I read a book, when Angie was quite small, about how the brain develops, beginning in utero and continuing through age 5. I was amazed at how complex a machine it is and by the role of experience in causing connections between neurons to either strengthen or become extinct. I kept saying, "So that's how it works!". It took me about half of the book to realize that I was saying how and not why. And when I continued to think about why, it occurred to me that no matter how detailed an explanation science can give about how, it can't ever really answer the question why. Like a child whose continual whys eventually lead to a frustrated because, science can only go so far before you have to find some other way to answer the primary question.
I've long been agnostic, not really believing in God, but not really disbelieving either. After all, something had to start the whole ball of wax rolling. And even if God managed to create the complexity of life by allowing evolution to take it's own path, someone had to set up the rules. For all of the physical laws that science finds to explain how objects move and interact, how they are constructed, it can't ever tell us where those laws came from or why they exist.
Although I really object to the idea of religion because of the narrowmindedness of each one, I don't object to believing in a power larger than us. I just have to figure out how it fits into my daily life. If it even does.
So, don't fear that I am completely lost, my faithful friends. Everyone can evolve.
2 comments:
I don't think religion is narrow minded at all. If you need a why in order to believe a thing is true, you are more limited than if you can believe without necessarily understanding. (I haven't got the foggiest clue how electricity works, but I believe it's there and I see it working in my everyday life.) That said, some religious people are narrowminded, but that isn't the fault of the religion. Religion is liberating, in my experience. And I am coming from the same background as you.
Whoever said there was no hope for you, anyway?
Beckie, I rarely read you blog, and usually you take a non comfronting stand on everything. But low how motherhood has changed you. Nice to see you insult the entire world in one shotgun blast.
"Although I really object to the idea of religion because of the narrowmindedness of each one, I don't object to believing in a power larger than us. I just have to figure out how it fits into my daily life. If it even does. "
of course religon doesn't fit into YOUR daily life. you fit into it. Close but the other way around. I don't make demands of my God, but serve him. I don't make demands of my country, but serve her, and I don't make demands of my family, but as you guessed..serve them. Maturity looses the "I" and becomes "us" "we" or "them". I serve because a call to power isn't a calling to be served but the other way. to serve humanity, because God serves us, in his plan and time.
God bless and see ya in baghdad.
Coop
PS i feel Jen already addresses the narrowmindedness issue.
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