In 2019, I updated the 2013 post, entitled Faith, addressing my views on what faith meant to me. This was a follow up to a previous post, What is Faith?. These posts got me to thinking about a life without faith in the supreme power in the universe. As a refresher, "faith" is defined as a belief in something for which there is little or no evidence.
My posts are, usually, about more than spiritual faith, per se. For instance, I address the notion that even an atheist can, and should, have faith in something, preferably something good and pure, even if simply an unyielding faith in themselves to be good stewards of the earth, society, and civilization.
“I need nothing. I seek nothing. I desire nothing.”If I define faith in the context of religious or spiritual belief, my question then falls to having non-spiritual faith or a life without God. In my 50 years of searching for answers, doubting, questioning, and discovering, I have come to the realization that something else must be out there. Whether we call it a creative force, energy, particle, a supreme being, Allah, or God, is immaterial to the fact that something is out there. What it is, I suppose, depends on your own desire for interpretation. Why it is might be the more important inquiry and, again, I suppose it depends on your own desire for interpretation. I no longer have such a desire. It is what it is and, for me, what and why it is, is enough. People, who visit the abyss at the Cusp of Forever might ask, "Why do you worry and argue over that for which there is no evidence?"
-- Milarepa (1052-1135), poet, yogi
To a deist, the question of philosophical "rightness" is not as important as the philosophy creating more questions than answers. To put it another way, an irrefutable definition of God is secondary to a belief in the existence of God. Abrahamic religions have a definition of God which meets the criteria set forth by their historical body of religious leadership which seems to have always operated with hidden agendas guaranteeing sustainable wealth and control of the faithful. Their scripture is constantly reinterpreted to meet the current political atmosphere or to excuse some hypocrisy perpetrated upon others. Examples would be the terrorist factions of Islam excusing the killing of innocence, and those Christians who constantly judge others like the LGBT community who come in search of the loving, tolerant, and forgiving Christ.
But, what if your belief is based on there being no God, period? No belief or faith in the existence of any supreme power and, therefore, no concern for any definition of that power or any promised salvation in some afterlife.
“This terror then and darkness of mind must be dispelled not by the rays of the sun and glittering shafts of day, but by the aspect and the law of nature; the warp whose design we shall begin with this first principle, nothing is ever gotten out of nothing by divine power.”
-- Lucretius (94 BC-??), poet, philosopher
The arguments for or against a God, whatever the definition, will probably go on forever, and seemingly have. I write this trying not to swing opinion either way. I always try not to do that. I politic, if you will, for tolerance of religious and spiritual belief, as long as that belief is peaceful and tolerant of others. A person's belief, however, is what it is, and they should feel free to express and practice their belief freely and without ridicule, as long as they are lawful and peaceful in their practice and don't try to force it on others. Others don't have to agree. This, again, is just my thoughts on how it makes me feel, this notion of a life without God.
The first thought that occurs to me is: "Who do you talk to when you're alone? Yourself? We always joke that talking to yourself is the first step to losing your mind. People talk to themselves around me all the time, so I must conclude that we're all a can shy of a six-pack. Remember, no one among us is righteous. Not one. We don't have to be perfect, but maybe it's enough for us to try our best, and not blame others for our shortcomings. Clergy can't own your sins, and why should they? You are expected to embrace your own sins, your own shortcomings, and strive to be more than you are.
Catholics stopped hearing confessions. I think they finally came to the same understanding many of their congregations have thought about for years: Why do we need a go-between to talk to God? According to Matthew 6:5-6, "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." This opens the door to other questions, like why do we have churches and synagogues where we are seen by others when we show praise? Is it in order to feed some hidden ego or, perhaps, to violate a tenet set forth by Matthew because clergy knew an empty seat is a dollar lost? Maybe we read it but didn't really understand the simplicity of it, or maybe the true intent has been clouded by the smoke and mirrors, the bullshit fed to us by organized religion. I like the notion of a God that I can talk to. I like the one true cathedral of God which I can enter by simply opening my front door.
