| From | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
 The Paradox of ExistenceI am at a transitional period of my life. I grew up in a Christian family (we live in Utah, guess which religion). I no longer believe in God; however, I would not say I "grew out of it", either. My worldview has evolved, but it's possible for a logical, thinking person to come to conclusion that there is a God. My dad, who is an LDS bishop, is a brilliant computer programmer. We talk all of the time about the logical side of religion; evidences outside of faith that point to belief in deity. It's all founded on something that I just can't accept, though: how can "faith" be a valid way of deducing information in itself? Perhaps it is simply the fact that I grew up with strong convictions and loving devotion to my religion, but I am now heartbroken and purposeless. Meaning must be assigned by SOMETHING; if it's not a god, then it must be us, humans. And why should anything we small, insignificant creatures think, feel, or do matter at all? grabe, you talk of eternity, but eternity is endless time, whereas ours is veeery limited. |
||
|
Christ's answer perhaps.. When you do read the Gospels, you will find that Jesus was not very fond of *religion*. His biggest issue was with people that needs to die to self, and follow him, as he came to save. Religion is where humans tries to reach/go-to (a/several/the) god(s) to achieve salvation. But lets take the rest of the faith issue, and here I will not be surprised when I receive a ferocious attack, can simply be summed up in this: EVERYBODY believes something. And EVERYBODY put/have faith in something. The atheists/evolutionists/Christians/Buddhists/Muslims/agnostics/etc. believes their viewpoints and have faith in something. Evolutionists (even though they'll say it's "science" and not faith) believe in a millions of years earth, and they have their faith in the theories (though not proven but only postulated/hypothesized). And over the years I've learned that you can't change anybody's faith/believe by put "facts" on the table, as everybody interprets those "facts" with different set of glasses, based on their own views/believes/faiths. Having gone through the motions of "loving my religion" to getting saved from religion by Jesus Christ's salvation, I suddenly have a purpose, and that purpose is to glorify God! yes, this world have an expiry date (and so do all us living beings on this earth) because of dam and Eve's original sin, but why do people have the longing to live forever? Because they've lost that in the Garden of Eden! and they'll want that back for the simple reason that they don't want to face the consequences before the Living God (and it's a subconscious thing even though they'll vehemently disagree), as the day they've achieved that eternal living by themselves, they'll feel like gods themselves and don't ever have to face their Creator. |
||
|
And people certainly have their viewpoints, but that doesn't mean they have 'faith' in something. They see through the lenses of their experience and what they know and feel. An existential nihilist doesn't think life has any intrinsic meaning or value. An absurdist (who knows life to be ridiculous) sees three options: suicide to escape existence, submitting to God or a higher deity, or embracing the fact that life is absurd and living for the moment. This last option is what Kierkegaard would call 'demonic madness'; living in such a state where you know life has no meaning, and yet living anyway! As for why we long to live forever; MAYBE we want to get back to heaven, that could make sense, that we long for what we lost...it also makes sense that religion/the bible/the word of God/whatever you want to call it is merely very good at figuring out what we as humans desire, or want to think. |
Log in 
