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Originally Posted by Eastspur  Thanks for all the welcomes. I'm still looking around. I guess I have been at the point of rejecting formal religion due to reason and logic for a while. I just can't see how God would accept fear and reject reason. I do feel like I was being lazy at some points. I doubt I will be searching for any religion in the near future (I hate to say ever). I will be spending more time searching for truth and less time being lazy. I may not find a answer to my questions but at least I can say I tried. |
I could accept a God who "would accept fear and reject reason". What I can't accept are the inconsistencies and contradictions in all the religious texts I'm aware of. For example, the Bible depicts God as being all-loving and desirous of all his children being saved and living with him in eternal bliss on the one hand while, on the other hand, it says he's jealous and vengeful and predicts (Matthew chapter 7) that most of his children will end up in eternal torment.
That's where my reason and logic kick in. The same criteria I employ to decide which mortal individuals I choose to trust and associate with, when applied to the Biblical portrayal of the Christian God, cause me to withdraw rather than embrace.
If I'm reading your posts correctly, that's about where you are in your intellectual evolution. And I've got to tell you that that's about where I was in my intellectual evolution some 20 years ago. I admire your commitment to continue searching for answers, and I hope that when and if you find them, you'll pass them along to me. Because, 20 years down the road from my "enlightenment", I'm still searching and have all but given up hope that I'll have those answers before I die.
But I'm OK with that because I firmly believe that I've found all the answers I really need to guide me through this life and have adopted them as operating principles. What happens after I die is really of no importance to me. I consider it an unknowable proposition, so it simply doesn't occupy my thoughts.
The foregoing is offered in the interest of warning you in advance that, if you continue to demand that your beliefs be based on reason and logic, you will likely reach the same point I have, absent some unlikely and revolutionary scientific discoveries. You will hopefully believe you've adequately tested the assumptions from which you choose to operate on a daily basis, but you'll be left with many unanswered questions and will consequently need to make yourself comfortable with saying "I just don't know".