No God for those who don't believe, God for those that do

Lent 2019: Day 34

Consider this possibility: for those who deny the existence of God, who live life without the intuitive feeling that there's something more to life that what's physical, material, there is indeed no God. They exist in a Godless parallel universe, living side by side with those for whom the presence of God is a given, who exist in a universe filled with Godly wonder. Together on one planet.

For those who believe in God, who accept the presence of a God - the next issue is to define that God. And to define the Afterlife. (A Venn diagram of believers in God and believers in an Afterlife would be to closely overlapping circles - the two beliefs are connected.) Beliefs in God are manifold; religious orthodoxies strive to corral people with the constraints of doctrine, but the individual human mind will usually strive to personalise faith to fit individual convictions.

Then there are agnostics - those living without the conviction of atheists or believers. Some agnostics actively spend their lives seeking answers, but most merely drift along; neither thinking nor not thinking about these questions - just getting on with the day-to-day. Regardless of whether or not they attend religious services. Those agnostics that do not seek also exist in a universe devoid of God.

Life-changing mystic experiences don't happen to everyone; some of us seek them, some of us befall them. Some of us have lived in the presence of a numinous feeling since our earliest childhood, that there is some great unfathomable mystery that overarches everything.

View from my window, early this morning

I know what I'd like from my God. To participate in, to commune with, that eternal process of increasing consciousness, ever-rising awareness, the journey from Zero to One, from life after life after life... But there's a catch. It's that pronoun 'I'.

The human ego is the biggest obstacle to spiritual growth; narcissism eats the soul, draws down the eyelids to the light of God. "Do good, and you will be rewarded with eternal bliss" sounds more like top-down social control than divine inspiration. Desperately wanting to cling on to the youness of you after death makes people adhere to commandments. But the youness of you will disappear, to return in the briefest of flashes, anomalous memories of lives past. At least this is my experience.

Possibilitarianism accepts a multitude of quantum outcomes; the question is - can you influence them through your will? I think there's something in this. I feel comfortable and connected in my worldview, though I believe it needs honing over the coming decades. That is what life is for.

Trying to catch the blossom at its finest, 10 April 2019.

This time last year:
Work proceeding around Jeziorki

This time two years ago:
Karczunkowska reopens to traffic

This time seven years ago:
Goodness gracious!

This time eight years ago:

Muddy feet, Warsaw 'pavements'

This time nine years ago:
Cycling and recycling

This time ten years ago:
Winter clings on to the forest

This time 11 years ago:
Toyota launches the iQ

This time 12 years ago:
Old school Łódź