You agree with my premise here that rights are contingent on people with PhD's not deciding to announce that they've interpreted data in a way that means we shouldn't have them anymore. That is not a right. That's a privilege. You don't believe in rights either but you're fine with it. I don't envy you. Anyone still trusting institutional narratives at this point, as you did in this comment, is in denial to the point that as depressed as I am I'd rather be me than you.
I don't have the emotional bandwidth to deal with the "akchually the loss of rights during COVID didn't happen but where it did happen it was good" crowd. So I'm turning comments off.
Some people seem to have an easier time convincing themselves of comforting falsehoods than others. I'm in the same boat as you are, and it is what it is.
We all need some sort of faith; to believe in something bigger than our existence; to believe there is more than just what we can just tangibly experience. It's part of our natural human desire to explore.
For some it takes the form of traditional religions, for others wokism. Over time, religion has morphed from strict adherence to community standards to an individual relationship with spirituality. Ironically, wokism demands strict adherence. Why the return? I'm not sure, but it would appear that the pendulum between individuality and group "consciousness" will continue to swing.
It seems reasonable to attempt to believe when you want to attempt it. If there is a god he might uses those moments to bring you closer to a place where you can believe. If there isn’t well, there’s no reason not to do what you want to or explore what piques your interest.
As far as faith, I’ve never thought it meant forcing yourself into believing things you don’t think are true. That’s just nonsense in my opinion. It makes more sense as “being faithful” in the sense of holding true to what you do know to be true or, more importantly, good. Faith isn’t about what you believe, it’s about what you do. A husband doesn’t have to secretly disbelieve in his wife’s existence to be faithless for example. I only know you at all through your posts but I find you to be very faithful in that second sense. I think that faithfulness will continue to reward you.
I'm not as alone as you are, but I still feel pretty alone out in rural South Dakota. Even with all of my faith that God is watching over this all and will protect me, I can still lament. It was just last night, exploring my feelings of anger, that I finally realized I had anger at God (for why I was feeling as I was) and I felt like what I imagined Christ felt when he said, "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?" If Jesus can feel like he's being left to suffer in this world without God to lean on, anyone can.
I have nothing against Christianity, but we should remember how many "public" evangelists pushed the mRNA injections on Americans. Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son evangelized for Big Pharma. And he's likely vaccine injured, having suffered from constructive pericarditis. He had to have his pericardium removed. These people allowed themselves to serve as instruments of moral wrongs. We must not forget.
There have been plans from the government to get churches to go along with their plans in emergencies, and to try to get them to "shepherd their flock" to go along with those plans. I posted a note with a video from some presentation that was supposedly in 2006 talking about "social distancing" as the new term for quarantine. This was what was being told to pastors to get them to manipulate their congregations in following along. It's been a long time coming. https://substack.com/@asabovebelowloa/note/c-54401524
I was an atheist in my youth, but would describe myself as spiritual but not religious now. It is the thinking about religion that I believe gets particularly off base, the coming up with theories about "the big man in the sky" that does not speak to me at all. In my own episode 13 of my Substack I spoke about my sources of spirituality and how my dad was one of my influences, what I see as what I describe as his commitment to something higher or larger than himself represents a connection between us even though he was an atheist and I am not. You can hear my thoughts on this more fully at https://emilypnewberry.substack.com/p/on-spirituality.
A question put to us in one of my college classes was “Can you prove the existence of God?” I had a one word answer “No.”
I cannot prove the existence of my love for my husband. I can only live my life as if I do. I believe God exists so I live my life as if He does. That is faith lived.
R R. Reno wrote an interesting book, Return of the Strong Gods, arguing that societies can't live in a vacuum of meaningless for long and either paganism or Christianity (or both) are due for a comeback. It's a real "pick your team" moment. Clarifying.
The religious question, Imo, is essentially not much different than the philosophers' quest to understand why we are here. You used the words "someone powerful" and for me the depiction of a man with a long beard behind all this was and is scary. The thought of a "mother creator" is no better as women as leaders have their successes and failures, just like men. The proselytizers fight each other over theology and their word for that creative force. I prefer to use the word I created, "Sava." This allows others to fill in the image in their heads with whatever vision they have. The Bill Maher video was spot on!
