Can you have faith in the divine and still be an intelligent, rational thinking person? I often come across people who know it all .... no not teenagers, I'm not allowed around those anymore since yon misunderstanding.
Adults who have all the answers because they were told the answers by someone they have decided to be better than them or read them in some book. How ignorant do you have to be to think you know all the answers? Not even scientists know all the answers so don't go buying real estate in Siberia thinking that soon it'll be thawed out prime vacation land. We are finding and discovering new things and new ways of doing things all the time.
Easter island was decimated by Polynesian rats, the colony at Roanoke moved in land due to years of drought and the survivors assimilated into the native tribes. There is water on Mars cos Matt Damon used it to water his potatoes with.
The key to being wise is first to admit that you know nothing. Well we all know something but can we really be certain of some things? Jimmy Savile was no surprise but popular entertainer Rolf Harris who was much loved for decades turned out to be a molester of young girls .... your world view can be so easily skewed.
Missionaries bothering people in the street should be ashamed.
I don't think being a person of faith is anything to be ashamed about. If you go around spouting verse and banging on about yer imaginary bodyguard then by all means, feel ashamed you twat.
When we define things we limit them.
Old Knudsen has faith, he isn't sure what he has faith in because who can know everything? He reduces god or gods to his level in order to communicate but who listens? Prayers to heal someone's illness or to get that new job are belittling to any deity, they aren't there like yer fairy godmother to grant yer wishes.
Yer wishes may be granted or not and that is because shit happens that is one of the absolute truths of the world.
Prayers don't help but they don't hurt either as long as you back them up with reality. Praying for yer clap to clear up is useless if you don't go and get medical help. Not even the vast majority of religious folk sit at home and prey rather than going to the hospital. They also take out insurance and lock their doors at night.
Faith obviously has its limits and they subconsciously know this.
Would God want you to pray for a lottery win or for mercy to those who cannot help themselves? Ach I pray for both cos it doesn't hurt to ask and I talk to myself a lot anyways.
It's the intention, not the words that matter.
God doesn't walk around watching you while you drive to werk or sit doon and have a shit, yer getting him/her/it mixed up with Santa or yon DUP preacher who put the hidden cameras in his local office's restroom.
You demean god by thinking he/they are like humans, if we can squish a fly or a spider and not lose sleep over it would you like a god that could do that to us as the Bible claims he does? A volcano isn't evil it just is.
God, the divine, nature, the universe whatever name you give it isn't evil, isn't good, it just is and is made up with everything. If an Atheist says that science can explain everything then you must wonder why we still know fuck all about nature or even the human brain. I doubt there is one magically being deciding everything though you never know.
I suspect that letting go of our petty needs and feelings and accepting that we are a part of things rather than the be all and end all of things is a step closer to the divine. If it happens it happens .... whatever that maybe.
Why could God be soo insecure as to need your constant praise? Absolute power corrupts absolutely, you'd better hope that God is not like us otherwise he'd be a total cunt with an overinflated ego. Would that explain the state of the world today? It would be too easy to blame God or even the Devil. I think the blame for how the world is today rests squarely on humanities shoulders.
In the early days our gods had more limited power, even the creator gods. As we grew and figured more stuff out our gods learned to multitask and became all powerful, they evolved as man did coincidentally.
I can't remember the last time I saw god, oh that's right it was when he was fighting yon frost giants with his son Thor. They both died in the end but Odin's 8 legged horse got away which is why we have 8 legged horses to this day.
Oh you don't see god, you feel him. I suspect that would be a chemical imbalance, commonly found in religious folk or maybe yer choking on the shit with yer head being up yer hole and all.
When the Pope does good by feeding some poor people in Rome or when he blesses a disabled child is he really doing good? The world sees it and knows about it so he gets instant browny points, he is doing it for reward.
Like how he made a missionary responsible for killing half the native population in Callyfornia a saint, did he do that for reward? The shrinking of the faithful means he needs more souls to suck off which is also why he is forgiving sinful sluts who have had an abortion .... his werds, not mine. Are his actions morally good?
Tolstoy said "It is much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it."
It's nearly Thanksgiving time, I suppose people will be going to soup kitchens to give out food to the homeless for a few hours for one day in a year so they can feel good about themselves. Do you have to announce to the world that yer willing to take in refugees in order for it to count?
Is there a Heaven? We just don't know. It has never been described in the Bible as a cloudy city, or anything in fact. Is there an afterlife? Yet again we don't know. I've seen things that I can't explain and I don't mean floaty visions of old Victorians phasing through walls at night in a haunted house, I mean people and shapes during the day in places you'd not expect them and when you weren't 'ghost hunting' so what were they?
I felt totally sane during those times so I ruled out mental health issues, shadows and tricks of the light. Also the obvious being that it was another person .... who happened to just vanish into nothing.
Ghosts, spirits or beings from dimensions beyond our ken, I can't convince you and why should I? What they were was proof for me that I don't know everything. Do I believe in aliens and UFO's? I can't say, but I leave myself open to the possibility of them.
We never see the whole picture but are a tad too quick to decide what is what because having an answer makes us feel better even if it isn't the right one.
A thinking person can have faith as long as they remember that change is nature and it the only absolute, otherwise known as shit happens and you can't do anything about it.
