More and more books I read on writing suggest that quantity is key at first, quality comes later. I have been itching to write lately, but unsure what I want to say.
Lately, I am finding my time occupied with science and religion. I devour several podcasts and audiobooks in my car every week while driving to and from clients' houses and the majority of them are all about science and/or religion.
I am not religious myself, by any means, but something about the various mythologies of the world fascinate me. Delving into the superstitions of a culture speaks volumes about their value systems. Just look at all the myriad different versions of Christianity that have formed over the last 2000 or so years. It seems that with each new group it comes to it receives further revisions and co-opts pieces of various other previous local beliefs before settling into it's new home. Each new version is, in some ways, barely recognizable as a relation to it's predecessors.
...I had just written a long-winded piece here about The Bible and it's cultural context at the time it was written and how it's "morals" are no morals at all, and so forth. I deleted it. It was obvious that the thought was only half-baked, and muddled at best. I truly believe what I was saying, but it was not well-supported. I need to do some more reading, and further develop that line of thinking before I can intelligibly discuss it further.
Science, and the results of research studies seem to be the other most common thing I talk about. I just learned of a new one today about wiggling fingers... er, well, an old one actually, but new to me. It has been repeated many times over the last several decades, and always the findings are the same.
The subjects of this particular study were hooked up to brain monitoring sensors (probably FMRI in the more recent studies) and told that at any time they wanted to they should wiggle their fingers. Any time at all. The curious finding was that there was a large spike in brain activity, or a "blip" that occured about one full second before each time the fingers moved. One full second! This happened every time the fingers wiggled. This might not sound interesting to you, until you think of the implications. What this seems to suggest is that the brain itself seemed to make the decision to act LONG before the conscious mind had any intention of acting.
This is troubling to both scientists and philosophers alike. If you haven't put it together by now, this revelation seems to destroy the idea of conscious free will. Your consciousness in this experiment appears more like a bystander than a primary mover, or even a participant. Where does this leave us with regard to free will? This experiment has lead to much debate on that subject.
For me, this is just another straw to throw on the poor, splintered back of the camel. Findings like this one, and many many more, lead me to the inevitable conclusion that there is, in all likelihood, almost certainly no room for a soul to possibly exist. There really is no fundamental, irreducible "you" living in your body. It's all just a delicate balance of chemicals and charges that make up who were are.
Some of you are, no doubt, dismissing that thought out of hand. If you truly took it to heart, you would despair, and so the thought is crushed without evaluation or research of your own. ignorance, for you, seems to be bliss.
As for me, ignorance is just ignorance. I'm very much okay with these ideas. The more I learn about this universe, the more connected to it I feel, the more alive I am. I'm not one of those silly people who feels moved by this revelation to ask inane questions about "If that's true, then why bother? Why go on?"
Why go on. I've heard Christians say things like that when confronted with the thought that there might not be anything else after this life. I am always incredulous when confronted by this kind of thinking, but I will answer it anyway. I will begin my reply with another question.
Is this life and this world really that mundane to you that you need fanciful stories about a magic man who lives in the sky and living forever? I find plenty in THIS world to keep me going, and in my short 29 years, I know I have barely scratched the surface of what THIS world has to offer. WHy should I waste any time and effort on another world that MIGHT or MIGHT NOT even exist? If I live to be 100 years old, I will still never know all the joys and glories that this world might offer me, and I'm not about to let some arbitrarily chosen set of rules called a religion limit me from any of them that I deem safe and good.
Art and nature alone blow my mind almost daily. I sometimes find myself moved to tears by the immense complexity and marvelous beauty of Mozart's Requiem. Or a sunset. Or even something as simple as a tree.
I don't need golden gates or winged beings in white robes, and I especially don't need imaginary demons and hellfire. This world and it's rewards and deterrents are enough for me to lead a good, just and fulfilling life. I feel sorry for those who don't feel that way; those for which the term "God-shaped hole" was coined.
No holes here, God-shaped or otherwise.
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