Belief And Unbelief

[poliphilo]

Is it possible to prove or disprove the existence of God- or indeed of any supernatural entity? Of course not. Human beings have been trying all through history- and have yet to come up with anything that holds water- which doesn't stop us- believers and unbelievers alike- from parading our certainties and pouring scorn- or worse- on the opposition.

A belief in God is ridiculous. So is atheism. Because in the final analysis it is ridiculous that anything exists. Even if the Hadron collider eventually establishes the "how" of the Big Bang, it won't be telling us "why". Did Mind produce Matter or did Matter produce Mind?  Both positions are equally plausible/implausible. You choose- if you do choose and your position isn't simply inherited or indoctrinated-  on grounds of intellectual fashion or aesthetic preference,  but not on grounds of  reason or evidence. Reason doesn't stretch that far and there is evidence- unsatisfactory, inconclusive evidence- on both sides. Mary saw a ghost; John says she can't have done because ghosts don't exist. Which of them should you trust? 

I think belief in God (don't ask me to define the word) makes life more interesting. And I notice that Richard Dawkins makes exactly the same claim for his disbelief. 

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've learned to distrust my beliefs.

But I do still believe- in God, in spirits, in the afterlife, in reincarnation. The difference, perhaps, is that I no longer feel that my world would collapse if my beliefs were disproved. And that's because previous belief systems have fallen to pieces around me- and I survived.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

The difference, perhaps, is that I no longer feel that my world would collapse if my beliefs were disproved.

Yes, this. Though I admit to being a teensy bit afraid of the possibility that the oppressive beliefs I have turned my back on are right, after all, and I will suffer for eternity for releasing them. That possibility doesn't fit my (admittedly vague) understanding of God, though.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I get those twinges too- every once in a while- and my upbringing was relatively liberal.

The God of "that old time religion" is a psychopath and a terrorist- a sort of heavenly Saddam Hussein. It ought to be beneath our human dignity to worship such a creature.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

I copied that second paragraph into my paper journal. Your words are right on the mark, and every time I read them, my soul vibrates like a gong.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Wow. I'm honoured :)

It's one of the great insights of Christianity- and one that keeps being smothered and obscured because it's so counter-intuitive- that God isn't some tin-pot dictator, he's the dictator's victim. He's not Tiberius Caesar, he's the poor man on the cross.