Scott,
I was referring to Aurino. We have many views in common, but we are just different enough (in exactly the 'right' way) as to really get on each others nerves.
***I always have called myself an agnostic because I just can't bring myself to believe that there is no God. I am not sure if it is all that methodist church upbring, or just the hope that there is something better out there. I don't think you should have a phD or a fancy vocabulary to have to understand the nature of God, though. I think it should be as natural as taking a healthy dump (pardon the vulgarity). I just don't always feel loved in that unconditional way they say God loves us in. I don't think any forms of communication with God are valid either. I equate it to the old saying that just observing something changes the natural progression of events (the quantum reality experiment). Trying to talk to God could lead a person to really believe he is talking to God, when actually it his is own mind. I am not sure about that.***
For the life of me I cannot understand how a believer can become a non-believer. If you have experienced the awareness of knowing that 'all of this' is so incredible and defies any 'non-intelligent' explanation, then how can you possibly go into a denial of that belief? I mean, look at the 'forest' and not the 'trees'.
I think we sometimes get all caught up in looking at the 'trees' that we forget how wonderous it is that there's anything at all, much less something that has so much beauty, order, and opportunities. I don't know about you, but everytime I go to Vegas I have terrible luck. I never win anything. I pull a lever, and nothing comes out. I throw dice and I lose $20. That's the real result of a random beginning. There's no such thing as beginner's luck. You have one shot in the very beginning (e.g., whatever is truly fundamental in the world), and whatever comes from that fundamental 'stuff' is what you get. If it is random 'stuff' then you end up with a trip to Vegas (all or nothing). That is so obviously wrong that I cannot believe that there intelligent people who really believe that. It is trying to the intellect to even think along those lines.
On the other hand, it is so beautifully simple that there is harmony, purpose, and meaning at the very root of this fundamental 'stuff' that everything just spreads out from that one holistic point. Everything in the universe teaches this one central point. Think of the big bang (everything comes from a mystical singularity), or the galaxies (everything emerges as a result of one large galactic blackhole), or stars (everything emerges from the condensation of gases to form a hot core), or planets (everything gains energy from the center star that spews out its lifegiving energy), or cells, or nuclei, etc, etc. The whole universe teaches that everything emerges from a lifegiving point. That ultimate lifegiving point is God. Why would you want to believe anything less?
Warm regards, Harv |