Religion

In the tradition of Oolon Coluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters: Where God Went Wrong, Some More Of God's Greatest Mistakes, and Who Is This God Person Anyway?, I'm going to talk about my views on religion in this posting. More specifically, is there a god? And if not, does religion serve a purpose?

This posting is actually inspired by a friend's blog posting, (there's supposed to be some form of automatic linking between blogs, so I've heard - but I'll be damned if I know how to do it) because I have a slightly different opinion on the issue.

Let me start by saying I've never been to church, other than for weddings, funerals, and other non-religious events (band practices, high school graduation, concerts, etc.). Not once. Does this mean I'm a heathen infidel, bound for hell (or whatever equivalent depending on your religious beliefs)? I think not.

I declare myself officially agnostic. This means, while I do not believe in a god or deity, I - unlike athiests - do not rule out the possibility of one or more existing.

I don't believe there is a god
I have a problem with believing that there is a god, as I have never met him (or her - but for the remainder I'll use the masculine pronoun), nor have I encountered any phenomena that could only be explained by divine intervention. That is, there is no proof that god(s) exist(s) - and I'm not someone who generally accepts things on blind faith.

You see, the thing is - if there is a god, and he wanted me to believe he existed, he would be able to do it very easily. He could show himself to me as I type this blog post. Right now.

(waits a few seconds..)

Alas, god (if he exists) has chosen not to do so - and hence I cannot, at this time, say I believe in a god.

.. but one might exist
That said, I cannot rule out the existance of a god. Just because he refuses the demand that he present himself to me does not mean that he does not exist - just that he has decided in his divine wisdom (for which us lowly humans will never be able to comprehend) that it's better for us (or, maybe, more amusing for him) to not know for certain.

And thus, I find the premise of athiesm - that god does not exist - too strong to accept.


So what does this all mean?
We - as human beings - alone cannot prove the existance of god. Only god himself (if he exists) can prove that he exists by showing himself to us. We also cannot prove that god does not exist - because an omnipotent deity could simply make it appear to us that it does not exist. And therein lies the trap of mixing science and religion, as some places in the US of A have done by forcing schools to teach "intelligent design" (essentially creationism - I'd say at least 95% - a figure I just pulled out of my ass to support my claim - of the supporters of ID believe the designer is a god). Because the problem with a god is it leaves no room for science - if god exists, everything can be explained as being his will rather than occuring from natural phenomena. Why'd it rain today? God wanted it to - we should pray to the rain god and sacrifice an animal in his honour. How'd humans get on this planet? God did it. How'd the universe come into existance? God did it. Why am I writing this now? God made me do it. So science has to operate on the assumption that god does not exist, while religion is unwilling to accept scientific findings that contradict their religious texts.

Anyway, that's all I've got to say about that for now.

Many Bothans died to bring you this information.