Friends

He sees you when you're sleeping/he knows when you're awake. . .
My friend Robert was asking me about my religious beliefs on Twitter and that's not really something that can be accurately expressed in 140 characters. I turn to the words of two men much smarter than me this morning, because they sum up my feelings rather well.

The Conversation:
@sparkerpants are you a nonbeliever?
@robertetaylor In Christian side-hugs? Purity rings? Sparklepires? Or god in general?
@sparkerpants in god, generally
@robertetaylor I don't believe in bearded Santa-God who sits around planning my life so everything goes according to "His will"
@sparkerpants what do u believe Sarah?
@robertetaylor I believe there is a lot I do not know. I'm agnostic. "An atheist has to know a lot more than I know" (Carl Sagan)
@sparkerpants wouldn't the burden be on the believer? Wouldn't the believer have to know more than the atheist?
@robertetaylor There's no definitive proof, either way. That's why it's a belief; an atheist & a 'true believer' both make big assumptions
@sparkerpants so a bush person in Africa who has no concept of a higher power makes an assumption. No an atheist is simply a nonbeliever.
@sparkerpants that's like saying an asexual is the opposite of both male and female at the same time. An asexual simply lacks organs alt ...
@robertetaylor I am saying an atheist assumes they know enough to dismiss a higher power completely; a believer takes historical documents &
@robertetaylorstories changed over centuries by whomever was in charge as 'proof' that a higher pwr exists & has influence/control over life
@robertetaylor Both of those are pretty big assumptions & a choice that you make.

Carl Sagan:
Some people think God is an outsized, light-skinned male with a long white beard, sitting on a throne somewhere up there in the sky, busily tallying the fall of every sparrow. Others—for example Baruch Spinoza and Albert Einstein—considered God to be essentially the sum total of the physical laws which describe the universe. I do not know of any compelling evidence for anthropomorphic patriarchs controlling human destiny from some hidden celestial vantage point, but it would be madness to deny the existence of physical laws.

[Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science, Ch 23]

I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.
The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.

["In the Valley of the Shadow" PARADE magazine (10 March 1996)]

Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?

[Interview with Charlie Rose, 1996]

Isaac Asimov:
If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul.

[Asimov: A Memoir]

The same memoir states his belief that Hell is "the drooling dream of a sadist" crudely affixed to an all-merciful God; if even human governments were willing to curtail cruel and unusual punishments, wondered Asimov, why would punishment in the afterlife not be restricted to a limited term? Asimov rejected the idea that a human belief or action could merit infinite punishment. If an afterlife of just deserts existed, he claimed, the longest and most severe punishment would be reserved for those who "slandered God by inventing Hell".

___________________________________________

I definitely don't believe in Heaven or Hell; it's more comforting to me to know that I return to whatever basic elements of the universe and in that way I live on and in that way I am reunited with all the parts of people and places that I loved.

I think that Jesus was a real person and what we 'know' (because history should never be treated as definitely as it is taught in school or elsewhere; we can never really know anything unless we are, in fact, time-travelers and even then events would still be subjective to you as a person. . .okay I'm getting off-track here) about his actual life is much more interesting than what the church perpetuated in the first century after his death.

I get that for a lot of people saying things happen because they are "God's will" is a sort of coping mechanism for areas of life they might not have control over; it bothers me when people use it as a crutch or an excuse for not taking initiative in their own life.

Love from a Sarah

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Wham! "Last Christmas"

Advertisement