Yesterday, sitting with all the intellectuals, the thinkers and the brains, my “Big Fat F” felt like I was dressed wrong more than once. However, thanks to you guys and what we’ve done together, I was able to recognize it and make it through without sautéing the shame of being who I am wired to be. See blog-post, Hear, Be Hear, Believe and Speak in Your Language.
Image by rimabek via Flickr
There are temperaments that find it easier to believe in God I think; feelers, more so than thinkers at least. But definitely not across the board. Whatever our temperament or brain health, we are all deciding what to do with the surging evidence of the evolutionary history of our world. This can translate into an all-or-none decision for the existence of God. When logic and knowledge make a seven-day creation unbelievable, than believing in God might too. When we discover the repeating themes between religions, Buddhist with Christianity with Mayan and so forth, than rather than believing in a message that is bigger than culture and Time, we might believe that there is no message. When we understand emotions and behaviors on the cellular, hormonal and related biology and draw the line even more clearly to evolutionary origins, we might nod our heads. “No God.” When we say,
Everything starts and ends with me,
and in the connections we find, discover humanism decreasing the perceived need to depend only on God, we might pull a hand back, take in breath, go silent and think,
Is this all?
Yesterday, talking about oxytocin, how it was measured and manipulated, how emotions and behaviors were measured and manipulated, I was in awe. I always am by these discussions. It amazes me over an over again that we can have this beautiful understanding about emotions and behaviors. However, there was the curtained message that there is no God. I can’t say exactly how I believe this to be true. But I do. I felt a chill and remembered, even if these things are true, doesn’t say anything about God not existing.
All these things that I use to define my reality, which of them can be really trusted? Love, Emotions, Time, biology, personality, senses, brain, essence, connections and external input, learning and knowledge, the Bible, visions and more – they don’t have to define the existence of God but for many of us they may.
So I ask you, of all the things you use to define your reality, what do you trust? Do you use them to grow your belief in God or vice versa?
Self-Care Tip – Work these questions over deliberately before these questions work you over unsuspecting.
Related articles
- The evolutionary psychology of racism and stereotyping (psychologytoday.com)
- Choice and Biology – Where Emotions and Behaviors Come From (friendtoyourself.com)
- The Biopsychosocial Model for Where Emotions and Behaviors Come From (friendtoyourself.com)
- Me! Where Emotions and Behaviors Come From (friendtoyourself.com)
- Where Do You Think Behavior and Emotion Come From? (friendtoyourself.com)
- ‘Trust Hormone’ May Help Curb Symptoms of Devastating Disease (news.sciencemag.org)
- Moralizing Behaviors and Emotions (friendtoyourself.com)
- Where Do Emotions and Behaviors Come From? (friendtoyourself.com)
- Shyness: Evolutionary Tactic? (atextbookoflove.wordpress.com)
- Use What You Know – It Will Help You Know Yourself Better And Be a Guide For Your Future Efforts (friendtoyourself.com)
- Emotions – One Part of The Multi-Paradigm Weave That Makes Us Who We Are (friendtoyourself.com)
- Micro, Macro And Darwinism Foolishness (noreligionblog.wordpress.com)
- You Are More Than Your Genes!: A Response to X-Men and Lady Gaga (veritasmizzou.wordpress.com)
- Has Science Disproved Christianity? (charliehess.com)
- Christianity: poor medicine for anxiety and depression (new.exchristian.net)
- Believing in Belief (new.exchristian.net)
I believe the concept of God is a set of moral values, just try to be the best me possible?
dear cin, what u do is really gorgeous in life. your forward warmth especially, to me. i wish i understood these things better too. I know we will though. that makes me happy as, you know, i luv to get to the “barn!” hugs to u. keep talking.
God invites us. Jesus delivers the invitation, Your choice. Then all is revealed.
“then all is revealed.” thank u carl. sometimes u really say what resonates w me. that is something i’ll always b grateful for. keep on.
I’m basically a thinker, not a feeler. Yet, I have experienced the love of God, and, frankly, intellectually speaking, the case for God is much stronger than the case against. All evidence points to intelligent design of our universe and regions beyond.
I don’t see self-care as conflicting with loving and obeying God. Selfish care, assuming there is some detailed way of describing this, would be not only offensive to God, but also detrimental to oneself.
