Peanut Butter or Cheese?

"Faith is the art of holding onto things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods." 

- C.S Lewis

Time to tackle something I don't often talk openly about, faith/religion/ritualistic belief. Whatever you call it (philosophy of religion works for me), it's not something that I like to write about because at the end of the post it sounds like I've come to a conclusion; conclusions are unnecessarily definite. Ever questioning our world is the best way to earnestly learn about it. It's the people who conclude they are superior and chuck a burning tire around the curious that we should fear, not the curious ones.

They always kill the good guys.

My object today isn't to convince, but to share a view that might resonate or stir some discussion about the most important of questions, God. Who/what/where is God? Hundreds of thousands have died defending their ideals and belief in God since the dawn of time. I honestly don't think I need to convince anyone of it's importance, so I won't bother trying.

In modern times Atheism is picking up quite a bit momentum and I guess that's understandable. As the human race as a whole gets more educated and exposed to the media, the less 'naive' and more cynical we seems to get. "How can a loving God allow such suffering?" "There's no proof that is measurable to a human being that He exists so believing in him is stupid." You hear a lot of perfectly reasonable questions and statements from people; if that is how they feel then it's no wonder they can't bring themselves to believe in a God. I do however worry about some of the bitter, more intolerant Atheists that seem to be becoming the face of Atheism. If you don't believe in God by all means don't, but when you start belittling other people's faith needlessly then you err on the side of arrogance.

Way to respect each other guys...

On the other hand, it's becoming harder than ever for most religions to keep up with the times. A lot of religions are having to make compromises to avoid straying into hate speech or even all out violence. Some religions are fighting modern times in a very dangerous external way. For them it's not a case of questioning inwardly, but taking a knife to the unbeliever's throat. Herein lies the a strong argument against God. How can a loving God promote violence, even if only to keep man-made traditions alive in modern times. So by fighting to prove God's existence you only give the other side of the argument more leverage. A silent pious faith can change hearts and minds, violence can only change the vitality of the body.

Waging war with peace before it was cool.

So what do I believe? I believe we can never fully comprehend God because we are His creations. Can a sandwich understand why I chose to have peanut butter instead of cheese? Not likely and yet it's similar for us; we cannot comprehend something not within the realm of our own understanding. We know the universe we live in has rules because those rules are proven. Gravity, momentum, speed of light, etc. These rules are ones we learn through life experience. They didn't come down from the sky to be written on stone tablets. If I put a gun to my temple and believe the bullet won't exit the chamber and then pull the trigger, I'm an idiot and deserve the bullet. At the same time, our intellect and understanding of our universe is as ever expanding as the universe itself. We don't, can't and never will know everything about the universe so how can we possibly understand the creator of it?

The blog has gone on a bit and I didn't really get to elaborate on my beliefs, but there's plenty of time. My point for today though is if anyone has ever ended another person's life because of a limited understanding of God or concept of God, then that is a life wasted to ignorance and stupidity. It breaks my heart that is continues on in the way it does even today. God doesn't belong to any of us.