'Religion' in our lives.- Page 6

[Q]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 12:28am

Side note -

Thoughts like 'what came before' depend on the limited parameter of linear time, which scientific discovery has shown does not hold sway in the vastness of the existing Universe (at least that which we've identified so far.)

[CJR]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 12:37am

Okay I can't read this whole thread right now because I have to be in the office at 8am tomorrow instead of 9am... but I promise I will read it at some point during the day.

However, I did want to respond to the following:

"that if you believe, pray and turn your life over to this higher being, good things will happen."

But that ISN'T what happens, as can be shown over and OVER again!

That's the phenomenal difference between you, and someone devout in faith (please notice I didn't say religion).

I'm quite devout in my faith, but there are absolutely points in Catholicism that I either don't believe or don't agree with. That doesn't change my beliefs or the faith that I have.

I typically don't have the religious discussion but to address what you said above, I don't think you can prove that it doesn't happen. Likewise, I can't prove that it does, but to me - I just know. Faith is a beautiful thing. Not to say Im naive and I believe that everything will be solved if I pray on it and turn it over to God. No, I definitely don't believe that. But sometimes things are out of your hands and you have to "let go and let God" as it were.

I got laid off on the 19th. I found a new job two weeks later (an all around better position doing something I love). Now, had I sat on my ass and just prayed - thinking stupidly, God will take care of it - I would still be out of a job. But I got up and sent out resumes every day. For as many hours as I would have worked, I spent those hours sending out resumes. And in those two short weeks I went on countless interviews. All the while, I did have faith that I would find something; even in this horrible economy.

However, here's the kicker. For as pro-acvtive as I was, this job kind of found me, rather than the other way around. It's a property I worked for years ago - managing an elderly housing complex - that was recently taken over my a new management company. The one remaining former co-worker of mine called, not even knowing I was out of a job, to tell me the property manager had been fired and was I possibly looking for a job. I was hired on the spot by the new site supervisor.

By the way, as the phone rang, I was reaching for it to call her.

Now you can call that coincidence, but I truly believe it was meant to happen. I believe that everything in my life is meant to happen and nothing is ever truly by chance. But that is what I believe. I believe, because I have been fortunate enough to see and experience things that make me believe... and I believe because it enriches my life. Not because it dictates the way I live it.

I know not everyone agrees with that, and that's fine - to each their own. But just because one person thinks praying doesn't do anything, doesn't mean they are correct.

I'm not pouncing on anyone, I'm just sayin.

Updated On: 10/15/08 at 12:37 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 12:46am

See? The Lord works in mysterious ways. You may think you had something to do with it, but it was all His Divine intervention.

[CJR]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 12:49am

I hope that wasn't completely sarcasm, Namo because sometimes, that is true. Not always, but sometimes. Though I'd like to think the fact that I was terribly qualified for the job is what sealed the deal.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 12:50am

Well, Namo, there are some who think that John Waters is God, so I see your point.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 2:50am

Why does god get to exist forever, just be there forever, without ever having been made, but the universe just couldn't have been in existence, forever?

Because the Big Bang is an event. Two particles hit each other, reacted, and created the universe. The Big Bang theory establishes a finite starting point on a linear timeline. Many religions don't depict gods' existence in that format.

[LePetiteFromage]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 4:21am

Updated On: 1/12/09 at 04:21 AM

[jasonf]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 8:20am

I've never been able to wrap my mind around the idea of no time before the universe started. I can understand that nothing was there before the Big Bang other than particles floating around, but even that is SOMETHING, and there must have been a moment BEFORE the Big Bang and a moment before that, thus there HAD to still be time.

As for aliens - I also agree there MUST be other life out there. I do not however believe any have visited earth - the universe is so vast, that what are the chances they'd happen on us? I would also think that if we WERE to have alien visitors, they would have to be more evolved than us, and therefore less likely to be aggressive. I think the idea of aggressive aliens is another scare tactic...

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 9:38am

I have to say that all these scientific theories and speculations are really answering the question "how" we are here... not WHY we are here. That's a different question entirely.

[Jane2]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 9:47am

"Those are honest questions. I accept and believe in the idea that there was "nothing" before then but particles floating about in the ether, it's just, unnerving, I guess is the word."

thanks for acknowledging my major concern, Fromage. I guess Jason also is curious about the same thing. The concept of time notwithstanding, I still believe that there has to be a beginning to it all. and by that I mean before there were particles. But I also concede that my concern is impossible to answer. It IS unnerving, fromage.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 9:49am

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 9:51am

THAT'S IT, doodle!!

THAT's my religion right there! I have total faith in the giant elephant theory.

[tazber]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 9:52am

Horton = god

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 9:58am

We're all just whos.

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 10:05am

...some of us just spell it a little differently.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 10:07am

Brilliant, Besty!

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 10:08am

you mean who(re)s?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 10:22am

Is Jesus the lord and savior of the aliens, do you think?

As for the why, I think that question is only relevant if you believe there has to be a grand master (presumably god-created) plan for humanity. If not, the why and the how can answered with the same response. Unless I'm misunderstanding the question, which is always a possibility.

[Sister George]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 11:16am

42

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 11:16am

Read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, b12b. It lays out "why" we are here without reducing the question to a mystical, unanswerable zen coan.

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 11:56am

So many people think they have "the" answer, Namo.

"Read my book and you will know all."

Funny, that's what they all say.

I'm sure that by "reducing" it (to use your belittling terminology in contrast) to a scientific explanation, there is still no proof offered. Because proof, whether scientific or "mystically" religious, is impossible.

Updated On: 10/15/08 at 11:56 AM

[Mistress Overdone]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 11:57am

Not "read" my book, "buy" my book.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 11:59am

Clearly the answer you're looking for is esoterically based, so Dawkins probably wouldn't be the right place. Maybe a book by Pat Robertson, then?

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 12:03pm

Clearly you think you have have "the" answer for all of us!

You're truly amaaaaaaazing people.

Updated On: 10/15/08 at 12:03 PM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/15/08 at 12:08pm

Divine, you might say.