I personally believe that our inherent sin nature, which inspires much of our thought life and actions, may also cause hormonal imbalance. (I think this can happen to devoted Christians, too. We live in a harsh world.) Sometimes the physical dilemma may be so bad that temporary, or maybe, maybe, long-term medication could be helpful. I pray that God gives doctors wisdom to intervene in the best way possible for their patients. Blessings to you, Sana…
that self gets in there w other very different words, doesn’t it. self-ish is always around the corner. it reminds me of dr. zak clearly stating that morals is very different from moralizing and that oxytocin wasn’t increasing our ability to moralize at all, but rather our morals.
i thank u for your prayers and join u. keep on dear carol. hugs
science should explain creation of the world,and so many things so we can deciede whether we believe God or not. ıf something will be unnatural and cannot be explained by science, everybody believes God without of their own freewill. beacuse there is no will, ıt will be meaningless heaven or hell. but unfortunately as you say, people are feelers rather than thinkers. thats why people can kill each other in the name of God. religion should be work of both thinking and feeling. also there is no six day creation of all the religion. ıt could be changed or translated wrongly. for example, ,in islam some believes seven days but some believes seven stage. ıt can change according to comments.
“work of both thinking and feeling” – powerfully said. thank u so much for connecting w us funda and your comment. keep on!
I absolutely believe in God, just not currently fond of organized religion though I’ve been there. I see and feel the presence of God everywhere. He is the goodness and love in each of us.
“not currently fond of…” is quite coy suzicate. but i’m onto u. smile.
the goodness and love in each of us — He is. nice and thank you.
I’m in Suzi’s boat.
thank u lisa for telling us. keep on.
I believe “in” God but more importantly, to me, I “believe” God.
ooh. i like that. thank u patricia.
Without a doubt, I believe in God!! I cannot walk out my back door without seeing God’s creation all around me. I cannot look at my granddaughter without seeing God’s love. I cannot think of my parents without believing in God’s forgiveness (and that has, until recenlty, been really hard for me!). I cannot remember the amount of times I have wanted to end my life without knowing God’s constant support and understanding. I’m a thinker. My favorite Gospel is John. However, I’m a feeler even more, and I don’t believe I could feel if I did not believe in God. God’s love has been my savior more times than I can count. I could not – I would not – “be” without my belief and faith – and, yes, trust! – in God. Thanks for asking! 🙂
thank u nancy. that was sincere and lovely. i really enjoyed being thanked for asking also believe it or not. smile. i guess it does feel nice to be asked and b given a chance to sing our faith out into the hills. keep on.
Eh, I think for me it’s too easy to believe in God or to choose not too. I struggle with this very often. I can see & feel where I have felt him in my life and then I can also use logic & reason to show he’s not there. I don’t think for me either side wins. I follow the rules the best that I can & I love Jesus & his sacrifice however, I find that quite often it just comes down to a choice. Do I or don’t I?
how do u do this? u right so expressively and genuinely.
I think you are asking me how I write so expressively & genuinely and my answer to that was some years ago when I was a kid, I read somewhere that one should only write what one knows. I try to stick that. 🙂
u were a reader as a kid too? what a girl u r.
I am a thinker. Therefore I don’t believe in god. If there were such a being, there would not be so much suffering in the world with famines, babies born with illness and malformations, etc. We are alone in this world, but perhaps not in the universe.
i hear u LV. i can get into that universe concept especially. i really enjoy reading Madeleine l’engle’s work. she embraces the universe idea quite well. keep on.
I’m a thinker (ENTP) and I do believe in God, though I’m far from understanding what God is. Just because we haven’t found a lab test that confirms the existence of God doesn’t mean there isn’t some higher power in the world. People thought the world was flat before they discovered proof that it wasn’t. The proof didn’t suddenly make the world round. 🙂 Ironically, it is not the thinking side of me that contributes to my belief. Rather, it is the awe I experience at various moments in life that makes me feel there is a God.
ooh ENTP! what a mind u have! u can do amazing things w that mind.
