Religion Vs. Science.  Spirituality Vs. Reason.  Yes, I willingly went there of my own volition.  Best to get it out of the way.

     I wouldn’t want you sensible, humanistic logic types to invest too much more time and energy into reading this blog before you find out that I am a Bible-thumping God freak with no capacity for rational thought or independent ethics.

     As for you good Christian types who follow our Lord and Savior, I wouldn’t want you to waste too much more of your time reading this blog before you find out that I am a Godless heathen humanist who’s worship of Darwin is going to land her solidly in the middle of the Lake of Fire when God finally gets around to opening up a can of righteous Whoop-ass on this crummy planet.

     Have a nice day.  Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.  So sorry to have wasted your time.

     Yes, I am a sarcastic meanie…but lets’ face it…no matter how carefully and succinctly I explain myself, that’s the way some people are going to read what I have to say.  They’re primed for it.  They can’t help themselves.

     OK, who’s left?  I have no idea.  Maybe no one.

     Is it my imagination, or does it appear that those are only two choices anymore?

     Am I the only one who thinks this debate is a non-issue made up by people who like to fight way too much?  Can it be that I am the only person on the planet who thinks that science and spirituality are two completely different languages, each describing a portion of reality the other doesn’t wish to address, and trying to make them have a productive argument is silly and futile?  Can it be that I am alone in thinking it is possible to be a theist and a rational being and that there is no reason for the two to contradict one another?

     It’s true.  I believe in God.  I’ve tried not believing in God.  I had actually at one point convinced myself that I did not.  Turns out I was mistaken.  I actually believed in God all along…I was just massively, massively pissed off at him for quite some time.

     You see, what I didn’t realize is that God didn’t fuck me up.  It was actually all of the assholes who claimed to speak for him that did it, and I was blaming him all along.  Funny, huh?

     It’s like in high school where one friend tells the other that a third one says she’s fat or ugly or whatever and then sits back and has a power trip while they fight it out.

     “God says you’re a dirty rotten sinner, and you’re going to hell.”

     “God says you believe the wrong things, so you’re going to hell.”

     “Are you arguing with me, God’s chosen representative?  You’re going to hell.”

     “See?  You’re still arguing with me.  You are a willfull sinner, and the Holy Spirit cannot move you to repentance.  Guess what?  That’s right.  Straight to hell.”

     You get the idea.  Anyway, try as I might, I couldn’t shake the God thing.  It’s not a doctrine or a particular religion that I believe in to tell me what to think.  I realize that I used the word Christian, but that’s because it is the model I’m most familiar with.  Most Christians I know do not consider me to be a Christian.

     About the only thing that qualifies me is that I believe in God.  I don’t have any proof or reason to believe in God.  I also don’t happen to think that it makes me a better or more moral person than anyone who doesn’t believe in God.  I don’t have a stirring testimonial or a miracle or anything like that…and even if I did…I’m not the kind of person who thinks that a miracle is proof of anything.  It’s just an unshakable feeling that God is real.  I can’t explain it, it’s just…there.  It’s as much a part of me as breathing.  I’m OK with that.  I’m at peace with it, and I see no contradiction with living as a rational being. 

     I’ve been told by very smart and disciplined people that this is impossible.  One cannot believe in God and claim to be rational.  Hopefully, all of those people left during paragraph two; because Lord, how they do go on.  They won’t stop trying to persuade me that I’m wrong to believe…as if it is a conscious choice.  Usually they try to persuade me by calling me a weak-minded idiot.

     Trust me, if some of the Christians I’ve met in my life couldn’t kill my belief in God, no Atheist on the planet can stop it.  For one thing, the Christians I’m referring to are meaner, and they fight dirty.  Nowadays, they usually stop at calling me a spiritually stunted intellectual.  But when I was a kid…oh the fear and mental torture they are capable of inflicting on innocent children who have questions and a deep affection for dinosaurs!

     Have I pissed everyone off yet? 

