we INTPs think and analyse ceaselessly. we must think about some crazy and pointless but no less interesting things
just post any random thoughts you have
I was raised Christian. Then I didn't believe in God in college for the most part. Now, I suppose I'm Christian again because I just have to believe that there's something greater out there, that there's something that wants the best for us. To be honest, I don't feel as though I fit in with either Christians or Atheists completely because I believe in a higher spiritual being, but at the same time I struggle to believe in the physical existence of said spiritual being. I don't really believe a lot of what the Bible says, but I still consider myself a Christian. I don't know. My brain confuses me sometimes. I think my belief in God is mostly a defense against my own sadness and insanity.
In terms of the creation of the earth, my first instinct is to believe what science says, Then, I think that there might be something that we don't know about. Maybe humans don't know everything. What if there is something greater out there? What if there's something we're missing?
I've also been thinking about death a lot. I just read this book about various religious and philosophical perspectives about death and what happens when we die. For Atheists, what do you think happens when you die? Are you able to even picture it? I don't think we're actually capable as humans to imagine ourselves dying and becoming nothing or our souls ceasing to exist. Maybe Atheists believe subconsciously that they will live on the earth indefinitely, or do some of them secretly believe that their souls will still live on even after their bodies decompose? I don't think it's stupid to believe in heaven or some kind of afterlife. I think its our brain's way of protecting us from the nothingness of death if death is in fact nothingness. It makes death less terrifying believing that it's not the end. Even if there isn't an afterlife after death, you won't be aware of it then because you will be nothing.
Sorry, this was longer than I intended, but you asked for random thoughts.
I would like to believe and in fact was born into a Christian family, raised as a Christian, struggled through many doubts, spent some long years in church leadership (worship lead, various activities outside church, program writer/implementer), until my beliefs just changed enough over time that I could not longer accept my earlier conclusions -- my accumulated knowledge changed, so my conclusions changed.
I also don't really see a different between people of one religion in terms of moral caliber and other religions or even no religion, if they are moral people. You can possess a moral code regardless of religious faith, and it is all based on choice -- it's just that religious people tend to pretend it's not a personal choice by cloaking it under the guise of religion. Either you put together your own moral code (which is a series of choices) or you choose to believe in a particular religion and thus have "chosen" that particular code, but you can pretend for the latter that you have no choice since that's what your religion tells you that you must believe.
I think the concept that there is a higher power can definitely be used as a bulwark against insanity and sadness. it says nothing about its validity and doesn't even have to be true for it to alleviate some of the pain of seeing the stark nature of the existential universe. But talking about outcome -- people of all faiths die, survive, get cancer, get healed of cancer, have horrible things happen to them, have good things happen to them, and so on. It rains on the just and unjust alike, and the sun shines on everyone as well. But we "tend to see the world not as it is but as WE are."
We don't even know that souls exist, honestly. Or that the "soul" in part isn't just your physical body. When you suffer brain damage and part of you goes away, do you still have a soul that is "more you" than you are now? Is there any proof of that? I guess when we finally can catch a soul in a jar and show it exists, then we'll be able to give more validity to religion. All we can really see on this world is people within their bodies. We want to believe in a soul because we see the bodies die but can't stand the thought of that person truly being gone (literally gone) so we invented the concept of "soul" as some eternity essence of that person that can then live in a heavenly paradise for ever -- ergo, the person is still around and we might see them again. But is there any proof of that? Not really. After all this time, if we were ever going to have anything definitive, it would have already been found.
Anyway, some of that gels with what you said, some doesn't. I wish I could believe in souls, and a benevolent eternal figure that was looking out for me. That hasn't been my life experience or the result of my accumulated life knowledge so far, unfortunately. Maybe I'm wrong. But I can only go in the direction my knowledge seems to lead. It's ironic because with that knowledge, I feel more burden to still look out for others I care about rather than not caring... it's like not being sure of 'god' means i need to be more that person in the lives of others who need me, rather than less. I've come to see that as more moral anyway -- it's one thing to act a certain way if you believe eternal gods exist, it's another to choose to act in a certain way when you have no indication, no hope for reward, nothing but your own choices. If what we have is our current existence, then it matters at least on that level.