The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #131699   Message #2982071
Posted By: Joe Offer
08-Sep-10 - 12:18 AM
Thread Name: BS: The God Delusion 2010
Subject: RE: BS: The God Delusion 2010
OK, settle down. We've come this far with hardly anybody calling anybody names. Let's keep it that way. I've found when Somebody calls another person "troll," we've started on our way downhill. Don't call anybody a "troll," even if they ARE a troll. It just causes trouble, and doesn't do any good.
And a phrase like the pomposity of someone who tries to use his self declared intellectual superiority as a cudgel to beat down his opponents isn't what I'd call peaceable, either.
So, cut that out.


And now, back to our previously scheduled program, which is in progress....

There are several statements above requesting evidence to support religious faith. Well, I suppose that in many ways, the evidence just ain't there, and never will be. If you're looking for literal, legal, logical stuff, it just ain't there. I think that true faith is experiential. First, you experience that you are loved. Next, you experience the love from beyond a single source. Finally, you experience that you are loved from a source beyond anything you can comprehend, and then you're hooked. It it's true faith, I think you're driven to express that love to others in ways you didn't think you were capable of.

Now, I think that this sort of spirituality is fully possible for those who do not believe in a god at all. Perhaps it's even possible that there are non-theistic mystics, people who are at one with the harmony of all, without having a god involved in the process. I come from a religious background and see things through theistic eyes, but other people have other paradigms. I come pretty close to non-theistic mysticism when I contemplate my favorite Ponderosa pine tree, especially when there's a beautiful sunset behind it.

Anyhow, it's something to think about.

-Joe-