     Well, in my readings of the Dalai Lama, I came across a really great way of putting my feelings on religion versus science into words.

     “As a Buddhist, I think it is very important for us to be aware of the scientific investigations that are being undertaken.  However, we must be able to distinguish between phenomena which still remain beyond the verification of existing scientific methodology and phenomena which can be seen as being disproved by existing scientific methods and investigation.  I would say that if certain phenomena can be seen as being disproved by science, through scientific investigation, and scientific methods, I think as Buddhists, we will have to respect those conclusions.”

                                                 --His Holiness, The Dalai Lama

                                                    “Facing Death and Dying Well”

                                                    The Power of Compassion

     I think that in the subject of the metaphysical, the miraculous, the unprovable and unrefuted weird shit, it is pointless for science to try to do anything with it.  It is scientifically meaningless.  Statistically insignificant.  It’s anomalous data.  With the exception of some of the more esoteric explorations of Quantum Physics, science doesn’t want to deal with the statistical outliers.  Science throws them out.  Science has little left to say on the subject.  It is not reproducible, it is not predictable.  There is no model for the way it functions.

     That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.  It just means that at this point in time, the data sampling is insufficient to interpret it in any meaningful way.  We have no way of reproducing, modeling or predicting the weird shit.  It’s possible we never will.

     Where it CAN be proven, disproven, or explained, I think as rational beings we need to accept what our God-given minds and reason have to offer.

     After all, those of us that accept the existence of God generally also accept that he made the rules.  So…the more we learn about the rules, the more we learn about the Creation of God and the less we have to rely on superstition and slavish adherence to doctrine…and the interpretation of said doctrine by people we KNOW are as fallible as we are.

     This should not be seen as a threat to God.  It isn’t.  If he’s the one that made the rules, then a greater understanding of his rules and creation doesn’t diminish him at all.  In fact, it often impresses me with just how cool the big guy can be.  Plus, can’t he take care of himself?  I mean…if we theists accept on faith that God exists…why would we worry about his existence being disproven?  To attack rationality and science as the enemies of God just shows our own insecurity and lack of faith and imagination.

     Who it DOES diminish, however, is the people in charge of the organizations on the planet who use God’s name to try and run the rest of us.  Usually, furthering scientific knowledge can make them look like a big bag of rectums.

     Aw…too bad.  You had the power of God behind you until we found out the earth revolves around the sun.  Next thing you know, we’ll be questioning the validity of those indulgences we mortgaged our farm for last year.  Quick! What we need is a distraction!  Look!  Doesn’t Galileo make pretty colors when he burns?

     Yeah, yeah…I know.  Don’t let the fact that I play fast and loose with history get in the way of fun, dramatic illustration.

     So, I happen to think that those of us who are persons of faith should accept what our senses and rationality can tell us when we apply them according to the methodology and disciplined investigations of science.  Nothing else makes sense.  If the laws of nature were written by God, and if our senses, reason and curiosity were authored by God, then using one to explore the other is the Work of Man.  That’s the way it was set up.

     If God had wanted us to be ignorant, superstitious tools of Pat Robertson, he wouldn’t have made Teri Meussen’s voice so annoying.  He also wouldn’t have given us reason, and the ability to observe and think and create reliable rules for investigating how things work.

     Faith is a function of inspiration.  It should not interfere with reason and logic.  If it does, I think that is more a failing of the person having the conflict, than an inherent flaw in either faith or reason.  Don’t tell me that I defile faith by insisting on reason, and don’t tell me I am incapable of reason due to my faith.

     You are either inspired to believe in God or you are not.  Either way that’s OK with me.   You either have a commitment to reason or you do not.  Also OK with me.  You can also have neither faith nor reason.

     Or you can do both to the best of your ability, and do the little bit of extra work it takes to reconcile the two on the ragged edges where they seem to bump up against one another.  Also good.  I’d LOVE to hear from you, if only to know that I am not alone in the world.