Rebellious
Feb. 8th, 2009 09:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloWe'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.
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.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-02-10 09:36 am (UTC)I think it can all be quantified, or let me amend that to say 'could'. Right now we have no way of doing it. In fact, to do it we'd probably need a computer just as big and complex as the Universe itself, because the Universe is basically a massive computer constantly jotting out it's lines of fate and Brownian motion. It's all random, but if you know all of the facts, then nothing is random.
Probably the best we'll get to then is very good models. Even understanding ourselves, we're part of a mega-complex labyrinth of DNA and jumbled ideas, blurring with chemicals and seemingly random interactions. It's sufficiently complex to allow for belief in just about anything to never be disproved or proved.
Ghosts and monsters etc, sure, why not. I don't think they're real, as I don't believe in ID, but have no proof either way, the same for everyone- so what does it matter? You take what you want. I'm increasingly coming to think we'll be in post-faith days soon. You can believe or not, but it won't matter, as increasingly whether you're gay or not, black or not, will come to matter less and just be another characteristic- as in, people won't use it to identify themselves.
Iain Banks writes about a post-faith culture, called 'the Culture', in which the greatest good is hedonism and works of amazing scale and beauty. Humans become god-like in their capacity to create stellar architecture, massive worlds, manipulate light and time and etc.. I think that's a great goal, and probably where we're headed.
A for Dawkins and Bill Maher and others- they're in it for the personal glory of being a rebel, basically putting out a fundamentalist message to counter that put out by other fundamentalists. I listen to his lot now about as much as I listen to any religious person. None of them really know, so why sweat it?
no subject
Date: 2009-02-10 03:01 pm (UTC)I view religion as an interest or hobby. Some of us enjoy it and some of us don't. It's like trainspotting or piano-playing. For that reason I don't suppose it's likely to die out anytime soon. The mistake- of which both the Pope and Bill Maher are guilty- is to take belief seriously. Morality is serious, aesthetics is serious; belief- except as it impinges on morality and aesthetics- is trivial.