I know only that there is so much left to know
I often wonder at people's certainty. They "know" what reality holds, whether it's what God is or that there is no God or something else. The interesting part is that they "know." They have all the answers, and shove every question into their own worldview to fit the answers they already have.
It's convenient to try to shrink the world to what we can already understand and hold. We want to understand things. But when we try to shrink the world to what we can understand, we limit our own ability to grow. Sure, it's easier to think God created the world as opposed to evolution, with all the twisty paths that created us. But just because it's easier doesn't make it true. Just because we want it to be true doesn't make it true, either. I want it to be true that I'm rich and God loves me especially more than anyone else because darn it, I deserve it. I accept that I'm not rich, and that I'm not any more special than anyone else .. I AM special because I'm me, but that doesn't make me better than other people.
I guess what I've always wondered is, what are people so afraid of? Why can't what exists be larger than what we can hold? I find the Universe more beautiful knowing that there is always more for me to learn, both on a macroscopic and microscopic scale. Why shrink the Universe? It's more beautiful as it is.
Questions:
How do I try to hold the world smaller, and how does it limit me? I hermit. I don't try so much as to hold the world smaller as I try to limit my interaction with it. And it limits me because life is enriched by experience, and I'm not experiencing as much when I limit my interactions with people to just what I want to deal with. It's "safer", certainly, but growth comes from risk.
Do I see a conflict between science/reality and religion? Nope. If there is one, religion looses. If my religion tells me the sky is really pink with purple polka dots, and I look outside and it's blue, and everyone I talk to says it's blue, the sky is blue. The most I'll hedge is that it's blue for all effective purposes, but really, it's blue. There would have to be phenominal cosmic reason for me to doubt not just my eyes (Because they screw up, although not on color so far) but everyone else's eyes as well.
Part of the problem with that confusion, of course, is that religion frequently speaks in allegory. There might be a reason there's a myth where the sky is pink with purple polka dots that has great meaning. That doesn't mean it needs to be taken literally. We limit ourselves when we don't allow for multiple meanings at the same time .. some of which contradict each other. Regardless, if reality says there's a box there, religion isn't going to save you from kicking it by pretending it's not there.
Faith needs to be free. If it can't stand up to what it faces, the problem is with the faith, not the Universe. The more we try to hold our faith secure and refuse to examine it, the more we say we don't really believe. If we're right, after all, our faith will hold up to whatever the world throws at us. If we're wrong, what's the advantage of holding the faith?
It's convenient to try to shrink the world to what we can already understand and hold. We want to understand things. But when we try to shrink the world to what we can understand, we limit our own ability to grow. Sure, it's easier to think God created the world as opposed to evolution, with all the twisty paths that created us. But just because it's easier doesn't make it true. Just because we want it to be true doesn't make it true, either. I want it to be true that I'm rich and God loves me especially more than anyone else because darn it, I deserve it. I accept that I'm not rich, and that I'm not any more special than anyone else .. I AM special because I'm me, but that doesn't make me better than other people.
I guess what I've always wondered is, what are people so afraid of? Why can't what exists be larger than what we can hold? I find the Universe more beautiful knowing that there is always more for me to learn, both on a macroscopic and microscopic scale. Why shrink the Universe? It's more beautiful as it is.
Questions:
How do I try to hold the world smaller, and how does it limit me? I hermit. I don't try so much as to hold the world smaller as I try to limit my interaction with it. And it limits me because life is enriched by experience, and I'm not experiencing as much when I limit my interactions with people to just what I want to deal with. It's "safer", certainly, but growth comes from risk.
Do I see a conflict between science/reality and religion? Nope. If there is one, religion looses. If my religion tells me the sky is really pink with purple polka dots, and I look outside and it's blue, and everyone I talk to says it's blue, the sky is blue. The most I'll hedge is that it's blue for all effective purposes, but really, it's blue. There would have to be phenominal cosmic reason for me to doubt not just my eyes (Because they screw up, although not on color so far) but everyone else's eyes as well.
Part of the problem with that confusion, of course, is that religion frequently speaks in allegory. There might be a reason there's a myth where the sky is pink with purple polka dots that has great meaning. That doesn't mean it needs to be taken literally. We limit ourselves when we don't allow for multiple meanings at the same time .. some of which contradict each other. Regardless, if reality says there's a box there, religion isn't going to save you from kicking it by pretending it's not there.
Faith needs to be free. If it can't stand up to what it faces, the problem is with the faith, not the Universe. The more we try to hold our faith secure and refuse to examine it, the more we say we don't really believe. If we're right, after all, our faith will hold up to whatever the world throws at us. If we're wrong, what's the advantage of holding the faith?
posted by Vieva | 9:13 AM
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