Prisoners of war during the Vietnam conflict, almost to a person, would argue that without their faith in God and country, the years of imprisonment and torture would have been unbearable. For most, their prayers to a God for the strength to continue, to soldier on, was paramount to their survival. This has been true for military men since armies were first conceived. I try to imagine what it would be like for an atheist to try and survive that ordeal, and I keep coming up short. To me, this means they go into the ordeal armed only with what they have, or what is, whereas the spiritual man is armed, not only with what they have, what is, but they are also armed with what might be. They carry with them the sword, shield, and armor of a God which atheists don't have the imagination to perceive. Maybe it's because I'm not an atheist and, therefore, have no point of reference that I find this lack of perception, this lack of faith, hard to wrap my mind around.
Catholics stopped hearing confessions. I think they finally came to the same understanding many of their congregations have thought about for years: Why do we need a go-between to talk to God? According to Matthew 6:5-6, "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." This opens the door to other questions, like why do we have churches and synagogues where we are seen by others when we show praise? Is it in order to feed some hidden ego or, perhaps, to violate a tenet set forth by Matthew because clergy knew an empty seat is a dollar lost? Maybe we read it but didn't really understand the simplicity of it, or maybe the true intent has been clouded by the smoke and mirrors, the bullshit fed to us by organized religion. I like the notion of a God that I can talk to. I like the one true cathedral of God which I can enter by simply opening my front door.
Prisoners of war during the Vietnam conflict, almost to a person, would argue that without their faith in God and country, the years of imprisonment and torture would have been unbearable. For most, their prayers to a God for the strength to continue, to soldier on, was paramount to their survival. This has been true for military men since armies were first conceived. I try to imagine what it would be like for an atheist to try and survive that ordeal, and I keep coming up short. To me, this means they go into the ordeal armed only with what they have, or what is, whereas the spiritual man is armed, not only with what they have, what is, but they are also armed with what might be. They carry with them the sword, shield, and armor of a God which atheists don't have the imagination to perceive. Maybe it's because I'm not an atheist and, therefore, have no point of reference that I find this lack of perception, this lack of faith, hard to wrap my mind around.
Faith in a higher power, a God, also adds the notion, the hope and promise, of a life after death, a hereafter, heaven, or reincarnation into another existence. For me, what is the point struggling your whole life just to flip the "off switch" at the end? I like the thought that maybe there is another great adventure awaiting me on the other side, a "Tony: Part II," coming soon to another reality near me.
“Matter and Spirit are intertwined in creation at this plane of existence and both are non-existent without each other. To live one, the other has to be lived. It is the obsessive attachment to the material world, which is seen as an impediment... when one can see nothing beyond it”
-- Anupama Garg, author, "The Tantric Curse"
For a scientist, if a thing can't be proved, and that proof can't be repeated, the thing doesn't exist. Science requires a repeatable outcome. Something not repeatable is view as an anomaly. Well, think about the fact that you can't repeat death. You can't repeat it, therefore, it doesn't exist, right? According to science, then, it exists only as an individual anomaly. Therefore, death must be repeatable. Welcome to the abyss. I come here often and stare intensely into the void hoping my head doesn't simply explode (which again, according to science, would be an anomaly since I can't repeat it).
If you expect nothing after death, is that what you get? I hope atheists at least get a good slap for being wrong. Beware what you wish for? If you expect nothing, you should be doomed to relive each new life in an existence where you are thrown into a "prison camp" of your limited beliefs until the realization of something more, faith in a power greater than you, allows you to move forward?
If you expect nothing after death, is that what you get? I hope atheists at least get a good slap for being wrong. Beware what you wish for? If you expect nothing, you should be doomed to relive each new life in an existence where you are thrown into a "prison camp" of your limited beliefs until the realization of something more, faith in a power greater than you, allows you to move forward?
