Well, this is blog #2 since the death of God. The theistic God anyway (just to ease some peoples troubled minds). I am doing really good. I have learned how not to freak out and start a belief system on nothing or just hunches. I would tell people, well now I am this or that and scare the bejesus out of them, only to find I did not really think that stuff I said. I think I have a square one now though and I proudly say that I do believe in God. I think he exists simply because I have the capability to think so. I also still cant get my head around the alternitive of atheism or evolution.
I do want to say I have no idea what this God is or what it does. I dont know how one is supposed to know or if one could ever know. All I have ever heard are dumb arguments and even the good ones are just pills to make me feel better.
I started reading into hinduism ( I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about God and spirituality) and as I was eating it up I realized I did not really care about the persona of God. I dont know if I want to know who he is or what it does or anything like that right now. Spirituality is kinda low on my list of things to explore. Like most at my age I am finding myself out first.
I am actually going into psychology more then ever now. I have always believed in the power of the human psyche but now I think it contains more answers then anything else I am searching for.
I also want to let you in that I am still saying my Jesus phrases subconciously and I am still very interested in the starving in Africa and the whole idea of making the world better and stuff. Turns out I did not need a God to be a good person. Those of you who are still being christians, I respect you and your beliefs. I dont think that everybody is going to feel the way I do about God being a coping mechanism. I do want you to check yourselves though. Thats only cause I love ya.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
A Note From Elyse
As the shock value of Ben's last blog resonates in your ears/eyes i wanted to comment on this current position in our lives and really just contribute my 2 cents into the pot.
God himself isn't dead.
God is alive and well, who that God is, however, may have changed. This theistic God that has become such a crutch for me has been removed. The God that i can define with the words "Loving, comforting, protecting, father...... etc." has been violently removed from under me causing a hard fall on to the floor of uncertainty. What kind of God can we define so easily and so readily and box up so well that there is nothing to question? As Ben mentioned in his previous post, who's to say the 'God" we christians know is nothing more than a super image of us that will ease any discomfort we feel.
For me to come to this point has been a hard battle through fear. Fear that i actually will find out i have been wrong, or fear that God will strike me down to hell as i ponder.
I dont really "know" much theses days but i do know i'm in a spot that will lead to something better.
~Elyse
God himself isn't dead.
God is alive and well, who that God is, however, may have changed. This theistic God that has become such a crutch for me has been removed. The God that i can define with the words "Loving, comforting, protecting, father...... etc." has been violently removed from under me causing a hard fall on to the floor of uncertainty. What kind of God can we define so easily and so readily and box up so well that there is nothing to question? As Ben mentioned in his previous post, who's to say the 'God" we christians know is nothing more than a super image of us that will ease any discomfort we feel.
For me to come to this point has been a hard battle through fear. Fear that i actually will find out i have been wrong, or fear that God will strike me down to hell as i ponder.
I dont really "know" much theses days but i do know i'm in a spot that will lead to something better.
~Elyse
Thursday, February 7, 2008
God is dead
There are two main things that when a statement like that is made come up. If that is true then I no longer have security that all is well and in control and I no longer have purpose to live my life. If God, that supernatural being was no more, I would then not have security nor purpose. Then again, that is why we human beings created this thing in the first place.
Whatever the hell happened at the beginning, whether we are some creation of a supernatural force or a natural force, (that being irrelevant at the moment), we as human beings found something out that no other thing found out. We were going to die some day. We can anticipate the future. Does what I do today really have value? Am I of value? These questions threw humans into a hysterical existance and something else needed to be done. Some how humans have to cope with these insecurities. Back then, they realized they existed and that meant that something outside of themselves existed. Maybe they had a mind of their own too? As a human I dont have control over the wind but it affects me, I better not piss it off. Eventually it was assumed that something had control over everything. not only that but we invented ways to give us relations with this something so we might please it thus ensuring our security here. Not only that but this kind of control and power could be used to regulate behavior and create unity for all man kind. We can call it God's will. You know if horses had Gods they would look and act and even desire that which horses desire. There is the birth of our "heavenly father"
Really all God ever was from then until now is a response to our own existence. We would not be strong enough to live with out purpose from that which we cant control. All "He" is is a coping method. They have done it for thousands of years and made God and sustained God for this purpose. But now, God is dead. I killed the super-Ben (the God who changed as i did and so did his desires just mirroring a perfect me or what I thought God should be or what I wanted to be or especially what I needed to feel better. Like a drug) God figure in my life. I quit my addiction to a false sense of security and purpose. I dont need to cope with life this way any more.
So what now...
I begin my search. This inner search for a God that I personally believe started this whole shabang. What am I doing here? I may never know and I sure as hell wont invent my God to answer that or any other question. I have gotten as far as to say it started this. it is the source of life. I also hear things I like from this book or that book or this religion that religion. I am very lost but so very free. Free from a whole mess of delusion. Granted I may end up a Christian or a buddist or a deist or an agnostic, I am free to make a choice. That seems part of being alive anyway. wow, more to come I guess
Whatever the hell happened at the beginning, whether we are some creation of a supernatural force or a natural force, (that being irrelevant at the moment), we as human beings found something out that no other thing found out. We were going to die some day. We can anticipate the future. Does what I do today really have value? Am I of value? These questions threw humans into a hysterical existance and something else needed to be done. Some how humans have to cope with these insecurities. Back then, they realized they existed and that meant that something outside of themselves existed. Maybe they had a mind of their own too? As a human I dont have control over the wind but it affects me, I better not piss it off. Eventually it was assumed that something had control over everything. not only that but we invented ways to give us relations with this something so we might please it thus ensuring our security here. Not only that but this kind of control and power could be used to regulate behavior and create unity for all man kind. We can call it God's will. You know if horses had Gods they would look and act and even desire that which horses desire. There is the birth of our "heavenly father"
Really all God ever was from then until now is a response to our own existence. We would not be strong enough to live with out purpose from that which we cant control. All "He" is is a coping method. They have done it for thousands of years and made God and sustained God for this purpose. But now, God is dead. I killed the super-Ben (the God who changed as i did and so did his desires just mirroring a perfect me or what I thought God should be or what I wanted to be or especially what I needed to feel better. Like a drug) God figure in my life. I quit my addiction to a false sense of security and purpose. I dont need to cope with life this way any more.
So what now...
I begin my search. This inner search for a God that I personally believe started this whole shabang. What am I doing here? I may never know and I sure as hell wont invent my God to answer that or any other question. I have gotten as far as to say it started this. it is the source of life. I also hear things I like from this book or that book or this religion that religion. I am very lost but so very free. Free from a whole mess of delusion. Granted I may end up a Christian or a buddist or a deist or an agnostic, I am free to make a choice. That seems part of being alive anyway. wow, more to come I guess
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