“Flowers and fruits are always fit presents; flowers because they are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Gifts.”
A friend asked me if believing in God was reasonable or if I thought he was foolish for believing in God.
I said I was sorry that he even thought that about me. It is reasonable to believe in almost any good thing, it’s not for me to say otherwise. I don’t tell others what to believe, and I don’t permit other people to tell me what to believe.
Precious and disappearing words: “I don’t know.” The truth is, I don’t know.
If I don’t want it done to me, I have no right to do it to anyone else. No one has the right to tell me what I must think.
Only God could know if he is real or not, and he doesn’t share his feelings with me, except perhaps through nature, animals and flowers. Somebody created love and good; it was either God or Mother Nature. There is something holy about my flowers. I’m trying to put my finger on it.
Humans seem to be always evolving, for good and for bad. Humanity doesn’t seem able to land, life is always a struggle and a joy together.
Who created greed and hatred, and poverty? Surely not a God? Like most of us, I have many questions; I don’t have many answers. That is the nature of life and thought. This is what it means to be a human – to search but never really to know.
People forget how to be decent to one another; I sometimes plead guilty. We are forgetting how to respect people who choose to be different from us.
It is so easy to hate from a distance when it is free and anonymous. Hatred without consequence is a plague. Hatred is learned from humans I think.
Every day someone tries to tell me what to believe, feel, and do. I shake my head in wonder. Where do they get the idea that they know? Every day someone tells me they love me, and someone tells me they hate me. I’m not sure what this says about humanity.
In a sea of ideologues an know it all’s, I am typically going the other way. Hate and grievance just don’t work for me. It doesn’t feel good and it never seems to accomplish anything but hurt.
The greatest lesson I have learned in recent years is that I know very little, if anything, of great value or meaning.
I would never presume to tell other people if their beliefs are valid or not. I am proud and blessed to openly and honestly and voluntarily reveal mine.
My unofficial motto is take it or leave it. And to be careful to mind my own business (thanks, Grandma.)
How would I know if it is reasonable to believe in God? I am still trying to understand what I believe in.
The truly humble know arrogance, I think. Arrogance is the mother of humility. To be one, I have to know the other.
Wow, powerful post, Jon. There are those who think that “God” made the “good” stuff and “Satan” is responsible for the “bad” stuff. That always sounded childish and churchy to me – too many holes in that philosophy. There are those who think this world is an experiment of sorts, and that some group of beings are simply watching, and taking notes, maybe on what NOT to do next time they decide to make a large aquarium-like habitat filled with humans. That sounds plausible but creepy to me. I have a friend who asked, “Why do we even need to believe in a God? Can’t we all just live and love, be kind and help others, without having to “thank” or “worship” a “supreme” being?” I mean, she’s right – what the hell else is our pre-frontal cortex for, if we can’t do the higher thinking with it? I like Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s take on it, that the more he learns about the Universe, the less convinced he is that any sort of benevolent force has anything at all to do with it. Jury is still out for me, and I feel like my time is better spent looking for the good that I can do and doing it, rather than looking for a God to be the reason for it.
And a good post in reply, Karla.
In a similar vein, I am on a waiting list to peruse “The book of nature : the astonishing beauty of God’s first sacred text” by Barbara Mahany as it seems to be in accord with my own view.
The name of my religion is “no Knowing”.
I have dropped the male pronoun when referring to God, just my preference after experiencing the patriarchy at work in most religious groups.
I agree that what anyone else chooses to believe (or not) is none of my business – or visa versa.
It has been interesting to read about the evolution of your thoughts about God over the past couple of years. I personally believe that any form of faith needs room to grow and change, in contrast to the static, unyielding and dogmatic beliefs of so many.