Originally posted by ledhed
@ milefile, I would have to think that throughout history men have sat down and rationalized faith or religion in the same way and come to the same conclusions as you have. After all it seems to be the only logical conclusion when you try to combine scientific facts as we know them and basic human nature along with historical context. In the end it all boils down to faith. I have always found it very easy to debunk every religiouse theory that was presented to me by using an historical or logical or scientific argument. Thats always the big mystery to me about religion we may be able to explain the universe and what used to be the mystery of nature in human terms , life itself down to the first cell spliting . We have the ability to create life itself from a petri dish so we need not use religion to say GOD created life , stars . planets.etc. all things that were at one time a great mystery to us. But no one has ever been able to tell me how to create give or modify a soul. That to me is worth the effort to find the answer to. It seems to me if you believe you have a soul you may want to take care of it.
I tried to address the mysterious aspect in my first long post. Becoming, to me, is more perfect than what we commonly call perfect. Few people would look at a log rotting in the woods and call it perfect. But it is. It must not be any other way for life, and life makes sure of that... without any help.
I see my "soul (although I have a problem with the word, and prefer to use "being")" in such things. I feel my being when I precieve it in the context of the world... when I stand in the Grand Canyon and understand my significance and place in that context... when I saw my son born... looking at the sky at night and understanding that earth is a tiny little rock in the inexplicable universe... as the sun rises over the mountains... while looking at pictures of Dresden or Hiroshima or Auschwitz at the end of WWII (it doesn't have to make me happy to sublimate me)... It happens when the world comes together and something fundemental about life is revealed, seemingly for the first time, every time. That is when I feel alive and know that the same force that runs through all those things also runs through me; I feel my being as interwoven with all Being.
I used to be a religious Christian. When my Christian principles were subjected themselves, I found that I had become too Christian to continue being Christian. Christianity consumes itself. The idea of the Christian god is the ultimate contradiction, hence untenable.
So my shedding of Christianity was as natural and necessary as a snake shedding its skin. It didn't remove the possibility for spiritual sublimation from me, but rather, it enhanced and stimulated it, bringing "soul" or as I prefer, being, into a meaningful, applicable, and living context.
How can I prove something that is only evidenced in me by a feeling? What else is faith if not that? We look at the same thing and feel somthing different, practically see different things.
Understanding your soul is not an ongoing thing. It happens all at once, and is gone. The point of life is to feel it again, a sort of addiction to life and the world, in a way.
*That last sentence is pretty lame, but will have to do for the time being.
