People who know me know that I am a Christian. Not a super-duper Christian, just a person of faith. I curse, I break commandments, I don't attend services like I should but I conduct my life as well I can.
Kevin is an agnostic mostly. He's not sure exactly where he stands on whole thing. He believes there is a higher power and he believes in evolution. He doesn't believe that they are mutually exclusive. Nor do I.
Right now, there is big, dark, line dividing two kinds of people: Non believers and Believers. Think when the Brady Kids argued over which side of the room was theirs.
I'm tired of the Believers judging & sending everyone who doesn't directly to hell. I'm equally tired of Non-Believers being so scoffingly condescending. (Bill Maher, I'm looking at you)
Scientists were rated as great heretics by the church, but they were truly religious men because of their faith in the orderliness of the universe.
~ Albert Einstein
~ Albert Einstein
I don't like the word "spirituality" because it's just too New Age, Oprah-esque to me. Although I used it above, I don't like the use of the word "believer" also. It's too black & white for a very gray subject. Religion equals division, war, and judgment. Even God is tricky as each culture, religion, person has their own version of God or Gods.
Everyone has some sort of higher power that they hold onto . Everyone calls it a different name. Everyone holds that higher power within themselves. Sometimes, it is just the simple power of themselves.
How about just faith?
Without simple faith, why does anyone bother getting up in the morning? Or taking that chemo treatment? Or lending a hand to a stranger? Or finishing that last chapter of the book?
Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.
It is not enough that a thing be possible for it to be believed.
Voltaire
It is not enough that a thing be possible for it to be believed.
Voltaire
Without simple faith, why does anyone bother getting up in the morning? Or taking that chemo treatment? Or lending a hand to a stranger? Or finishing that last chapter of the book?
A garden is evidence of faith. It links us with all the misty figures of the past who also planted and were nourished by the fruits of their planting. ~ Gladys Taber
To sit patiently with a yearning that has not yet been fulfilled, and to trust that, that fulfillment will come, is quite possibly one of the most powerful "magic skills" that human beings are capable of. It has been noted by almost every ancient wisdom tradition. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert
Perhaps faith is what everyone might/will/should/could/would believe in: just simple faith.
6 comments:
I think if you define higher power and faith in that way (higher power as anything a person has faith in; faith as anything that causes a person to continue to live life), then everyone believes in a higher power and has faith. But I DON'T believe in what is traditionally referred to as a higher power (a God/Goddess or gods/goddesses) OR have what is traditionally referred to as faith (belief in a God/religion), and wouldn't feel it was accurate to be put in the same group with people who do and do. (I'll bet they wouldn't like it, either!)
Swistle, I love you. You're right, lumping everyone in the same boat is not a happy scenario. That's what I said but not what I meant. Well done me.
What I meant & didn't make clear was everyone believes in something: be it a higher power (who thought of that phrase, b/c I hate it) or money or science or plants or themselves or nothing.
Everyone just needs to stop judging and trying to change each other. If everyone could stop drawing lines, waving flags or whatever, so much more progress could be made in the world.
Is that better? or worse?
(oh, and Note to Self: proofread.
religion is a sticky wicket. i guess if someone asked me i would say i'm methodist, but i don't think i am. when we randomly go to church we go to a methodist church and are members. however, i also do not believe going to church makes one any more religious or christian, etc. than the next person. i have faith in something bigger than myself, not in religious tenents. there's a quote (or maybe it's from a movie) something about more wars being fought in the name of god or a god than for any other reason. that, to me, just seems to go against all religions. so many religions teach tolerance and yet so many "relgious" people are so intolerant. i think that's what turns me off w/ "organized" religions.
I like the "something bigger than myself" for those that it applies to.
I'm very, very, very anti-religion. You're right: more people have died in the name of religion.
I guess it would just be nice if everyone would stop labeling themselves by religion. that's my point, stated more succinctly than the above post. (:-D
http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2009/10/29/
I think that sums it up pretty nicely (for those who believe in heaven). It is one of my favorites. Sometimes it is simple- it is about having faith (not a faith) and believing in something bigger than yourself.
I personally go to church every Sunday. Why? Because I get something out of it not because I should or to look good or whatever. I haven't always gone and I haven't always gone to this church or stayed in one particular denomination. And if you go to various denominations, you really can see a commonality among many religions even though everyone tends to get wrapped up in the details (and some details do matter which may be very important to people based on their personal beliefs- not so much to me).
And to make this post even longer, as someone who has had a plethora of science classes from the cellular biology to astronomy, I found that learning more about science made my faith even stronger. I agree with Einstein!
Bea - that's a great cartoon! Thanks for sending it.
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