I don’t believe in God.
It isn’t really my choice.
Faith is a gut feeling, the same as love and trust. I have no faith in a higher power; that feeling is not there. I have faith in my friends and family, people, and the general order of things, but not in a higher power, and this is all the justification I need to say I don’t believe in God.
Which is why I laugh at people who need justification for their faith beyond feeling, whether it’s theistic or atheistic. Faith is a human emotion, a human feeling, and we humans are fallible. Any one of our faiths can be wrong, so who’s to say that any one is right? It’s one big joke to me, essentially trying to pinhole that intangible combination of luck and emotion.
And then we get past faith and into religion. Yikes.
In the end, it’s irrelevant.
However, this is not to say I hold it against people for believing what they believe; that would be hypocritical, and I prefer not to act in such a manner. In fact, I am extremely open to the idea of God(s), and leave myself open at every opportunity for that feeling to develop. Honestly, I wish that hole were filled; in a way, I envy the true believer, and I certainly don’t begrudge people their own faith.
But don’t tell me, based on your own faith, how my faith should be. To presume what is right for you is right for the rest of the world is not only supremely arrogant, but fundamentally wrong, and I don’t stand it around me. I stand for a lot of things, and I let a lot of shit slide, but such attitudes I do not.
Just a fair warning, on this Easter Sunday.
Filed under: Faith
Hmmm, your statement of non-belief both surprises and saddens me. All I need do is look around me at the nature of life, at nature itself, at life itself, and realize there is something much greater, bolder, brighter than me. You have seen how faith has worked in my life, our lives, collectively. Over and over and over. How is it that you do not recognize its’ works? Do you look but not see?
My faith is a Knowing, Andrew, not a “gut” feeling. I do not hope or wish for anyone to have faith, or a belief in a higher power, the Universe, or however one wants to identify or define “it” because I do not know what is best for anyone else. I do know, however, that I am grateful, every day, that I believe in a higher power, whom i choose to call God (and some days that takes on the simple definition of Good Orderly Direction). In the many forms of energy He/She/It takes in my life, there is a flexible, fluid evolution.
Each morning I wake is a gift, another opportunity to journey out into the world. And although I may face the day by myself, I am never alone.
I recognize “its” works, but I attribute them to something else. It’s not difficult. I see it as the efforts of good people working to get what they can. I see it as social forces working in our favor because we are good people. I see it as forces of nature, of chance, of evolution, and all sorts of other things working together in an amazing dynamic system. Whether or not this is God’s will, I don’t know. I don’t feel that it is, and this is important because we can only truly Know (capital k) something of this nature at a gut-feeling level. We can cognitively think about what love is, or what it means to grieve the loss of a child, but we can not truly Know it, understand it, until we feel it at that gut level. That’s what I mean; this deeper understanding is not there for me. I could commit to it on an informational level, but that would be a false commitment, something I am not willing to do.
This is not to say I am ungrateful, or somehow disconnected with the wonders of the world. This would be far from the truth, and whereas you’re saddened at my disbelief, I’m saddened that so many think belief in God is necessary for this connection to the world, that a world without God is a cold place, and/or that only a higher power can bring warmth to it. People bring me warmth, nature brings me warmth. My way achieves virtually the same effect, without the stipulation of dogma, rules, or confinement of thought. Mine is a natural, fundamental wonderment, not something to be believed, defended, or fought over. So, in my limited life experience, I see people giving directions on how to feel this way and I see so many who have lost the natural ability to appreciate life, who need something else to support and defend this feeling. I do not feel this is the path for me.
But at the same time, if the effects are the same I don’t care how they’re gotten. It’s the results that matter in the real world; so like I said, I don’t begrudge people their own faith, just as I wish no one to hold mine against me. Because I do have faith: I have faith in my loved ones, I have an impossible faith in the goodness of people, and I have faith in myself. By faith, I don’t just mean simple belief, I mean I have an implicit, intangible feeling of undying trust, and this is a strong feeling. This is why I am always so disappointed, so frustrated, and often depressed about how the world is, because every day this implicit trust is betrayed in an unending cycle of stupidity, hatred, self-loathing, and greed.
No good person would betray this trust, or even test it. They would respect it, rely on it, use it to support themselves and others. A community built on this implicit faith is impenetrable; we see it on any sort of team or family, and especially in military units. The members of those groups don’t test these bonds; and this is one reason why I find it so difficult to believe in a God. When I hear people excusing bad events as “God testing our faith,” I almost find this offensive. I wouldn’t want a family member testing my faith in them, why would a God be any different? It is a betrayal of trust, of faith, to test that bond, and no God of mine would be so treacherous.
That there is something greater than us is no indication that there must be a God… it is only indicative that we are less than something else entirely. We, as single parts, are less than the whole, we are less than everything. A blade of grass is less than the whole field, but this does not mean there is something that consciously tilled the soil and sewed our seeds. I am perfectly willing to accept that life happened by chance, that the wind blew me to my rooting spot, and I am grateful that chance has worked in my favor and that I am alive. I see how faith motivates and catalyzes, and I recognize the immense value in that, but what makes one system of faith better at it than another? If the effect is what matters, what does it matter what our faith is in? I don’t have faith in a God, but I have faith in the larger scheme of things, in the natural cycles of chance and human intent.
And this is my point: what specifically we have faith in is irrelevant, as long as we have it and utilize it for the greatest good. There is no universal truth, no one Good, only our best efforts.
[...] and this is really very important in my opinion, so I’m taking these comments from my post Faith. and bringing them to the forefront. These comments better address concerns that others have, and [...]