Just to throw out an idea of how I see God while also having a truth seeking scientific mind. God to me, is like all of the stuff we don't know about the universe right now. We have a lot of theories to certain things existing or not, we can test for some of them. We look for theorized particles all of the time in supercoliders. We often don't find them, even though the math says they are likely there. We still hang on to the theory, believe in the theory and search to prove or disprove the theory. Some theory's are basically taken as truth because they "fit" and explain things the best out of all others.
God is to me, like the theory of one of these extremely difficult to to prove/disprove scientific theories. I am not talking about any particular one, as I am certainly not familiar with all we theorize today. The "math" that provides overwhelming evidence that God exists is the Bible. The "math" explains a lot about Him but not maybe the entire picture, only what has been revealed to us by God. We may not ever be able to prove or disprove a certain scientific theory but since it fits, it will continue to be believed to be true. God is the same way to me. The evidence is there, the theory makes sense, and for me and more than a billion others, we choose to accept it as truth.
There is a part of believing God is real and exists that cannot so easily be compared with this scientific analogy though. That is the faith portion, or what I like to call, the Matrix instinct. Like Neo knew there was something wrong with his world, and he knew it was the Matrix, but he didn't know what that was, a similar thing holds true with many devout Christians. You just feel God is there, because there is something you just can't explain. A gut feeling etc.
Now you can break that "gut feeling" down into details about how that happens biologically, but really, can you tell someone that it is truley and completely biological in origin? There are all kinds of things that can be explained through science how they happen, but not why. God could someday be scientifically understandable in some manner for all we know. Maybe we find a particle that initiates certain chemical reactions in our heads, does other things, whatever, but where is the origin of that particle, and why can't that still be the means in which God acts?
For those Atheists on here, please don't confuse all religions with ignorance and lack of intelligence. There are some fundamentalists that really destroy the reputation religion, in my case I am talking strickly Christian. Has religion caused wars, and all kinds of other stuff? Yes. Would that still happen without religion? I would bet you absolutely anything that it would. Has religion done a lot of good in this world? You better believe it, and I would argue that it has done more good than harm by a long shot. Does religion hold back scientific discovery, technology etc? Sometimes, in some ways, but in others it advances it (see Catholicism).
If you get confused with which religion is the right one, well that is something you discover on your own. I am biased towards Christianity, but which kind? I am Catholic. To me, historically, that is as close as you can get to the originaly church founded by Jesus' deciples. All other Christian churches are spin offs of the real deal. I don't think however, that they don't have their place. I think they certainly do as far as reaching out to people of all kinds and backgrounds. I have a great respect though for Catholicism. It certainly has had its fair share of negativity in the news, but when you are 1 billion strong in membership, and have all the money the Vatican has, you are bound to have some corruption within the ranks. I could go on and on, and there are many ways to look at this subject. How do you know what to believe? What is the truth? Are everyone spinning it their own way? It comes down to your own journey through life, and following your "gut" more often than trying to think your way and fact find.
Good luck to all exploring religion, and trying to find answers. I wish you the best, and I ultimately hope and yes PRAY for you to discover the answers as I feel I have. I have been there, I just didn't let myself, or I wasn't allowed to fall too deeply into what I feel is the very dark hole of atheism.
Edit: Just a little ditty to bring up another concept. Churches often get blaimed for holding back society for their beliefs. They accuse them of being opressive to certain peoples. In some ways I see that as true, but the over all picture of the intent is to me, extremely intelligent and respectable.
Just a loose example. Right now, for much of the world, it would be unimaginable to think of causing harm to your neighbor for any reason, or a parent ridding themselves of their challenging child to make their lives easier. Those are EVIL things to most all of us (I sure hope so). We are as a society, incrementally, stepping towards those types of things becoming ok. Things that were once deemed as very wrong, are evolving into things that are just fine becuase the "mob" wants it. The Catholic Church for instance, certainly tries hard to stop that from happening with their influence they have world wide, and they do it regardless of the backlash and member losses they will recieve. I feel, they see the big picture.
Just food for thought.
Last edited by clevited - on 30 December 2017
