lovaliss's Diaryland
Diary
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"The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true. We have a method, and that method helps us to reach not absolute truth, only asymptotic approaches to the truth � never there, just closer and closer, always finding vast new oceans of undiscovered possibilities.
-- "Wonder and Skepticism", Skeptical Enquirer Volume 19, Issue 1, (January-February 1995)
This quote sums up how I feel about the passionate weekend posts in light of the Easter holiday we just had. I know it's easier to tell yourself you will see your loved ones again someday, but the truth is no one knows that is the case, you might hope it is, you might desperately want to believe it is, you might wonder how you could go on in life if this were not so, but not you or anyone else "knows" this is the case. Passionate insistence on what you hope to be true does nothing but show a deep rooted fear that is the impetus of your religious faith that appeases the anxiety of existence and the unchanging reality of death you refuse to face. I swam in it from age 11-23 and mistook fear and grief for a testimony, I know it well, but wanting to believe something does not make it reality or make it "true" or make it a thing you can state "you know to be true." More than mockery, I feel sad when I read that stuff or those posts. I know loss is hard to face. But it can be faced with courage and bravery, and not with delusion--no one but the deluded are convinced by their own insistence that said delusions are truthful. It is better to face the death of your loved ones head on, holding onto the notions of the after-life will only, in the end, get you stuck in the here and now which may or may not be the only thing there is. Once again, may or may not be, I'm not saying I know either way. Study life after death, study all religious cultures to see what they say about life after death and death in general, consider reincarnation which at least has viability as far as evidence and case studies go, but no one ever to this day has risen up out of their grave and in the same body they once were in. Save Jesus, which is quite truthfully a mythical figure in and of himself. His life and teachings are so distorted from what he might have said that no one to this day can honestly say they know what "true Christianity" looks like nor can they argue about dogmatic technicality. Love others. That's all we know of him. The rest is a Pagan, political, patriarchal distortion contrived for gain and benefit. Forgive my unbelief, my unbelief has proven to be more truthful than my belief constructed in grief and fear of impermanence. I love you no matter what, all of you, no matter what you choose to declare as belief, but you may not believe what you claim to believe. And if you do, a part of me is jealous, lucky you, lucky lucky you, what comfort.
4:56 p.m. - 2012-04-09
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