|
Well Joshua, I'm pushing 64 years old and have journeyed from being born Lutheran, parochial school, to becoming a Jehovah's Witness around '66 and then JW 'inactive' in '89. After '9/11' I spent many, many hours studying and learning about Islam. It was after reading the Koran for the 3rd time that I sat back and looked at the 'big picture', did a lot of research on secular 'world history', took stock of my own life's experiences/observations and came to the conclusion that (I don't have the energy/time/inclination to 'study' far eastern religions): it seems all religion is man-made. For a short while I was atheistic, but then realized that atheism is also a 'faith'; as there is really no tangible proof either way. So now I find myself an Apethetic Agnostic.
I can't prove anything and I don't know. And what I believe or don't believe does not in any way effect the way this world works or it's destiny or, from observation, even my destiny.
Solomon's observations in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are fastinating when read with an 'open mind', and I find most of them to be true to my life's experiences.
Eccl.3:19-22 "Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath
(Heb.neph'esh); man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows (Solomon did not know) if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?
So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?"
Eccl.9:11 "I have seen something else under the sun: .......but time and chance happen to them all".
Another translation paraphrases Eccl.2:11 "everything is vanity and a striving after wind."
I must admit that I do miss the practice of prayer even though the conversation was always one way.
Just lately I heard somone say that if one really thinks about it, all the good done in this world is done by mankind (yes much of the evil too, but
all of the good).
Thank you, Joshua, for the invitation to express myself on this matter.
talleyJudy
__________________
"Saving one dog will not change the world. But, surely, for that one dog the world will change forever."
|
