Guiscard wrote:
Colossus, I appreciate your debating skills and I really enjoy arguing with you, I'd like it if you would care to answer this post:
We do indeed. In this sort of world, however, what reason would there be to bother believing in God? What exact benefit can he give you?
Yeah, man, I dig debating with you, too. So, the answer to your questions is an easy one for me to offer, though it may be much harder to appreciate for the reader than it is for the writer (i.e. me) to give.
Why bother believing in God if God is not the scary cloud or the paradoxical all-loving 'omnibenevolent' (great term, by the way) supreme being of the Bible? Well, the simple answer is this: Faith enhances life; faith enhances experience. Through faith, I have come to a fuller way of living and experiencing. Through faith, my life becomes richer by the moment.
See, I believe, as I've mentioned in previous posts in this and other threads, that spiritual (or 'religious') experiences are very real; I've had them on several occasions. In fact, I have them regularly, from small moments on my walk to work to huge moments when standing on a mountaintop or praying during Mass at church (though the former are far more frequent than the latter). I said earlier (and some of you agreed) that now is all we have, so the keys to heaven and to glorifying God are to BE right NOW. 'Being now' is incredibly difficult to really do. By being now, I don't mean to just go ahead and live life and do whatever you feel like doing, but rather to be entirely mindful and present at every moment. Surely, no one can really do that, right? I expect it is beyond the human capacity to achieve, at least for your average human. Two humans that I think probably have achieved it fully were Jesus and the Buddha (here I will recommend a great book called 'Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers' by Thich Nhat Hanh. It's fantastic.). There have probably been others, but these two are most likely the best known and most influential. The best way to describe the feeling of being now, as best as I can anyway, is that being now is a feeling of total peace, blissful happiness, and ultimate connectedness with all that is. It is a transcendent experience where one can truly feel the presence of God. I have only come to such moments through faith, principally through awe of the glory and wonder that is creation (and before anyone goes off about that term, please look up my other posts to see that I'm not a 7-day Creationist). For me, my scientific understanding of what we know about the universe combined with my faith regarding what we cannot know (not what we don't know, but what we
cannot know) has greatly enhanced my awe, and thereby greatly enhanced my life. I think that faith is the difference between a face-value human existence and a deep and fulfilling human existence.
I mentioned a book in a previous thread, and I'll mention it again here. It is a book called 'Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief', and it's written by Andrew Newburg, who is a neuropsychologist from the University of Pennsylvania (where I study, too!). Dr. Newburgh and his colleagues have recently set up here at Penn what is the first major collaborative center for studying the biology of belief. His research from the past several years shows that along with so-called 'religious' experience come distinct, observable, repeatable types of changes in brain function. Central to these changes is a shut-down or overload to the point of shut-down of the part of the brain that distinguishes self from non-self. Dr. Newburg discusses these changes and relates them to the feelings of oneness that people undergoing such experiences describe. What is really great about this book is that is draws no conclusions as to whether the feeling of oneness is an illusion brought on by certain brain activity or is a higher form of consciousness (as is argued by those who experience it). It is a very even-handed and readable book with a minimum of science-speak, so it is very approachable by believers and non-believers alike. I highly encourage anyone who is interested in the questions addressed in this and other such threads to read it, and to read it with an open mind.
You mentioned that you feel it is better to believe in humanity, Guiscard. By believing in humanity, we limit ourselves by believing that there is nothing beyond us, nothing greater. I cannot see how a view of humanity as the highest form of life/consciousness that nature has to offer can lead to a richer or fuller existence. Of course, I am unable to look at things from the perspective of a person who has not had spiritual experiences, has not experienced that feeling of oneness with all that is around him, so maybe I'm missing something about the value of 'believing in humanity'? Can you expound on what you mean by that term?
Finally, I welcome any challenges to what I've said above. The most central point to my personal faith (a principal that I was taught as a child by a fantastic Franciscan friar) is:
always question your faith, always question what you know.
Did I miss anything?
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