text (sn: seiros)

[immaculate_one]

This is a question I have yet to see asked on this network, though I only have the slightest hypothesis of why.

How have you viewed religion or faith from your home? Has it changed drastically before coming here, or since?

I have been thinking about this lately...

Comments

un: allstar

[meteorman]

My upbringing was what one might consider fairly orthodox.

[He and his brother had a bar mitzvah, there was a mezuzah at their door... it was probably not the most conservative Jewish household in all of New Jersey, but fairly traditional.]

As I grew older and my interests skewed more toward the scientific I adopted a skeptical atheism. Ironically in the quest for answers I've encountered beings powerful enough to make the existence of a god seem not only possible but probable. The general temperament of those beings also leads me to believe that if such a god does exist in my reality, it is both less all-knowing and less benevolent than most would like to believe.

If I may ask, what's that hypothesis you mentioned?

[immaculate_one]

[ Oh, well that's interesting. ]

I theorize that, with a god who was indifferent or even hostile to the people that worshipped them, it was no wonder that there are those who are hostile to religion as a concept. I can see why religious institutions would be ignored or disdained.

But then, where do humans get faith from, if not the gods?

It's a lesson I wish I knew back at home.

[meteorman]

That is the case in my world; our gods are generally incommunicado and the prevailing opinion is that they don't exist. It's true that there are far fewer rivers of blood and pillars of fire than there used to be.

If I can offer a suggestion: belief isn't something contingent upon the proven existence of a being powerful enough to act as a god. Belief is something inherent in a person. As a scientist I think there's always more out there to discover, and that leaves room for the potential existence of some extra-dimensional higher power. There are some people who will take that possibility as all the proof they need because they want to believe, and those who wouldn't believe in such a being if it danced naked in front of them.

[immaculate_one]

Inherent belief.

Rhea... long suspected that was the answer. Or at least an answer. But in all her years, she had labored to give guidance, but otherwise not meddle in human affairs. And it hadn't been enough.

You explained pretty well how you discovered yours. Would many humans find this in the same way?

[meteorman]

My particular circumstances? Unlikely. Most humans where I come from are largely ignorant of the existence of extra-human or extra-dimensional beings and prefer it that way.

I've seen firsthand what happens when one appears and tries to install itself as a new god. It went poorly, for the reasons I mentioned before: many beings with that kind of power are also not the type that are fit to be in charge. They see humans as insignificant and simple the same way many humans would think of an ant.

In my opinion belief for the sake of belief is better than belief because you know it's entirely possible that your entire existence depends on the whims of a creature that is fundamentally unable to understand that existence. The potential existence of a god is not the part of my faith I find comforting.