I'm not an atheist, but more in the agnostic category in that I believe there is a higher power, and as the first God I learned about was the Christian one, it's sort of what I'm inclined to. But I'm also a heathen in that I do not ally myself with any church in particular. Personally, I think the whole point of Jesus being down here was to smack us all upside the head and try to get us to actually love and acccept not just everyone else, but ourselves as well. Somehow over the centuries this got warped into this myriad of factions and a whole lot of people who use it as an excuse to say they're better than people who don't go to the same church. I also highly suspect a lot of creative editing has gone down with the scriptures themselves over the centuries, considering that it all had to be copied by hand by monks who could possibly be under orders to play with the wording for political motives.
When it comes to science, I also honestly think it's almost proof in itself that there is a God in how amazingly things have been set up so that everything works. Except for, you know, the polar ice caps. Science is like this gigantically huge mystery novel that explains how everything works, going eventually down to every atom, and is likely still being added to. As scientists, our job is to try to read as much of that book as possible, and the translation key is the world itself. I figure that God is the author, and what author wouldn't want their work read? I hardly think that scientists kill God; quite the opposite, in fact. For example: Big Bang Theory. There's evidence, and I'll totally believe it. I still don't know what set it off though, and until we find out, I'm going to nurse the hunch that it was a higher power. God is the explanation I have for the unknown, pretty much, but I'm willing to accept explanations that solve the unknown because I don't think that's any sort of sacrilege.
I think that's why a lot of religious people have problems with scientists. There are all sorts of mysteries surrounding creation and the meaning of life and so on, and the vast majority of faiths explain those mysteries through their own mythology and scripture. When scientists unravel the mystery, they take it as muckraking in sacred ground, whereas I view it as uncovering more and more of a divine mystery that God presumably wants us to solve.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-10-21 05:58 pm (UTC)When it comes to science, I also honestly think it's almost proof in itself that there is a God in how amazingly things have been set up so that everything works. Except for, you know, the polar ice caps. Science is like this gigantically huge mystery novel that explains how everything works, going eventually down to every atom, and is likely still being added to. As scientists, our job is to try to read as much of that book as possible, and the translation key is the world itself. I figure that God is the author, and what author wouldn't want their work read? I hardly think that scientists kill God; quite the opposite, in fact. For example: Big Bang Theory. There's evidence, and I'll totally believe it. I still don't know what set it off though, and until we find out, I'm going to nurse the hunch that it was a higher power. God is the explanation I have for the unknown, pretty much, but I'm willing to accept explanations that solve the unknown because I don't think that's any sort of sacrilege.
I think that's why a lot of religious people have problems with scientists. There are all sorts of mysteries surrounding creation and the meaning of life and so on, and the vast majority of faiths explain those mysteries through their own mythology and scripture. When scientists unravel the mystery, they take it as muckraking in sacred ground, whereas I view it as uncovering more and more of a divine mystery that God presumably wants us to solve.
And on that note, Hail Xenu!