Saturday, May 1, 2010

accountability

You all have to keep me accountable, if anyone reads this, set up an account really quickly (it's free), and join as a follower, then you can make comments and we can have discussions about Religion & Spirituality, which is what I really wanted to do in the first place. Your comment can be as long as you want, just send me your thoughts....
So, it's been a month since I last wrote in here... so far I have gone to one church service, it was interesting and I think I will go again. I don't want to go because I feel like I "have to", but rather, the speaker really made me ponder some interesting questions about life. I enjoy having my mind opened up to other possibilities and I like the feeling of being intrigued and also (call me crazy) but I enjoy feeling uncomfortable about what a speaker is saying because it opens up a debate in my mind. However the service was not spiritually enlightening as I had hoped it would be.. hopefully I will discover a place of spirituality that awakens my soul!
I am still feeling disconnected from my childhood faith, I still have no answers, and as each month goes by I feel more distant. For example, in my science class last week we were discussing allele frequencies and genotypes. I understand that when two people who are genetically similar breed they produce less viable offspring...basicaly the concept was "inbreeding does not produce a population that can survive due to the limited genetic variability. This is a proven concept in science, just ask any geek you know... :-) But that made me think, according to this fact, it is not possible for 5 billion people to come from two people. If Adam and Eve had reproduced and their children reproduced with each other, their genotypes would have been so similar that their children would not have survived for long or would not have produced viable, fertile offspring...the same thing happens when you inbreed purebred dogs. So you see, it's the little "ah ha" moments like these that really make me feel less and less inclined to believe in the Bible. yesterday I went to the museum and checked out the Body Worlds Exhibit. It was AWESOME. That got me to thinking....on the other hand, how could something as intricate as the human capillary system in the brain be the result of natural selection, there MUST be a master plan and a design to this. I encourage my readers to go check out this exhibit and ask yourself if we could really be the product of years of evolution. And although I believe we do evolve and have evolved over history, I don't think it's possible that we became who we are purely from evolution, I can't explain it in words, but we are just too intricate and delicate, and there is this undercurrent in society that there is something MORE, something that we do not fully understand no matter how much religion tries to dictate it to us.
So what I am saying is , I don't know what I am saying. This is a place for a scattering of my thoughts and everyday I have some internal struggle that says "there's no way the Bible could be true, just look at this fact..." and another struggle that says "...this is not possible without God, science can't even explain this acccurately.." so I don't know, but I am going to really try to focus on going to some places of worship this summer (not necessarily all churches) so that I can come to some clarity and peace of mind about this all.
Let me leave with this quote:
Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking
--Kahlil Gibran

TTFN

5 comments:

  1. Hi Em,

    So as you're beginning to feel more disconnected, I'm in a weird way--seeing God more. It's strange--but I'm beginning to see Him through people. Especially through patients at work who are thankful just to be alive--who stand outside with their arms raised just for the simple enjoyment of the sun beating down on them. And in that moment I know--there has to be a God who gives them hope.

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  2. p.s. I like the quote! It's so true. Thinking ruins all aspects of just having faith.

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  3. Hi Emily!
    First, I appreciate you inviting me to share in this with you! We've never had much time together and I hate that.
    I find it the idea of thinking conflicting with faith sad. I've spent a lot of time studying (and will spend much more) the feasibility of the Bible and I feel more assured than otherwise.
    I think a big problem is that people assume the Bible is meant to be taken literally. But it's narrative- like the passing down of stories throughout generations.
    The real truth is who God is. The purpose of the Bible is to help us understand and know Him. Everything else is not as important.
    At least that is what I've come to learn recently. =)

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  5. Christa, I really like your perspective, especially because the way I was raised was to take the Bible literally. When it's taken literally so much is lost in the translation that it's hard to consume the meanings. I hope to find the truth of who God is, but before I can do that, I need to start at the beginning and discover for myself if I even really believe in a God. Right now I can honestly say that it is very difficult for me to believe that there is a God. I have felt this way for several years but I have just started admitting it to myself. I think two years ago I was afraid to admit that I had taken on a more agnostic viewpoint because of the fear that I would go to hell if there really was a God and I was turning my back to Him. I hate that Religion instill so much fear into people that they are scared not to believe...at least that's how it has been for me, I have been in denial of my doubts because of my fear of going to hell, so essentially I haven't believed in God for a long time but was too afraid to admit it. Hopefully all of that will change because I really REALLY want to believe in Him!
    Lindsay- that's so great that you find the Sprituality in the patients at your work. I also work with patients, but my attitude is sooo different; when I see that they are looking to their faith during the darkest moments in their life it seems to me as a "cop-out" or a way to deal with emotional trauma, they are grasping at straws trying to be comforted during the darkest moments of their lives... at least that's been my perspective lately. Certainly I have noticed a trend in my life and everyone around me...when things are bad people turn to faith for comfort, when things are good people no longer need their God..it's like a security blanket for so many people!

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