with god beliveing is very hard becuase we do not see but saying that as well science can it really be trusted for every theory we have it can be broken and backed up so that that theory i use to be told a certain in life we all die and we all pay taxes i dont pay tax so bang goes that therory that is just an example of a theory that can be undone i think it more comes down to belife we either want to belive or we dont want to belive i belive in god i pray to him useually when i need him i know its a bit slefish hw wants me to live for some strange reason he has thew all in my way including drugs the other week i found a bit of a quantity i just belive that was the devil testing if he was he lost that one i was acted to the whhite powder as wll as drink it was hard but i talked to the group and flushed them down the toilet and i was at my lowest ready to kick the bucket i have prayed again and not given up i am moving now back down south my exx has had a lot to say to me up here i thought about it long and hard and to the point of suicide the deccision has been made i am moving down south and i am not telling her i love her but cant live with her if that makes sense i am going to get suicial when i move i know this form the past the pain will be very great but when and if i overcome this i will be stronger the theropist i have says i am moving on in life he has been quite tuff with me he i not the knight or knghtess in shinng armmor my exx is not neither i have decided that they were there at that time when i needed them and sometimes not as i have been learning a little bit more about bpd and one person that sticks with me is the creater i belive of dbt she has a PHd and quite highly recomeded and she had bpd now god cant be none exitant i can hardly belive she had bpd never mind got her PHd that is waht i call a miricale form my knoledge and thats not great she did it she beat this but she must of asked god to help her i have asked him many times for help and the other day i seen his message to me i have to move but by myself and start afresh but no body else could tell me this i had to see it for my self in intrest over here im on the suicidal list i probably have a bout a 20% chance of living so where and what next ill tell im going down there i have support off someone he knows i have bpd and i know another woman with bd i setting up business and hopefelly i will be offered dbt eventualy i hope this bloke has as mutch stuff to do as he says he does ill need the distraction i will leave kev who is my best firend my dad in a way or i like to see him that way so i am emotionaly attached and phycoligicaly attached to he has shown me in a way that no one else could that life is precios and worth living also that there are good people in the world its not just a dream but by me staying with him im in a bubble no hurt no pain nice comfort zone but also im not living life i hide form people i become more detached with the world i lose my dreams and ambitions he lost his partener and drinks heavy 7 years ago so did my other best friend ill call her p both these people are like my mam and dad i have trouble i run to them they are allways there and never turn there back to me the theropist also says im a slow developer i dont fully understand that but he also siad i need treatment he knows my current plan and agrees p and kevin both help me i dont know why but i think god has been doing a little work there to the future is yet unwritten for me but we shall see when i move myslef i can not do this move alone i dont have the strenth but there is this little voice that says be a friend to yourself do it move and then the other voice i dont here but belive witch is gods choce move this gives me the strenth to over come what i cant do this blog also has also given me a lot of hope god is with us wehter we like it or not and he is going to test you and if you chse not to follow its personal choice for me ill listen
beautiful connections in your life kevin. i always luv hearing your story. i luv the bit especially “like it or not” that God is w us. ain’t that the truth? sometimes we can be such asses. reminds me of the prophet balem. keep on.
Pingback: i see the future and its not living where i am
I trust the place where my feelings and my knowledge/logic collide. Either one in too big a dose, and I get suspicious of myself and my motives. We need to keep that internal check going, you know? That metacognition… I think that part of the miracle in all of us is the ability to keep searching for the answers we don’t know. My motto is to question everything, and then question everything again: what I think, what I believe, what I think I believe, what I want to be true versus what I have actual knowledge to support. Is the concept of God totally excluded by science? I don’t think necessarily so… But some institutionalized forms of a deity might be excluded by science… Big questions…
the place where my feelings and my knowledge collide – ooooh! that was like music. well said, editor/author-friend. thank u sarah for engaging in this w us. keep on.
I certainly believe in God. I always have, and after taking a philosophy class, it strengthened what I believe. Many reasons people in the class said they didn’t believe in God was because “He allows bad things” or “He never did anything for me”, and it seems these people don’t understand who God really is. Or they don’t realize what God has done for them. They are well-fed, they have a home, they live in a free country. Some may be blessed with money, a good family, health. All are blessed with some kind of talent. I’m not trying to push my beliefs on anyone here, as I know that does nothing but anger people, but I completely believe in what I believe. The world is too complex to have been made by chance.
reality shifts w perspective but truth doesn’t. so many of us have a different perceived reality. thank u for connecting w us duck and sharing some of yours. keep talking!
Yes, I believe in God as you know. Just not the conventional wisdom “God”. My God is “LOVE” “TRUTH” and more that can’t be explained with words or our human understanding. “He” is just too big and Mysterious. We live in a dream of our making thinking we are separated from Him and forgot to laugh when we had as a unit of thought had that thought. So we are experiencing a mini second in eternity where we are lost in our dream. See my blog post of ACIM thought system. It’s so simple yet for me to explain in a comment , it’s too complicated.http://clarbojahn.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/my-sruggles-about-god/ and http://clarbojahn.wordpress.com/?s=+a+Course+In+Miracles
I hope you have a semblance of peace now after a week. My grandson has gone home and I can have my own thoughts again. I’ll think about this post.
thank u for sharing this lovely part of what makes u, you. u r great company. keep on.
Pingback: Do You Believe In God? « A Friend to Yourself | BELIEVE IN GOD
Nice blog poost
Thank you Arthur. I wish I would write more but have slowed down. I’d really like to write more on God and Psychiatrty because so many of us find these difficult to see together. In the end, that can be unkind to ourselves.
Keep on!