Letters to the Editor
-
Does it matter that we will all be dead?
I mean, REALLY, does it matter? I believe that it doesn't. Because it's not whether we live forever with the 29 virgins or the angels flapping their wings. It's whether we treated each other well while we were alive.
Really and truly, that's the only immortality that we get.
If I die tomorrow, but my children and their friends remember a kindness that I did in the midst of a difficult time, it may move them to do the same for someone, who is moved to do the same for someone else.
And if not? I won't know, because I'll be dead.
See how it works?
-
mid-life crisis
You are right there is no God. Fagaddaboutit, it's superstition. One creates one's own purpose in life..or one doesn't. When my daughter and her family are grateful for dinner and they feel the need to thank something, they thank Alan Ginsberg. Supersition is sometimes comforting and as long as you keep it to yourself there's probably no harm in it. The notion of meeting ones dead loved ones again is comforting to most people. Religion (God) is a concept people made up to deal with the reality that we are all going to die. It's the human condition. Create your own pupose, your own meaning....volunteer at a childrens hospital.
-
I've Been There--I Am There
Like the LW I too abandoned by faith when I was young. One of my problems was that I mistook the loudest voices and the most popular views for "the truth" about religion and faith, particularly Christianity. The cruelty and ignorance of so many of the faithful appalled me.
However, my faith, in God at least, was rekindled recently (I befriended a Christian Bodhisattva, what can I say?). I found two books of great use to me in my search for meaning:
"And God Said What?": An Introduction to Biblical Literary Forms for Bible Lovers, by Margaret Nutting Ralph
The God Who Risks: A Theology of Divine Providence, by John Sanders.
I would recommend the above books to anyone, believer or atheist, who thinks that Christianity (and I'm sure there are equivalents for other religions) is simple or simple-minded.
-
Shake you head and wake up, Cary
Getting religion will not help your problem. You will end just as dead and disintegrate in your grave just as effectively as all the non-believers.
Today's problems are many, but most of them are caused by or have some connection to religious beliefs and to the ignorance and arrogance of religious leaders and religious politicians who use ignorance and superstition to justify the wars and murders they instigate. What is needed is the rigorous and objective examination of events and taking actions in response to those evaluations.
Ed Daniel
-
Intrinsic Meaning
The LW seems to be dealing specifically with the loss of belief in an after-life. It's clear that he's missing the comfort offered by Salvationist religions -- that we will be released from all pain and suffering into eternal bliss.
What we need to remember about the Salvantionist tradition is that it gained popularity because life in earlier times was cruel and difficult. Our ancestors plight is not our own. They sought a release from their existence. We seek the continuance of our own.
All theories, even those of a spiritual nature, exist in context. If what you seek is the truth and meaning in your life, use the tools in your time and environment to find it. We live in an amazing time. Modern medicine, agriculture, quantum physics, social freedoms -- these are miracles created by the evolution of human consciousness.
You do not have to believe in god to recognize that life has Intrinsic meaning. This fact is evident twhen you allow yourself to feel awe for all that is and ever will be.
-
the search is hard, and the road is strange
I think one mistake we make as intellectual beings is that we confuse our curiosity about life, the universe and everything with a need to know and understand everything at all times. Perhaps a simple solution, without changing your whole outlook on the world all at once, is to allow yourself to be filled with wonder again the same way you were as a kid. It doesn't matter if you understand where rain comes from or not if you can sit on your back porch at night with someone you love sipping a beer and silently watching the rain soak everything around you. Turn off your intellect for a minute and just feel things now and then. You don't have to believe in or deny the existence of any god to feel that the world is beautiful. If you believe that the force that created all life is the thing we call science, then I would suggest that science itself (for lack of a better word) is worthy of some kind of worship. Just think how miraculous all those electrons are, and let that bring you joy, whether you call it god or not. But if you want to give it a name, you're welcome to call it God or Joy or The Universe or whatever you like. You don't have to define divinity by anyone's understanding but your own, and if that divinity even cares whether we worship it or not, I suspect it will not mind you honoring it by whatever understanding you personally have. Remember that this is not about any particular religion but about your own way of interacting with the world at large, at very large... the world outside your understanding.
Finally, my all-time favorite quote about the divine:
He who desires to see the living God face-to-face should not seek him in the empty firmament of his mind, but in human love.
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky
The search is hard, but it's so rewarding. Good luck.
-
I like it
I like the fact that you are almost 40 and thinking about God, and things are losing meaning, and you're not sure why.
Maybe that's what a higher power intended. In some eastern religion or a sect of one, forgive me for not remembering which one, traditionally the man works hard, raises a family...and after that time goes off into the woods or traveling with no money and no possesions in his 40's or 50's to "find God", experience enlightenment...giving up the material world, after fufilling his duty to it.
I don't think you are ever too late for God...maybe your life has slowed a little and this is God way of telling you that he's been there all along. Maybe you've seen the perfection of your children, and the universe, and good and evil battling throughout the years, and it's too much coincidence and no matter how corny it sounds, your special purpose is calling.
He's calling you.