Posted by Noa on January 6, 2003, at 11:09:28
In reply to Re: Finding Safety in God » Dinah, posted by rayww on January 6, 2003, at 1:42:32
I agree with Ray.
I read your post yesterday and have been trying to work out in my mind how to respond thoughtfully. I think you touched on something I experience, too--wishing I could believe in something so certain as the belief that so many religious people do.
But that is not me, and like Ray said, I guess I have to not compare myself to others.
What I get from religion is not really about God. When I am able to connect religiously, which is not often in recent years, it is a connection to the people, the culture, the history, the motivation, the feelings and desires, and especially the awe and wonder that they experienced and we experience, and around which religion developed. I can connect with the prayers if I think about the beautiful language and what drove the poets to write what they wrote--thinking about how they were struggling with the same human challenges and mysteries of the universe that I struggle with. In other words, I guess I am connecting not with an answer, but with the questions.
But it does still require tolerating a great deal of uncertainty, that is for sure. And I believe we humans are built/wired to seek that safety and certainty--that is why we have theological beliefs and religions, no? So, I try to accept that I have two contradictary things going on in my mind--1)a hard-wired need to believe in something as certain as a god and 2)lack of such belief. Mostly I don't think about all this too much, but when I do, I do have a small measure of anxiety about it, but then I tell myself that this is part of being human--not knowing, and that it is ok, that, despite the wish to have more certainty, I can--and have to--live with the uncertainty.
poster:Noa
thread:1514
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20021227/msgs/1522.html