You agree with my premise here that rights are contingent on people with PhD's not deciding to announce that they've interpreted data in a way that means we shouldn't have them anymore. That is not a right. That's a privilege. You don't believe in rights either but you're fine with it. I don't envy you. Anyone still trusting institutional narratives at this point, as you did in this comment, is in denial to the point that as depressed as I am I'd rather be me than you.
I don't have the emotional bandwidth to deal with the "akchually the loss of rights during COVID didn't happen but where it did happen it was good" crowd. So I'm turning comments off.
Some people seem to have an easier time convincing themselves of comforting falsehoods than others. I'm in the same boat as you are, and it is what it is.
We all need some sort of faith; to believe in something bigger than our existence; to believe there is more than just what we can just tangibly experience. It's part of our natural human desire to explore.
For some it takes the form of traditional religions, for others wokism. Over time, religion has morphed from strict adherence to community standards to an individual relationship with spirituality. Ironically, wokism demands strict adherence. Why the return? I'm not sure, but it would appear that the pendulum between individuality and group "consciousness" will continue to swing.
It seems reasonable to attempt to believe when you want to attempt it. If there is a god he might uses those moments to bring you closer to a place where you can believe. If there isn’t well, there’s no reason not to do what you want to or explore what piques your interest.
As far as faith, I’ve never thought it meant forcing yourself into believing things you don’t think are true. That’s just nonsense in my opinion. It makes more sense as “being faithful” in the sense of holding true to what you do know to be true or, more importantly, good. Faith isn’t about what you believe, it’s about what you do. A husband doesn’t have to secretly disbelieve in his wife’s existence to be faithless for example. I only know you at all through your posts but I find you to be very faithful in that second sense. I think that faithfulness will continue to reward you.
I'm not as alone as you are, but I still feel pretty alone out in rural South Dakota. Even with all of my faith that God is watching over this all and will protect me, I can still lament. It was just last night, exploring my feelings of anger, that I finally realized I had anger at God (for why I was feeling as I was) and I felt like what I imagined Christ felt when he said, "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?" If Jesus can feel like he's being left to suffer in this world without God to lean on, anyone can.
I have nothing against Christianity, but we should remember how many "public" evangelists pushed the mRNA injections on Americans. Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son evangelized for Big Pharma. And he's likely vaccine injured, having suffered from constructive pericarditis. He had to have his pericardium removed. These people allowed themselves to serve as instruments of moral wrongs. We must not forget.
There have been plans from the government to get churches to go along with their plans in emergencies, and to try to get them to "shepherd their flock" to go along with those plans. I posted a note with a video from some presentation that was supposedly in 2006 talking about "social distancing" as the new term for quarantine. This was what was being told to pastors to get them to manipulate their congregations in following along. It's been a long time coming. https://substack.com/@asabovebelowloa/note/c-54401524
I was an atheist in my youth, but would describe myself as spiritual but not religious now. It is the thinking about religion that I believe gets particularly off base, the coming up with theories about "the big man in the sky" that does not speak to me at all. In my own episode 13 of my Substack I spoke about my sources of spirituality and how my dad was one of my influences, what I see as what I describe as his commitment to something higher or larger than himself represents a connection between us even though he was an atheist and I am not. You can hear my thoughts on this more fully at https://emilypnewberry.substack.com/p/on-spirituality.
A question put to us in one of my college classes was “Can you prove the existence of God?” I had a one word answer “No.”
I cannot prove the existence of my love for my husband. I can only live my life as if I do. I believe God exists so I live my life as if He does. That is faith lived.
R R. Reno wrote an interesting book, Return of the Strong Gods, arguing that societies can't live in a vacuum of meaningless for long and either paganism or Christianity (or both) are due for a comeback. It's a real "pick your team" moment. Clarifying.
The religious question, Imo, is essentially not much different than the philosophers' quest to understand why we are here. You used the words "someone powerful" and for me the depiction of a man with a long beard behind all this was and is scary. The thought of a "mother creator" is no better as women as leaders have their successes and failures, just like men. The proselytizers fight each other over theology and their word for that creative force. I prefer to use the word I created, "Sava." This allows others to fill in the image in their heads with whatever vision they have. The Bill Maher video was spot on!