Started reading this yesterday in prep for a training seminar I am taking this weekend:
Very intelligent, good food for thought... deep (and sometimes scary) thought about the future of humankind. This quote struck me:
"Healthy functioning requires that we have faith that our needs will be met in the future; without this confidence, our trust in the world is damaged. Damaged trust can lead to four neurotic reactions that are likely to impact environmental behavior: narcissism, depression, paranoia and compulsion"
There is no bibliography in the Appendices (?), only states that this was quoted by "Winter and Kroger", seemingly from a journal of psychology. This sums up in a nutshell recent thoughts I've been having about what it is I personally believe in. If you believe in nothing but yourself and what your eyes see around you, then you admit that the future is entirely uncertain and therefore unsafe; you have only yourself and your abilities to rely on and you will go ONLY as far as that will take you. I admitted to myself that this may, in fact, be true. But if I choose to believe this way I give up all sense of hope; because I myself have finite abilities... and frankly I'm not all that talented and of limited education. I HAVE to believe that by my good intention, determination and belief in a cosmic/spiritual order to life and the universe, my needs (and my childrens') will be met tomorrow, and it will be a good day. I have to, or else there is really no point in exsisting at all....
So now i'm kinda interested to have convo with an atheist about this point..... anyone?
Ok back to reading, I have 99 more pages to read before Saturday!!
MizzZ :)
Great blog! Get Jody to hook you up with someone on Atheism or post something on the metaphysics discussion group site.Everythings connected...I just read something interesting about religion.Most of them make God in man's image,not the other way around.If you don't believe in their image,you can not be saved.
ReplyDeleteI believe we are "made in God's image" in that we, like God, have free will. More than any other creature on the planet we are able to use our intelligence to create almost anything we can imagine.... we are special, there's no doubt, which makes us think our existence is the work of an exceedingly intelligent and creative mind; someone (or thing) thought us out, for some purpose. It's possible we are just highly evolved carbon forms who tend to over-think things, but that's just too depressing, I couldn't function believing that way.....
ReplyDeleteMaybe it depends on your life and your experiences. I personally do not need a belief in a higher power to function in my life. I have a lot of faith in the people around me and I have a huge respect, admiration and curiosity for the planet we live on. That's more than enough for me. I feel that we should have more confidence in ourselves and what we can accomplish if we set our minds to it....and also accept that we all have our limitations.
ReplyDeleteI could go on and on about this stuff..I love a good religion discussion. :)
You could be right, it may simply be an issue of trust which is the first psychological hurdle we must pass over (Erikson; infancy=trust or abandonment... or something along those lines i would look it up if i had time haha). I went from being a fundamentalist christian thinking God controls my destiny entirely to accepting some responsibility for my own destiny.... maybe I just need another nudge to accept that we are all we can depend on.... so surround yourself with like minded and dependable people... i hear ya :)
ReplyDeleteVery true....I think it's accountability as well...some people (and I know I am generalizing here) like to use "God" as something to blame when things go bad and something to praise when things are good. That doesn't make sense to me and can seem the easy way out, especially when people do bad things and then just "ask" for forgiveness and go on living their lives. It makes sense to me that bad things happen for no ordained "reason"....people get terrible diseases....they die young....etc....because of our imperfect bodies, genetics and all the toxins in our world...etc...not because they deserved it or it was all part of God's plan. You make the choices in your life and you have to live with the consequences...good or bad. There are an enormous amount of things that are completely out of our control but we just have to accept that the best we can....hence where the support structure of awesome people comes in. Also, we should make the choices we do because they are the RIGHT thing to do...not because some God wants us to do them or there is fear of some punishment.
ReplyDeleteIn defense of your argument though, I think that whatever allows you to sleep at night and get through your day is all that really matters. I had a discussion with someone at work like this who said that she NEEDS to believe that there is a higher power and that there is some purpose to our lives, some destiny, etc....and I commented that even though you may NEED something to be true...doesn't mean it actually is.
For me....question everything!
Yes I agree, I'm not claiming to know the truth at all I'm simply saying for me I need to believe there is some purpose to all this. When I suffer I need to feel there is a reason for it (whether it be a lesson learned because I'm reaping the consequences of my actions or if it is something out of my control that it is a puzzle piece of a bigger picture I cannot yet see). For whatever reason, it's hard for me to accept the idea that we are here just to birth, breath, and die and try to find some happiness in between. I feel our lives must have some greater purpose, individually and collectively. And I believe there is an unseen "spiritual" realm.... but I have no clue how that functions. I guess that's also a big part of why I believe in a higher power; there are some things that are unarguably inexplicable which makes me think a greater mind is at work.... Here is a good documentary that I watched that argues both sides:
ReplyDeletehttp://movies.netflix.com/Movie/National-Geographic-Moment-of-Death/70146676#height1243
interesting watch if you haven't seen it