Hanvey hits it on the nail -- my faith isn't my crutch, it's more like my wheelchair! I wouldn't have gotten as far as I have without my faith either, and I'd likely be a very dark individual, if even still breathing for that matter.
But I don't tell my story for it to be a sob story as I think from what I'm reading of Jeoin's response that it evidently appears to be. All it is is the reason I am who I am, and that's it. I agree with Ashley though, everyone here seems pretty strong, including my friend Jeoin here. And by the way, it's really hard to remember how to spell "Jeoin". Three vowels in a row is just too much. You should have an easy to spell and remember name, like...uh...mine...Nevermind...
So I'll pick up where I left off on my story...
Like I said previously, I did a lot of research to learn more about my beliefs. I think it's very important to believe what you believe because you truly believe it (that almost makes no sense!). In other words, I don't believe because "it's my family's religion" or "I like it best" or "I'm afraid of dying".
Everyone has their own answer as to why they believe, so there is no universal secret formula for everyone to learn the truth. It's out there to find, but you find it your own way. My way though, I see it as best proven combining 1) faith, 2) science, and 3) logic (or I suppose you could say philosophy). I know this probably seems odd because many see these as contradicting elements, but I see them as complimenting each other. I think God's existance is both logical and scientifically supported (note I don't say scientifically proven).
So, I want to focus this post on logic. First of all, I think no matter what you believe about the origin of the universe, it's crazy. The idea of an unseen, omnipotent, divine Creator is crazy. However, believing everything just "blew up" into existence is also crazy. The universe is such an amazing concept that there's no "normal" explanation behind it. That's one thing that confuses me as to why so many people find the Big Bang so much easier to accept. You mean to tell me believing in God is crazy, but you have no problem believing everything "just happened"?
It's not, by itself, an end-all argument, but a lot of what I believe is rooted in what your philosophy majors know well as the "cosmological argument" for God's existance. Now, I'm no philosophy major, but I have studied this quite a bit on my own, and am still doing so. In my own terms, the argument breaks down as such:
1) We know that every affect has a cause. Everything that exists or occurs is caused by something before it. Every child has a parent, every motion is initiated by a force, every event has a beginning, and so on. There is nothing that has no cause. Life itself is one big line of falling dominoes.
2) The problem, then, is "infinite regression". In other words, it seems you go back in time infinitately from cause to cause to cause, etc. Basically, if you asked "What caused that?", once you got the answer, you could then again ask "Okay, well what caused that?" and so go back in time with that question infinitately. Even if you believe in the Big Bang, something had to cause it, and then something had to cause that, then...
3) So, we either have to a) accept that time has no beginning (which I don't know about you, but that makes no sense to me, everything as we know it couldn't have "just always been"), or b) realize that, at some point in the past, there had to be a first cause, or uncaused caused. In other words, you keep asking "What caused that?" until you evidently get to the point of "Well, nothing caused that."
4) So far, God is the only answer that fits. God, by His nature as we know it to be defined, IS without cause. God, being eternal, has no beginning or end (He is the "Alpha and Omega"). (Admittedly, that's hard to grasp, but toss the concept around in your head if you will.)
The reason we have trouble grasping the concept of God's "causelessness" is because it exists outside the "rules" of our universe. God, as Creator of both time and the universe, thus exists
outside of both, and therefore He is not governed by them. Whereas inside the universe, everything has to have a cause, then outside the universe, such is not necessarily the case. That way, nothing governs or created God, He is The Creator.
Now, this is
not the end-all argument. This "theory" can be argued and argued and argued on many points (such as "How can God be causeless?") and is widely argued in the philisophical community. However, it is a great building block to start with. Also, this theory does not support one belief of a god(s) over another; it only suggests that there is one, or at least one.
Once you come to a belief that there is a god, then the next step is determining which god is God.
If nothing else, it's a starting point, and I'll stop there for the time being...
Apr 02, 2004 @ 18:52:26
