I simply cannot wrap my head around there being a supernatural being

[Anonymous]

No matter how hard I try, I just can't. I love the idea of church and I have fond memories of my Lutheran upbringing in the midwest...a great church community, nice people, camp in the summer, potlucks, etc. and would like to be part of a religious community here but it's just impossible for me to imagine there being a God/god/gods anymore than it's possible for me to imagine that Santa Claus is real or the Spaghetti Monster is real. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

Santa is real and Spaghetti Monster is real. Now your problem is solved.

[Anonymous]

That isn't what God is. You may enjoy a book by Deepak Chopra called, "How to Know God." He explores this issue in depth across religions and atheism. Interesting read.

[Anonymous]

Maybe read some medieval and post-medieval mystic theologians (Jewish and Christian). They are all about the unknowability and unimaginability of God. I think it is possible to lead a religious life with a huge question mark in the center.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe read some medieval and post-medieval mystic theologians (Jewish and Christian). They are all about the unknowability and unimaginability of God. I think it is possible to lead a religious life with a huge question mark in the center.

This. It’s called faith and not certainty and many spiritual figures discuss struggling with doubt. My pastor in college said we aren’t expected to never struggle with doubt, but we should strive for those to be productive struggles. When I have moments of such struggle, I focus on how my religion teaches I should treat others. Absent a deity, treating others well is never wasted.

[Anonymous]

If you can answer the question of who got the

[Anonymous]

..Who lit the fuse of the big bang, then you have it all figured out

I can't answer that, so the answer might be that God did

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:..Who lit the fuse of the big bang, then you have it all figured out

I can't answer that, so the answer might be that God did

Argument from ignorance, god of the gaps, also why does it have to be a who?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:..Who lit the fuse of the big bang, then you have it all figured out

I can't answer that, so the answer might be that God did

Argument from ignorance, god of the gaps, also why does it have to be a who?

Because in human linguistics, we are better able to discuss a subject if pronouns are involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:..Who lit the fuse of the big bang, then you have it all figured out

I can't answer that, so the answer might be that God did

Argument from ignorance, god of the gaps, also why does it have to be a who?

Because in human linguistics, we are better able to discuss a subject if pronouns are involved.

So then it can be a "what' and not a "who". Good, we agree on that point. Use "what" instead and you don't need the argument from ignorance fallacy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:..Who lit the fuse of the big bang, then you have it all figured out

I can't answer that, so the answer might be that God did

I can answer that -- no one did. You are thinking of it as an explosion but remember that it is an expansion. At the beginning of time, the universe is made up on only gases -- hydrogen and helium -- and gases expand. It's an expansion of space, not an explosion of space.

The misnomer is that something cannot come from nothing but this is false. Negative and positive matter are constantly created from nothing although they generally cancel each other out. But positive matter can bond to each other, creating a larger and larger positive matter (while a larger negative matter is also created) that led to the EXPANSION (not explosion) of the universe.

Anyway OP is clearly a humanist, which is fine. There is no need to believe or struggle with one of man's many creations (and a relatively recent one at that -- the idea of one God is probably only about 2500 years old -- even the Jewish people originally believed in "Elohim" or many gods). Remember that God did not exist at the creation of the universe 14 billion years ago, nor at the creation of man in recent history. God is one of man's very recent inventions, created after paganism, after holidays, after agriculture, after pottery and tools, and language and art. Man's creation of any God is very new and man's creation of one god is even newer. There is no need to struggle to believe an imaginary being that man created, any more than you should struggle to believe in the Easter Bunny. That's absurd.

I recommend that you find a community at Machar -- the humanistic congregation in DC. I think it is Machar.org. You can have ethics and morals and guiding principles in life without god, since these are fundamental beliefs that man also created -- god did not write the 10 commandments -- man did.

Best of luck.

[Anonymous]

That's why so many people say they are "spiritual" nowadays. So they don't have to believe there is a supernatural being.

[Anonymous]

I used to be like you. Over the years I’ve had several odd, sometimes disturbing, sometimes moving experiences that tell me there is something beyond the known.

Whether you believe it or not, it is always there for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to be like you. Over the years I’ve had several odd, sometimes disturbing, sometimes moving experiences that tell me there is something beyond the known.

Whether you believe it or not, it is always there for you.

PP who posted about mysticism here. I don't feel like I believe, I feel like I choose something that is impossible to believe (the "leap into the absurd" is my favorite description), but I find it very comforting that if God is real that will be true no matter what my brain and heart can handle.

[Anonymous]

I don’t believe in a judeo-Christian type of god. I do believe in souls and there being things we can’t perceive easily with our senses.

Maybe you’d be happier with something like a Buddhist or Hindu conception of how things work?