle didn't 'deserve' cancer, he got it because he spent too much time in the sun/nuclear reactor/holding a cellphone to his ear.
people in the ancient world didn't have the how answers, so they answered both how and why as best as they could.
the need to answer a question is greater than the need for the answer to be accurate. (I can tell you that from having taught ground school...
) when the need for an answer is satisfied, it overcomes the need to check that answer for accuracy.
so when the ancients came up with the universal answer to every question - an invisible, all powerful, supernatural force, it was so satisfying that all questions were dropped. at least for a while. not only did it answer the how, but it meant two things - 1. everything happened for a reason. 2. we can do something about it. we were no longer just helpless witnesses to nature's powers, and things weren't as random as they seemed before.
think about it - before this, it was not known if the sun would rise tomorrow!! how horrible! but now we can pray and sacrifice an 8 year old girl to the sun god, as we've been doing since this was 'discovered' 8.5 years ago, and sure enough, the sun came up every morning in the past 8.5 years! we better not stop!! and that one guy in the village who says this isn't true, we need to convert him before he influences others. or else kill him. and the village next door that prays to the moon god, we need to convert them, or kill them.
but I digress. never mind that when lightning, sunrise, floods, etc were explained by science, religion evolved to maintain that the supernatural being is STILL behind all this despite the fact that nature can explain it with no super-nature. it was too late.
but it's not too late. all you have to do today is consider everything you attribute to god, and see if any of it is supernatural. start with the HOW questions since they are much easier to answer scientifically. when you can do that, move on the WHY. it is extremely difficult to admit that some things just HAPPEN as a result of circumstance, timing, the interaction of other factors, and that the HOW can be explained easily but there simply is NO WHY at all.
now you can say this is spiritually empty, just like telling little Jimmy that uncle Moses didn't go to heaven, he is buried in the cemetery and worms are eating him right now. but
a MADE UP spiritual story is no more accurate than the spiritaully empty physical truth. if you start MAKING UP explanations without the required logic, physical basis, evidence, and proof,
you're liable to believe anything.
this is very long, so if you're going to reply or quote me, start your post with the word 'limbo', by itself, in its own paragraph, before your response. if you don't, you didnt' read all of this.
conclusion - if we accept that spiritual philosophical explanations are more satisfying than physical ones, and we abandon the need for logic and evidence, then we can fill the void. with god. and with santa claus, fsm, budha, allah, shiba, zeus, the sun, moon, and anything else you want to pray to. it works. it has for thousands of years, by millions of people.
but this doesn't make it true.
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