Amazing Ants And Emotions Alone

[Guest Popsicle7]

I was observing a colony of ants today. Each ant has a mission, a purpose to benefit the entire colony. I also checked out a little spider hanging out in her web. There she sat, waiting for a meal, waiting to eat so she could nourish herself, produce eggs, lay them, then die, completing her life cycle. The spider, the ants, the whole of nature keeps plugging along in amazing ways, doing what they do, without the aid of humans.

 

When I became a Christian, I lost that sense of awe for nature. I believed that since God had created everything and set everything to the rhythm of his drum, nothing was inherently magnificent after all. It was all robotic, existing solely because he planned it that way. Yes, he did a great job creating those things and yes, they were astounding, but I couldn't appreciate them without thinking that they are his creation, so it all comes back to God, how creative and wonderful HE is.

 

That bummed me out. I resented feeling that God had to be the center of EVERYTHING. I didn't want that burden. It made me feel like I couldn't decide for myself what was worthy. How about human kindness? Imagination? Good fortune? Couldn't all of those things be the result of the inherent beauty and worthniess of human nature, disconneected from a supreme God?

 

It's been a burden for me to associate every single thing with God. It prevents me from having an open mind. This is in addition to the great amount of pain that my so-called "loving" Father in heaven allows me to bear. I understand that life is not always fair or pain-free, but is it too much to ask for an answer once in a while? To have some relief from life's burdens? I am his child, after all, "holy and dearly loved". I don't get it.

 

Which brings me to this. I feel like I am in limbo regadring the existence of a God. I want to believe. But believing has brought me more pain and confusion than ever before. My decisions on whether there is a god or not is based solely on emotions, which is the same reason I accepted Christianity in the first place. I was in emotional crisis and needed answers and help. I haven't done the research on the history of the religion, the Bible, the players, etc. I've been struggling with this for the last 18 months or so. My fear is that since I came to Christianity based on emotions, and that hasn't held up, how reliable is leaving the fold based on emotions alone? Am I in a state of anger? Rebellion? Are my emotions just fleeting? I hate feeling so wishy-washy and unsure.

 

I've been wondering how many people here concluded there was no god based on emotions alone. Can anybody give me some advice?

 

Thanks so much.

[Ex-COG]

Hello Popsicle7. I don't think I came to my present views about God emotionally, but by reading forums such as this one and seeing other people's progress from total belief to skepticism, or to at least something different from Christianity. I also read books and websites on science, history, psychology, philosophy and different religions; overall getting a feel for discoveries and opinions that are different from the Christian mindset. Through this process, I deduced that there wasn't enough evidence to say whether there was a God of some type or not. I presently call myself an agnostic. Do some of your own study, and you can draw your own conclusions without basing it on emotions only.

[HuaiDan]

Ants and spiders are cool.

[מה טבו]

I've been wondering how many people here concluded there was no god based on emotions alone. Can anybody give me some advice?

 

Hmm...

 

I don't know of many people whose atheist or agnostic theology was purely emotion-based. I suppose it has happened. We've all heard the story of someone who experiences a great tragedy and decides there can be no G_d. It's emotion-based, but even then there is an element of reason to it.

 

It may be that emotion played the role in starting the philosophical change to agnosticism or atheism for a lot of people. If one is emotionally rewarded for any behavior (practicing Christianity, for example), and eventually that emotional reward subsides, it makes sense from a behavioral standpoint that our actions would change as a result. That being said, if you have never been an atheist or agnostic before, you have to find new ways to answer the great existential questions, find morality, and find meaning in life without theism. As a result, philosophical inquiry pretty much becomes inevitable.

 

However, regardless of your theology, you don't have to abandon awe and wonder at the workings of the universe. A flower or a butterfly is still beautiful, however we imagine that it got there. When you contemplate all the processes involved in your eye and brain receiving and processing that image - that's amazing, whatever you imagine the cause to be. The first time you see an equation describe motion in 3 dimensional space, and you get a feel for the mathematical operation of the universe - that's powerful, whether you worship G_d, goddess, a pantheon, or Halle Barry's boobs. (The latter are themselves a wonder of nature.)

 

I have an odd mental exercise that I enjoy when I need a lift. I'm assuming that you are aware that everything we know as matter is comprised of incalculably large numbers of atoms dancing around perpetually in space. I sometimes enjoy contemplating the space between those atoms - the space that makes up our universe.

 

If you're in need of awe, I'd say try learning a bit of cosmology. Brian Greene writes some very accessible books on string theory that can give your brain some entertainment for a while. "The Elegant Universe" and "The Fabric of the Cosmos" are good ones to start.

[pitchu]

Welcome, Popsicle7.

 

Is there really any way for a person to figure out which percentages of emotion and which of intellectual examination go into drawing an existential conclusion? I ask because I don't know.

 

In my experience there is such instantaneous linkage between the two that I can't separate them out. Every time I logically think something through, that process is accompanied by a series of emotional reactions and recognitions. I give myself admonitions and pats on the back, reminders, lures, memory flashes and much more as I go through my "logical process".

 

I became an atheist (in my case, that is one who holds no concept of a Creator of the Universe) about 40 years ago and haven't questioned it for an instant since that time. The experience, simplified, was this:

 

Thought process

It's impossible for there to be beingness prior to and outside of existence. There can't be consciousness before there's even anything to be conscious of.

 

Accompanying emotion

Complete and absolutely massively resonating relief

 

 

Keep on with your questioning, and I hope you get results which are intellectually and emotionally satisfying for you.

[Vigile]

When I was going to school in Costa Rica my friends and I were sitting around the quad in between classes. Someone noticed a trail cut in the grass. The trail was about 1-2 centimeters wide and there was a steady procession of ants carrying their goods or heading out from the mound. It was in essence an ant superhighway. So we followed it. It wound around behind the classrooms and into the untamed jungle like area. We found the ant hill about 150-200 meters away.

 

What interested me most about this little superhighway was the idea that the weather in Costa Rica virtually doesn't change. They have a rainy season and a rainier season. Both seasons leave hours of sunshine and 80 degree temps with afternoon downpours. The bottom line is that this superhighway and ant colony never faced an extreme like winter that would force them to rebuild once spring rolled around. It's hard to say how old then that ant colony was and how long that superhighway had been in existance. Years and years I would guess. Perhaps it's stiill there?

 

Very cool.

[Guest Popsicle7]

Indeed, how old IS that ant colony is Costa Rica? That is tremendous.

 

Thank you all for your replies. It makes sense that emotions and thoughts and conclusions are all inevitably related.

 

I guess I am feelings lots of fear. I share the fear of some ex-christians on this website of being eternally tormented for not accepting the supposed Christ. I hate that every day I wrestle with my thoughts on Christianity; it is encompassing much of my free time!

 

I need to study more on the subject and evaluate the gospels without allowing my prior Christian experiences (and current friends) to influence me too much. Maybe I've never truly understood the gospel of Jesus, since he seemed like a pretty cool guy. But I haven't yet found the freedom that he promises, so I have to wonder.

 

Thanks for the book suggestions. I'd like to read a lot of books like that, just get away from theism entirely and give my brain a break. *sheesh*

 

Thanks all!