--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I think there are two kinds of aetheist determined > more by how strongly they > feel about religion than by how they feel about god. > 1) The religious aetheist - Some like Richard > Dawkins who actively dislikes > what even the idea of religion does to man. For this > person the statement > that there is no god is a critical part of their > belief system. It is a > "positive" statement of belief. > 2) The agnostic aetheist (like me) - I don't believe > in god but I do not make > this central to my life. I believe that we must > explain public phenomena > using science but if someone can come up with that > is consistent with a > naturalistic view of the universe and in particular > humans. Some people have > obviously been able to believe in god or some higher > power within (or in > addtion to) a belief in science. I wish I did > believe this because otherwise > the view of the universe and human life is in many > ways quite bleak. > Beautiful, powerful but bleak. > >
During (or after) a personal tragedy or crisis, any thinking person questions their worldviews; sometimes the very foundation upon which you have affixed your entire life philosophy is eroded beyond repair, leaving you floundering in the depths with lungs so full of salt water that you can't even call out for help. "Swim or sink." "Drink the water to keep from drowning." "Hang on to yourself and you'll never be lost." Snide or clever, these one-liners don't teach you how to tread water, and their only real value might be to piss you off. Which is not necessarily a bad thing - more than once anger has kept me going when I otherwise would have given up - but if you're beyond anger into the realms of despair...ahh, now _that_ is true crisis. That's when something as small as the need of a cat to be held and fed might be all that tips the scale toward continuation. When 'hanging on by a whisker' stops the slide into oblivion. There -- is it "that bitch, Duty*" or the hand of God? I don't know. Perhaps it doesn't matter. Perhaps they are two ways of looking at the same phenomenon. For me, one of the major functions of the Divine is to be the 'fury sink:' where I can direct the righteous anger I feel when there is no person to blame for the (non-speeding)car hitting a patch of black ice at night and going over the side of a mountain, for the incidental discovery of a brain tumor. (Another function is to be the recipient of spontaneous praise, as in "Oh what a glorious sunset/tree/stag/bluebell etc.!" - but we were speaking of bleakness.) I sometimes envy my few friends who are certain that they know what the Divine is and where they fit in the scheme of things, yet pity their 'safe,' blinkered vision. It's sort of a perverse pride in my ability to stare into the abyss without backing down. Or else a plaintive restating of Scully's "I _want_ to believe..." Both, really. Debbi "If wishes were horses, then beggars might ride." *from a scene in Brin's _The Postman_, when the protagonist must choose between walking away from responsibility or continuing the struggle for others' lives and freedom __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com
