Mr. A, I have not fully appreciated what you have been saying. So below you’ll find a new response to your last two posts.
Response to second to last post:
You stated,
it is funny because I have come to the thought that whether it is faith or the lack of a better option just believing in God and heaven seems to make sense now. I think I am beginning to move towards bettering my relationship with God, bettering my journey, accepting all with a blind faith because nothing else out there speaks any better or clearer. Don’t get me wrong, I do not believe because of default but it is funny how faith has begun to fall in to place for me. Things are making sense and the other options out there seem just as improbable.
How the above happened to me:
I too have come to the conclusion to have faith in God. I cannot say with a total blind faith, but I’ll admit faith does require being blind; otherwise it’s not faith. You described your faith using the phrase “ for lack of a better reason.” It was the same for me. I wrestled with God philosophically until Unamuno ( who I hope was one of the people God knew would bring me around should I find him) who believed in God simply because everything contradicted itself, including God, kicked my arse. In the end, Unamuno like me, could not shake that desire to live forever, to have a God to believe in, to know and trust ( although his God is a lot different than mine).
Your statement about relying too much on science is not wrong but I would like to add to it. I don’t think we rely on science too much as we don’t take the time to think about why we really are conducting scientific experiments. Allow me to give an example. In order for a nurse to be an expert in caring, it requires profound philosophical, scientific, and personal insight. In short it requires a lot of knowing. The medical field’s obsession with measuring everything (isolating variables) has resulted in nursing losing it’s focus on one of our most profound banks of legitimate knowledge ( caring) simply because it cannot be properly measured. While there are legitimate ways of studying it (qualitative methods), they are thought to be weaker ( not true).
I recall one oncology nurse who realized after reflection, that medicine’s outcomes based work had forgotten to ask what it was like to have end stage cancer. She found that by the time medicine was done with these patients, all that could be done to alleviate their suffering, was to dope them up to high heaven. She wanted to know what it was like to go through this. So, she conducted a qualitative study and found that the patients suffered even more due to the pain medication. This was because they were being robed of their lucidity. From this many new interventions were implemented
So why did I talk to much about science?
I often see that faith and religion have the same problems as the above. But this is wrong for everything we do requires rational thought. This includes faith, for people have to believe it is the best thing for them. Anyone who becomes disappointed with philosophy (rational thought), in my mind, thinks that philosophy can give real final answers. It does not, it only assists us in making sense of this life, this irrational life, which only seems to make sense, when we rely on our experiences. These experiences are what give us truth and understanding and in my case it requires religion but only when guided by reason. But be warned. Too much reason cause one to be blind to their experience , but for those who ignore reason, will start thinking that Jihad crusades are ok.
Response to Mr. A’s last post.
The importance of this entry, is that I have to admit that I believe in God in a very similar way as you described. That for all the books I have read etc, my reason to believe is no better founded. I had been struggling with spiritual issues too long and because of that, I was becoming more ineffective as a father, nurse, and researcher. I felt compelled to return to my religion even though I had major issues with it (rational). After praying for years and getting the same answer: “ to go a priest, confess your issues, and return to the faith you once had as a child”. As a rational person, I found that is a ridiculous idea ( fought it for like 15 years). But as you said Mr. A, at some point one comes to accept, to believe. So, fed up with my spiritual distress and guided my the above answer,I finally went to a priest. By going to somebody else, and in the name of all that is asking for help, I was able to overcome some major spiritual obstacles.
Every day I find that I have to remain focused on what is really important. If I stray from the right path, I become very ineffective in what I do. I become less capable of being caring and staying away from vices. This heavily detracts from my work, work that I feel would be of at least some importance if I could balance my life better
I struggle just like you Mr. A in balancing the two worlds. I want to do what is right in God’s view but it did not work by just following a set of religious rules ( as Catholics can be thought famous for and what I thought I had to do as a Catholic), about which job he wants me to have, how large a family, or what kind of research I should/should not conduct (although he might). Rather, I would guess that God knew I would be always thinking about stuff ( study philosophy), want to be in a profession where I could focus on caring (nurse), want to be artistically creative when possible (guitar player), and participate in sports that put mortality to the test (monkey/snowboarder/rock climber. I could have chosen other things but they would be similar.
My struggles happen when I get too focused on one thing or another I falter. It sad how quickly and obvious it is when I stray. For me to stay on path, I need pray a lot, reflect upon what is going on in my life, and finally most recently reconcile my problems with the Catholic church so that I can return to my religious tradition. Studying philosophy, being a nurse, being a father, guitar playing etc. have all brought me closer to God and also taken me away from God.
One does not need any of the above to get to God, but in my case they is how He got to me, for that is what I am. Hopefully my work will be of help to others. When I first met you, I felt you Mr. A could have cared less about God. Oh how He changed that. For I feel He knew what kind of person you were, and waited for you to make a move in the right direction, a move that would bring you right to Him.
Conclusion:
Give the long mother blog ( I hope you don’t die reading it) I thought I better summarize what I said. My faith became necessary when I could not longer contain my spiritual distress. This required me to accept experiences and ideas that I cannot fully rationalize except to say that it seemed to right and therefore most rational for me to do. Through a most off topic I tried to show that science does not error because it is too scientific but rather because like anything else ( philosophy and faith), it can blind itself. I have come to realize that if I do not allow myself spiritual help I am not capable of being a good father, husband, nurse, researcher, and musician (even though these traits are what I am) because I too can blind myself by ignoring the bigger picture spiritual needs. However, without all the above I would never have found God in the first place. How quixotic.
From the heart I want to say that my faith is based in reason and experience (irrational thought); quixotic to the core. Your’s, from a completely different angle, requiring little of what I do. You born again, me Catholic. Both religions opposed and alike. Yet, I have all the faith that God laughs at this saying, “you believe for the same reason, is that not enough?”
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