Rebellious

[poliphilo]

We're not going to church today. There's still ice on the ground- and Ailz is afraid of falling- or of me losing control of the wheelchair on the hill.

Isn't it odd? I've been going to church for just over a month- and already I see it as some sort of an obligation. Do I think God will be angry if I don't go? Well, maybe, because that's how I thought as a child and we never entirely shrug off such things. Of course with my upper- adult- mind I scorn the idea. Why I don't even believe in God.

So why am I going at all? Is it because I feel I owe it to the people?

Here's something I haven't written about yet- or only hinted at.  It's about feeling the need to choose sides. I've been getting increasingly annoyed over the past few years with what I see as the largely mindless embrace of atheistic materialism by the intelligentsia, the commentariat, by the sort of people who set the tone in our world. I don't mean David Attenborough- because his atheism is clearly part of a well-articulated, Darwinian world-view.  I mean journalists, reviewers, comedians, actors- that sort of cannaille. They haven't thought things through or considered the evidence- how could they when they're so busy with their careers?-  they're merely conforming to the fashionable philosophy of the day.  They make me cross.

And rebellious.

Yes, I believe in ghosts/fairies/aliens/angels. Why not?  Show me the evidence that they don't exist. In a quantum universe where over 90% of the matter that must exist is invisible to us I don't see how anything can be ruled out as too far-fetched.

The materialists are still working with a mid-nineteenth century model of the universe.

"What do you believe in, Johnny?"

"Whaddaya got?"

Anyway, that's one of the many reasons I'm going to church- to take my stand alongside the believers- even though their beliefs are not exactly mine.

Oh, and another thing I believe in is intelligent design. Not Genesis, not the Biblical account- which is plainly myth- but in the possibility that evolution is a process set in motion and helped along by intelligence.  Yes I know that's not science- and I don't care. I don't think science- with its dogmatically materialist,19th century guidelines - is capable of giving us a full account of the universe.

Comments

[wolfshift.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of it this way before, but I think I'm going through at least somewhat the same thing -- the need to choose sides against materialism, against positivism, against the idea that humanity is supreme in the universe. I'm immensely uncomfortable with both where atheistic materialism has got us, and where it is leading us, and I think humanity needs God or religion in some form. I'm just having a hard time deciding which form.

I believe in intelligent design too. I think of the Genesis account as a myth that is "true" in some Mysterious sense but not literally. I disagree with the lunatics who want ID taught in science classes -- but on the other hand, I disagree with the other side that wants religion excluded from schools entirely. Like I said above, I think we need it. If nothing else, we pretty desperately need the humility that good religion ought to teach us.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The increasing triumphalism of the scientific materialists suggests that the tide is turning against them. Believers always shout louder when they feel themselves under threat. Witness- for example- the theatricality, hysteria, and brassiness of Counter-Reformation Catholic art.

Religion should be taught in schools- if only as an integral part of human history.