3 posts tagged “belief”
Hey, it's another Bizarro post! (Dudes and ladies, you can read this awesome one-panel comic online at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. You can even get it via RSS feed if you set up an account for Comic Alert!)
Can we all promise to be less of jerks about our beliefs? I, for one, will try my best. (Except when I am being an over-the-top jerk for comedic effect.)
The universe puts us in places
where we can learn.
They are never easy places.
They are right.
Wherever we are is the right place
at the right time.
Pain sometimes comes.
It is part of the process of
constantly being born.
--"A Distant Star", Babylon 5: Season Two
Now, as I've gotten older, I try not to define myself by what I don't believe. I think that's a fruitless enterprise. We should define ourselves by what we do believe in.
I let my subscription to Salon.com lapse and already I'm regretting it. I just finished reading a wonderful interview with Michael Shermer, the founder of the Skeptics Society. Titled "The joys of life without God", Shermer speculates on faith, belief and their role in human nature and society.
Even if the title already put you off, I strongly suggest you give it a read. We all struggle to keep an open mind, especially when religion and politics are concerned.
To me, that's what it means to be spiritual -- what makes your spine tingle. It's what gives you a sense of awe and wonder and transcendence. It doesn't matter to me if you call it God or the cosmos. We're all talking about the same thing, whether it's religious people or New Age spiritual people or Buddhists or scientists. We're all talking about having a sense of awe and wonder at something grander than ourselves.
Coming soon: a series of entries on what I believe.