When I was in the military I was offered Area 51 as a special duty assignment for a job well done. I thought about it for a couple of days before I refused the assignment. People still ask me why I turned it down. Well, if I go to Area 51 and find there are "flying saucers" in the hangers, I'm sworn to secrecy and can't tell anyone. If, on the other hand, I find there really aren't flying saucers being hidden there by our government, all the years I spent hoping for proof of extraterrestrial life here on earth are wasted, and I am crushed, and I still can't tell anyone because no one would believe me anyway. So, what would be the fun in the assignment? This is the way I feel about having faith is something greater than myself. I like having faith that there is something more to come. Without this faith in something more, what's the point, of anything... like aliens, or peace on earth?
What about our notions of good and evil? I'd like to think that an, albeit misplaced, faith in God helps prevent the wholesale slaughter of innocence. An atheist might argue that God was the driving force behind the wholesale slaughter of the Crusades ordered by the Christian church. But, the targeting system of the League of the Perpetually Offended is always in need of a reality adjustment. God doesn't kill people, people kill people, in the name of God, which is heresy. The Crusades were about greed, not about God. The popes used God as an excuse to refill their coffers by sacking the wealth of Islam, and then they discovered tithing was a way to get the common man, with a promise of salvation, to refill the church coffers. Heresy, plain and simple.
How about religion as a deterrent to evil? Isn't that what the prison system and capital punishment accomplish. Really? Let's think about the sorry state of our judicial and prison systems before we address this. A murderer can be set free before their victim's body is cold. How is this viewed as a deterrent? No, I think that without a healthy dose of religion or, more importantly, faith in a higher power, history would repeat itself and we would visit the fall of Rome all over again, worldwide. It's bad enough that religious hypocrites, clergy in general, reinterpret their "holy" scripture in order to use God as an excuse for mayhem. Imagine what would happen if everyone didn't have to worry about the righteous message in that same scripture, and relied on their own sad interpretations of morality. Remember the criminal justice system that doesn't seem to be working? Nuff said.
How about religion as a deterrent to evil? Isn't that what the prison system and capital punishment accomplish. Really? Let's think about the sorry state of our judicial and prison systems before we address this. A murderer can be set free before their victim's body is cold. How is this viewed as a deterrent? No, I think that without a healthy dose of religion or, more importantly, faith in a higher power, history would repeat itself and we would visit the fall of Rome all over again, worldwide. It's bad enough that religious hypocrites, clergy in general, reinterpret their "holy" scripture in order to use God as an excuse for mayhem. Imagine what would happen if everyone didn't have to worry about the righteous message in that same scripture, and relied on their own sad interpretations of morality. Remember the criminal justice system that doesn't seem to be working? Nuff said.
"The skeptic endlessly demands proof, yet God refuses to insult the true intelligence of man, the '6th sense', the chief quality, the acumen which distinguishes man from the rest of creation, faith."
-- Criss Jami, poet, essayist, philosopher
For many, it probably comes down to proof of God. An atheist would state the proof of God is on the believer. Why isn't the lack of proof on the atheist? Science believed the world was flat and they didn't have to prove it. Science believed the universe revolves around the earth, and science was wrong. Science said the world was flat, and science was wrong. Science said a man couldn't fly, and science was wrong. Science said the sound barrier would never be broken, and science was wrong. I hate to point out that God, traveling at the speed of light, antigravity, and teleportation will probably have a pretty good chance of proving science wrong. Science is always right until they're wrong.
And, by the way, while we're talking of people talking like the south end of a horse heading north, I think actors should stick to acting and leave politics to politicians. Politicians do themselves no favors in the first place without having actors without a clue trying to support them, just like actors do their careers no favors by supporting those same clueless politicians. This goes for atheists, as well. Having someone like Penn Jillette open his mouth in support of atheism is embarrassing, if not harmful to the cause of atheism. He deserves his opinion, I just wish he'd keep his intolerant and hateful rhetoric to himself. When you think about it, his career is sleight of hand, magic, and trickery. I have always heard that Satan is also a master of deception. Now, we all know Penn Jillette isn't Satan but, just think about it. Hmmm.
