Quote:
Originally Posted by newtus
From all you just said - I feel like that last sentence you said is somewhat contradictory. because at first your talking about not believing in god and then you say "how much of a conscious choice is faith?". then there at the end you say "i could choose to believe that the sky is green...how long will it take before a conscious decision becomes accepted belief?"
well believing in a god...is about faith. right now im thinking: do you have faith the sky is green?. when you look at the sky what do you physically see? and then what do you feel? - is most important question next. what does it mean to you and other people for the sky to be green?
a lot of religions not just the major 3 ones have a lot to do with how people feel towards themselves and others. but thats only part of religion. im not schooled on every religion but doesnt every religion have a free will? i know a lot do. you can choose to believe something and find its purpose for why it is in this world.
why is the sky green? whats its purpose for being green? maybe it being green can teach us something that other people are missing out on. maybe something that everyone is missing out on and we should band together to tell others how important it is.
idk if im making sense but im just trying to solidify the meaning of faith in religion and the free will we have as humans to make the decision to have faith in things. how much of a conscious decision is faith? well faith is basically believing blindly. but thats not a negative thing.
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I don't fully understand if you are agreeing with me or not, or in part, sorry. I find understanding what I'm reading much harder than I used to, especially if it's abstract like philosophy is.
The belief in the sky being green was perhaps not a very good example as it doesn't have any purpose like me choosing to believe in god would (to provide comfort). I used to believe in god and was a Christian around 8-12yo, and I found it very comforting to believe in a benevolent god and a heaven where my Nan was watching over me and we would meet again after death. I don't feel like that was a conscious decision to believe though.
I tried consciously to believe in god when I stopped until I was 16-17 as I was very unhappy and I wanted the comfort I used to have from faith in god, but I just couldn't. Same as I don't think telling myself the sky is green 50x a day would make me truly believe it.
I like what Ody said in roll call about the path in the forest and choosing to believe it leads to a way out, and I guess choosing to believe in a god is positive like his example...but I'm stuck on how to go about it. It would be 'better' (ie less distressing) for me not to believe that the Govt is surveilling and torturing me too, but I don't know how to not believe that when every fibre of my being says it's true and that my family and I are in danger.
I guess I vaguely believe in something spiritual, like a life force in all living things (I don't know if I consider that akin to the soul), and maybe I could find comfort in that without the god entity...but I'm concerned about it going too far. I don't trust my reason or my intuition since whatever-this-is because it's messed up my life and people tell me that I'm wrong so much. I guess I'm worried that I might get 'carried away' if I explored my spirituality and completely lose touch with consensus reality in a way that is very damaging to me or others.
I guess I'm really just 'thinking out loud' as I know there are no certainties with any of these topics.
*Willow*