White Cheddar Cheez-Its Are Delicious and Other Personal Views

As we've just gotten started with this class, I'm going to use this first free-writing opportunity to discuss what I have already determined, for myself, about religion. More specifically, my personal connection with it. I am not sure whether you'd call my beliefs religious or purely philosophical. Certainly I am not part of a religion, as I do not formally share my views with anyone, though I'm sure others have similar thoughts on the world.

I think there is a great deal of arrogance in most religions. The idea that people honestly believe that we, as human beings, can have any certain knowledge regarding the story behind and around existence is quite boggling to me. Now, this is not to say that this arrogance is always a bad thing- if conviction helps you to be a better person, the factuality of your views is largely irrelevant. The twelve steps to recovery from addiction are based in faith in a higher power- and for many this faith is the only thing which keeps them from sinking back into substance abuse. If having a god makes you stronger, perhaps you should have one.

I do not believe in a god, but I do not deny the possibility of one's existence. How could I? Even if science explains everything, could there still not be a watchmaker somewhere behind and beyond it all? I could go on and on about what might be true (after all, if there were some order to the universe, wouldn't it make sense for that order to be revealed, by a creator or by some natural process?) but in the end I still have to come to grips with the fact that I could still be completely wrong.

I hold only one real belief when it comes to spirituality or a lack thereof- that the most important thing we can do is wonder, and remind ourselves that we are still wondering. Why is there this obsession with finding answers to questions which are so far beyond us? Why are we so uncomfortable with uncertainty? Do we need to give a name to the forces of the universe in order to draw strength from them? Or is this strength within ourselves? Perhaps most people need to solidify their beliefs in order to benefit from them, but there is a cost to this- by finding a destination you lose sight of the spiritual journey. It is all too easy then to forget the journey, and to lose the ability to understand those still on the journey or those who have gotten off at a different station- and this often leads to conflict.

I am content to wonder, becuase either way we'll find out in the end- or we'll cease to be. Which is just as good, really. Besides, being in the dark is more exciting, I think.