If there is absolute evil, by the rules of universal balance there must be an absolute good. What we call this negative and positive energy is just semantics. God, Satan, the dark side of "the force" or the light, regardless of what we call it, it is just a name. If we surround ourselves with good energy or bad energy, we reap what we sow and there is balance in the universe. For there to be a balance there must be opposites; good and bad, light and dark, positive and negative, equal and opposite reactions, conflicting opinions, believers and non-believers. Can this hypothesis be tested to meet the scientific model? I'm not sure I care.
And, by the way, while we're talking of people talking like the south end of a horse heading north, I think actors should stick to acting and leave politics to politicians. Politicians do themselves no favors in the first place without having actors without a clue trying to support them, just like actors do their careers no favors by supporting those same clueless politicians. This goes for atheists, as well. Having someone like Penn Jillette open his mouth in support of atheism is embarrassing, if not harmful to the cause of atheism. He deserves his opinion, I just wish he'd keep his intolerant and hateful rhetoric to himself. When you think about it, his career is sleight of hand, magic, and trickery. I have always heard that Satan is also a master of deception. Now, we all know Penn Jillette isn't Satan but, just think about it. Hmmm.
If there is absolute evil, by the rules of universal balance there must be an absolute good. What we call this negative and positive energy is just semantics. God, Satan, the dark side of "the force" or the light, regardless of what we call it, it is just a name. If we surround ourselves with good energy or bad energy, we reap what we sow and there is balance in the universe. For there to be a balance there must be opposites; good and bad, light and dark, positive and negative, equal and opposite reactions, conflicting opinions, believers and non-believers. Can this hypothesis be tested to meet the scientific model? I'm not sure I care.
“If you write a line of zeroes, it´s still nothing.”
-- Ayn Rand (1905-1982), writer, philosopher
A mathematician can argue there is an equation proving "point nine times infinity equals one." Do I need to see the scientific model, have the equation explained, see his proof? No, because good sense tells me his equation sucks. There is still point one times infinity hanging out there in left field. Can I prove it? No, but I have unyielding faith that I'm right.
A Godless concept? I can't imagine a world without a concept of God. Nor can I imagine a world without someone proclaiming there is no God. If someone doesn't shake our belief systems, if someone doesn't ask "why," how will we ever grow to become something more than we are? Just because the concept of God works for me doesn't mean I need to force the concept on the unbelievers. You either have faith, or you don't.
“I know only that it is time for me to be something when I am nothing.”
-- Patrick Branwell Brontë, painter, writer
A Godless concept? For me the equation just sucks. I think spirituality, religious belief, meditation, rituals, and the like, are simply a way of bringing one's chi, their prana, one's life force, into balance with the energy of the universe. One might refer to this energy as God. To do so, however, but they would have to be willing to understand there is little difference in how we refer to this energy, the difference will be in our interpretation. Call it what you want, it is what it is. Or, as God simply stated, "I am."
Oh, by the way, Creatio ex Nihilo? It's Latin for "creation out of nothing." A closing thought to consider: If nothing didn't exist, how did we name it?
Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider an alternate viewpoint.
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
-- Plato (427 BC-??), philosopher
Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider an alternate viewpoint.
It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and while engaging in peaceful and constructive discussion, in an arena of mutual respect, concerning those opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.
We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we learn from the experience, and what we do afterward.
Pastor Tony spent 22 years with United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with the premier, world renowned, Institutional Review Board helping to protect the rights of human subjects involved in pharmaceutical research. Ordained 1n 2013 as an "interfaith" minister, he founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance in response to intolerance shown by Christians toward peaceful Islam. As the weapon for his war on intolerance he chose the pen, and wages his "battle" in the guise of the Congregation's official online blog, The Path, of which he is both author and editor. "The Path" offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination for us all. He currently resides in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he volunteers as lead Chaplain and Chaplain Program Liaison, at the regional medical center.
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