The problem of evil—how could an omnipotent-omniscient-omnipresent-all-good god create or allow to exist a universe containing evil and arbitrary suffering—has always been a, if not the, major barrier for me to believing in any approximation of God. The following represents a way of tackling the question in non-didactic terms. The question at the end is not merely rhetorical—I’d really like to know what people think.
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Archive for the ‘religion’ Category
A few reasons I’m not a Christian
Posted in philosophy, religion, soteriology, spiritual, spirituality on December 23, 2008| 3 Comments »
I’ve been poking around on BlogHer recently, and ran across this post, which got me musing about Christianity. Most of these ponderings occurred to me many years ago, back in the day when I hadn’t yet rejected Christianity for myself. I was raised Methodist, in a small town, and around this time of year often get nostalgic for when the religious side of Christmas meant more to me. But–well, whatever. On to the ponderings. Which I decided to post here instead of in a comment on SandyHov’s blog because they will seem blasphemous, and possibly offensive, to many Christians, and I have no desire to offend her. (more…)
Why I’m not a philosopher
Posted in philosophy, religion, spiritual, spirituality on July 25, 2008| 4 Comments »
I’ve been following, sort of, a conversation here that started out to be about meaning, delved into questions having to do with “is there anything more/other than the physical universe?”, and recently turned to the basis of morality and our sense of morality. This led me to this post, which discusses the matter of consciousness and feelings (qualia of consciousness).
I’ve posted a few comments in these other conversations, but decided to save my snippier comments for my own blog, so here goes: (more…)
Agnosticism as a form of faith?
Posted in personal, philosophy, religion, spiritual, spirituality on March 21, 2008| 4 Comments »
I wrote the folowing in a comment I made on another blog, and I’ve been turning it over in my mind ever since:
We often hear that it’s the journey that’s the point, and maybe that’s true. I know my own persistent underlying agnosticism is oddly comforting to me at times. It’s as though I’m searching for something, I know not what, but something in me is sure it’s there and that I’ll recognize it if/when I find it. Which, if you think about it, is faith of a kind.
The reason is stuck in my head is because of the combination of facts that (more…)
Shadows
Posted in philosophy, religion, spiritual, spirituality on February 28, 2007| 1 Comment »
“You see but your shadow when you turn your back to the sun.”
- Kahlil Gibran
The obvious (to me) meaning in this has to do with turning away from the source of life/understanding/love etc. and how that leaves one seeing and feeling only the painful, dark, negative things in oneself and in life. But shadows, at least our own shadows, offer us other very interesting metaphors. (more…)
Something about stories
Posted in quotes, religion, spiritual, spirituality on February 8, 2007| 1 Comment »
Some posts on Diane’s blog reminded me of the book Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Naomi Remen. I love her books; this one helped me a lot several years ago when I was feeling a bit beat up by life and somewhat useless. So I thought I’d come back here and share some of it, and encourage people to get it and read it.
This is from the introduction to the book.
All real stories are true. Sometimes when a patient tells me their story, someone in their family will protest. “But it didn’t happen quite that way, it happened more like this.” Over the years I have come to know that the stories both these people tell me are equally true, equally genuine, and that neither of them may be “correct,” an exact description of the event much as a video camera might have recorded it. Stories are someone’s experience of the events of their life, they are not the events themselves. Most of us experience the same event very differently. We have seen it in our own unique way and the story we tell has more than a bit of ourselves in it. Truth is highly subjective.
All stories are full of bias and uniqueness; they mix fact with meaning. This is the root of their power. Stories allow us to see something familiar through new eyes. We become in that moment a guest in someone else’s life, and together with them sit at the feet of their teacher. The meaning we draw from someone’s story may be different from the meaning they themselves have drawn. No matter. Facts bring us knowledge, but stories lead to wisdom.
A Blessing
Posted in quotes, religion, spiritual on February 7, 2007| 1 Comment »
A thought and a wish for those who visit today:
My definition of a miracle is ‘just exactly the right thing, in just exactly the right way, at just exactly the right time.’ Neale Donald Walsh
May we all experience–and notice–miracles today.
(BTW–if you do, I’d love for you to come back and tell about it in a comment, in a spirit of “share the good stuff”.)
Monotheism
Posted in philosophy, religion on January 26, 2007| 3 Comments »
I posted this as a comment in response to a discussion on someone else’s blog, but decided it’s worth posting on my own.
I should add that I am thoroughly agnostic, not to say confused, about the existence or the nature of God, but that doesn’t stop me from talking as though there’s no question that God exists. I know this doesn’t quite make sense, but that’s part of the purpose of my blogging–to help me sort such matters out.
Sometimes I suspect that some fundamentalists who claim to be monotheists don’t really get the logic of what they are claiming. (more…)
A few quotes
Posted in philosophy, religion, spiritual, spirituality on January 16, 2007| Leave a Comment »
I’m working a long post that is taking awhile to gel. So in the meanwhile, thought I’d post a few quotes that say more poetically and succinctly some of what I was tryig to say here.
ALBERT EINSTEIN:
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious – the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.
Living Philosophies, 1931
ANAIS NIN:
The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.
HENRY MILLER:
The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.
What does it mean to “matter”, or to “matter absolutely”?
Posted in philosophy, religion on January 12, 2007| 6 Comments »
Dr. William Vallicella, a professional philosopher, posted a list of principles or standards for philosophy on his blog. (All of them involve absoluteness—interesting to me since he’s politically conservative; I suspect a connection.) The one I thought worth responding to is the following:
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“Nothing matters unless it matters absolutely.”
My response is below.
(more…)
The known, the unknown, and the unknowable
Posted in philosophy, religion, spiritual, spirituality on December 30, 2006| Leave a Comment »
The known and the unknown are blessings. The unknowable is both a mystery and a blessing, a blessing because it is a mystery.
(more…)
Addofio 