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I'm sure when most of us were at C-E this was debated too much - like beating a dead horse - but I wanted to see what everyone viewpoints are.
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For me, I grew up Catholic, went to parochial school and was confirmed by Rembert Weakland (who had to resign after a scandal involving an adult man and a gay relationship).
I've never really believed in God - went through college calling myself an atheist or pseudo nihilist. Once you died, you're gone - thats all. I've debated and argued the Bible with many, many people without changing my position much.
Anyways, I post over at JSO from time to time and the Buck's forum started a thread about religion. I stated my views there and discussed plenty with Tex and Upnorthfan.
An odd thing happened to me last Monday afternoon in discussing these threads. I came back from lunch and out of nowhere - literally - I had a weird thought pop in my head. Evolution and the Big Bang don't rule out a Creator. There had to be a start to it all - no matter what.
That question (why are we here, how did it start) was never really important to me. I've been very fortunate in this life and haven't lost anyone close to me - surely grandparents passing is hard but they lived a long life. It was a passing thought but here's the weird part.
About that same time half way across the country, one of my best friends was killed instantly in a small, vintage aircraft in NE Arkansas. My other friend, his sister, called me and broke the news.
I don't yet know where my beliefs stand but these threads and the events of last week have made me question my own faith or lack thereof. I said a prayer for the first time in 10 years while touching his urn - both for my friend and his new wife and his sister - just to give them strength to begin to cope.
I flew my girlfriend and another close friend (a registered minister in nondenominational churches) to the viewing/funeral. In a town of 2500 people, the register showed over 1200 people paying their respects and there was a beautiful 'missing man' flyover by his crop dusting company. The charred plane and the crash scene is a very surreal feeling.
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I've had a week to think about the what ifs and will take a closer look at my faith. I hope one day to find what many here are passionate about - to have an afterlife to say hi to all my friends and family. Since then, I've had many dreams where I was in odd situations boasting my non belief in God with amazing clarity of His works (mainly in nature) - maybe as a sign or maybe my mind coping with this loss.
I'm a very pragmatic, logical person but will now continue to analyze these positions rather than choosing to ignore it all. I still believe in forms of evolution, strongly believe in continuous evolution of thought and hope that one day I'll find the answer out.
And I hope I've been wrong for the last 10 years - I really want to see my friend again someday.
The thing that I took from this, life can be taken at any time (he was 26 - like me). Don't let time go by without catching up w/ family and friends and live life on the edge - don't take up space.
Cheers-
Fos
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For me, I grew up Catholic, went to parochial school and was confirmed by Rembert Weakland (who had to resign after a scandal involving an adult man and a gay relationship).
I've never really believed in God - went through college calling myself an atheist or pseudo nihilist. Once you died, you're gone - thats all. I've debated and argued the Bible with many, many people without changing my position much.
Anyways, I post over at JSO from time to time and the Buck's forum started a thread about religion. I stated my views there and discussed plenty with Tex and Upnorthfan.
An odd thing happened to me last Monday afternoon in discussing these threads. I came back from lunch and out of nowhere - literally - I had a weird thought pop in my head. Evolution and the Big Bang don't rule out a Creator. There had to be a start to it all - no matter what.
That question (why are we here, how did it start) was never really important to me. I've been very fortunate in this life and haven't lost anyone close to me - surely grandparents passing is hard but they lived a long life. It was a passing thought but here's the weird part.
About that same time half way across the country, one of my best friends was killed instantly in a small, vintage aircraft in NE Arkansas. My other friend, his sister, called me and broke the news.
I don't yet know where my beliefs stand but these threads and the events of last week have made me question my own faith or lack thereof. I said a prayer for the first time in 10 years while touching his urn - both for my friend and his new wife and his sister - just to give them strength to begin to cope.
I flew my girlfriend and another close friend (a registered minister in nondenominational churches) to the viewing/funeral. In a town of 2500 people, the register showed over 1200 people paying their respects and there was a beautiful 'missing man' flyover by his crop dusting company. The charred plane and the crash scene is a very surreal feeling.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've had a week to think about the what ifs and will take a closer look at my faith. I hope one day to find what many here are passionate about - to have an afterlife to say hi to all my friends and family. Since then, I've had many dreams where I was in odd situations boasting my non belief in God with amazing clarity of His works (mainly in nature) - maybe as a sign or maybe my mind coping with this loss.
I'm a very pragmatic, logical person but will now continue to analyze these positions rather than choosing to ignore it all. I still believe in forms of evolution, strongly believe in continuous evolution of thought and hope that one day I'll find the answer out.
And I hope I've been wrong for the last 10 years - I really want to see my friend again someday.
The thing that I took from this, life can be taken at any time (he was 26 - like me). Don't let time go by without catching up w/ family and friends and live life on the edge - don't take up space.
Cheers-
Fos
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