[MENTION=25694]evilrubberduckie[/MENTION] { thanks for making a vid. You are utterly engaging!
}
For most of my life I thought Mexican cuisine looked like this:
It was only in the last year that I realized, this is actually a more accurate representation:
If had complete paradigm shift & am still figuring out how to properly source TACO’s... I am hesitant to conclude I have
THE final answer - on broad spiritual questions - when even basic beliefs can shift and be tested.
Thus, I am also skeptical of anyone who declares with absolute certainty: there is or there is not a God or after-life. It is a topic lacking in both empirical & heuristic evidence
That being said, I am open to logical discussion and if I sense that someone’s strong beliefs are not solely motivated by sentiment - they may even be able to persuade me along the lines of their reasoning.
Everything that I am personally acquainted with in tangible life has been produced by someone or something. That makes me think. On the other hand, everything I am acquainted with also has a beginning and end. That also makes me think.
Then, when considering the universe and broader strokes…the implications are even
more varied and interesting. We still do not completely understand many things or even know how to replicate things in the natural world that we observe. All food for thought.
As for religion? I don’t subscribe that religion’s are exempt from critical analysis. Some have been specifically mentioned here.
I currently have an article on the back burner, that reveals anecdotal evidence of the Catholic Church and local business being in coercion in 50's Quebec. That the church would insist on large families (no birth control allowed) and then take away people’s homes and jobs if they did not give the annual church contribution.
I have watched historical footage of religious leader’s laughing as children were shot into a pit and other video’s of clergy blessing armaments. Buddhism and other ‘religion’s of peace’ also have sordid details…. BUT, religious precepts have also guided people for good and continue to exert an influence on popular culture.
Can Atheists also be good, moral people? Of course.
On one hand I think people would find comfort in the idea of God and everything that suggests. On the other hand, I think humans like to be independent and live as they please, not beholden to imposed values
Bottom line: A work in progress. Great men of science and thought have struggled with these questions for ages. It doesn’t bother me to still be open and pondering…