I get along just fine with atheists. I spend a large part of my life conversing with them. My mother is an atheist. My boss is an atheist. A lot of my friends don't believe in anything in particular and are unknowingly "agnostic".
Because I don't believe in proselytizing, I am always conscious and aware of how I talk when I'm talking to an atheist. It can be draining sometimes, the lack of belief in anything seems to me to be a very negative, cynical view.
This article came out yesterday addressing what I have been long sensing - That those of us who have faith in a greater order, a purpose-driven existance, are generally happier for it.
Using data from Britain and Europe, the study found believers enjoyed higher levels of satisfaction and suffered less psychological damage from unemployment, divorce or the death of a partner.When I was little and I used to ask my mother what she believed in, she used to always say "I believe in myself". That is, she didn't want to believe that there was anyone else pulling the strings - it made her feel powerless.
And I have to thank her for sharing her empowerment. Because of it, I also refused to believe that "something else" was pulling my strings - and opted for a much more inclusive kind of spirituality, where free will ruled and I was a creative contributor, a valued member of a collective of powerful energies creating itself as goes along.
But even now, in the face of all of my "spiritual experiences" with precognition, the afterlife and psychic phenomena, my mom remains cautiously curious. She'd never outright admit to being intrigued, but she did sneak a peek at a few chapters of my Holographic Universe
book while I napped on the plane the other day. I relish in piquing her curiosity. I would at least like to get her back to a point of asking questions again. I think she lost that thirst along the way...I have no qualm with those who don't believe. Maybe it's not their purpose in this lifetime to believe. But I do wish that the religious and the atheists would stop quarreling about who is more delusional.
What is it about us that we so desperately want everyone to have the exact same human experience we do? Can't we accept the possibility that there is no absolute truth - or that there are perhaps multiple truths - all equally valid?
What do you think? Am I delusional?
4 comments:
Some reinforcing of a couple of points you raise: 1) I think happiness is a great endorsement for any given belief. 2) If there is absolute truth why exclude it from having different expressions? And why would it not be quite independent of any claims upon it?
Codakiz - you're so right. And personally, I love the thought of a higher order that not only allows for, but is strengthened by the creation of new and unique personal belief systems.
If you're delusional, so am I. I have a bad habit of picking on the Christian faith because they are the most outspoken of the religions in our country, and the loudest of them lean towards fundamentalism where "they're right and you're wrong" and they have no tolerance or room in their heads for anything else. I like the omnipossibility myself. I think we are all individual creators of our lives (which makes all of us "right" no matter what beliefs you follow), but that collectively we are also a much larger different kind of conscious creator. I don't expect everyone I meet to agree with me, and whatever works for other people is fine with me. I just want them to also allow me MY beliefs, as I allow them theirs. In the end, I think there's no right or wrong, just what is.
Great post! Thanks!
Amen, draagonfly. Amen.
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