Love, Faith and GUI's

[same_difference]

Right today is the day after the all important meeting to do with the project I've been doing vague preparatory work on. I was supposed to be starting things properly today. So what do I find? My supervisor is not around. His coat is definitely on the back of his chair, but that chair has stayed decidedly empty all morning. I still have things to get on with but not the big kick off I expected. Also my code is borked for reasons that completely lose me. It’s a spreadsheet type of thing. The worst problem being that the data structure contains the data correctly, the text value for the entry widgets matches and is in the correct position, what actually appears on screen doesn't match. It makes no sense.

Anyway moving on. A couple of nights ago I had a long talk about faith and things with my Dad, very similar in style to the one I had with my sister over Christmas (but forgot to mention here). Personally I believe in God, I've been raised a christian, whether or not I still count as one I'm not sure. I don't and will not associate myself with any of the christian denominations. I can't join up to any of their takes on christianity knowing I don't fully agree with them and accept the beliefs I'm supposed to. Its great what a (compulsory) GCSE in Religious Education does for ones take on religion.

For me there’s a very big distinction between faith and religion. Faith is personal, and as long as you get what you need from it and it causes no harm to anyone else I don't care what you believe. It’s your faith and not my place to decide. As far as I'm concerned proper atheism is a faith. The absolute belief without supporting evidence that there’s nothing else in this universe apart from what you can see and feel, that when you die - that’s it, is an act of faith. Religions, as far as I'm concerned, are a bad thing. I can understand why they exist, why the concept came about and developed, but the bad they do far, far out ways the good. I can appreciate that a lot of religious leaders, etc, are very intelligent, very well read, very wise to put it simply, but I just don't agree with the idea that some else you should tell you how to believe and what to believe. That’s the short version of my view. If you want to talk about it I'd gladly discuss it with you, but generally it’s a topic I stay out of as most people have very strong and very inflexible views on it.

What was discussed with my Dad was the point behind religions, what they do and eventually, after I stated the above opinion though in a little more detail, we moved on to the concept of atheism. He can't understand it, and I'd love to hear a debate between him and someone who claimed he was an atheist. My Dad is not even vaguely an extreme christian, you would get a perfectly reasonable and intelligent debate about it, and I know he believes that his argument is such that at the very least you would go away thinking about it, and maybe he's right. I really enjoyed talking about, its one of those subjects that its nice to have a reasoned discussion about as its very rare it doesn't become an argument between two people with rigid and inflexible view points. Not to miss represent his argument I'll give the simplest summary:

'If atheists are correct and we are nothing more than a blob of chemicals that eventually ends and is gone forever, why do anything?'

I look forward to the comments.

Lastly I’m just saying this more so that I’ve written it down than anything else. I’m in love with P, I know it, I’ve stated it openly, it’s a certainty that feels engraved on my soul. Now one of the key things about me is that I work best with someone to bounce off. I’m at my most creative, and understand things best when I have somebody to just talk at about it. This is one of the main reasons that I’m so lucky to have P that I can talk to her about anything. This is the first time, either of us has been in love, and we’re still learning about what that means. Because I can talk to her about anything, I can mention any doubts or fears and by doing so I’m able to understand exactly what I’m thinking and feeling, why I’m thinking these things and what it is they actually mean. By talking it through with her not only do I understand, but she realises and understands her feelings and thoughts as well. We have had a few of these conversations and each time it seems to bring us closer together. For all the certainty about what we feel these this tiny bit of us that has to keep ‘checking’ and by talking it through we learning why and what it is part of us feels it need to check. I’m not sure if this is normal but I think it’s the best way. With all these new and strong feeling there’s a lot of confusion and even fear at times, and because we both terrified of losing each other, ever slight thing gets flagged up to be checked, packaged in a worry that we might be wrong about out feelings. Then by simply talking about we can see what it was that caused the worry, understand what happened and understand our feelings for each other so much more. I love her, and I’m learning what that means and it’s better than anything I could have imagined.

Comments

[elmyra.livejournal.com]

I am an atheist. I fully agree with you that this is a faith. I will quite happily comment on why I still live and meander through the universe and do things and how I give meaning to my life (and even quite happily discuss it with your dad :-) when I have more time (feel free to remind me).

Mili (in between meetings)

Two things

[almosthonest.livejournal.com]

"I can appreciate that a lot of religious leaders, etc, are very intelligent, very well read, very wise to put it simply, but I just don't agree with the idea that some else you should tell you how to believe and what to believe."

This is a slightly silly argument, don't you think? Or rather, an extremist one. Arguing that organised religion is bad because they tell you what to believe, is analogous to arguing that pubs are bad because they tell you what to drink. They don't, they just provide the drink: you chose what to drink and how much.

(It's also worth pointing out that no religion has ever lead to people killing each other. Men acting in the name of a religion do that. You're effectively protesting humanity's lamentable propensity to follow "evil" leaders, which has nothing to do with religion, organised or individual.)

'If atheists are correct and we are nothing more than a blob of chemicals that eventually ends and is gone forever, why do anything?'

Ah, a trick question begging a trick answer: "Because the collection of chemicals that we are makes us do things!"

The collections of chemicals that permitted themselves to sit down and do nothing aren't here any more! (Interestingly, contrast a recent report suggesting that suicide is linked to high intelligence or self-awareness - blobs of chemicals that became too aware of their own nature?)

[kipperfish.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna comment on the love thing coz that's what I feel most qualified to talk about given that I probably have exactly the same view on faith as you, but can't/don't want to talk about it much. So, as for the love thing, the fear of losing each other, it's all perfectly normal, at least, I hope it is because I went through the exact same things. I don't know what I did wrong first time round, apart from allow her out of range of comforting for an extended duration and somebody else took over my role. Other than that, I don't know. With Morwenna, I think I pushed to hard to get to the situation I was in before, and she quite frankly didn't want to get that far, that quick, and maybe not at all. With indigogecko, I think I'm getting it right. I'm being authoritative without being pushy, allowing enough space, but not enough to let someone else in, and above all, making sure that I'm thinking about both of us, rather than just me, or just her. It's unhealthy to think of just her all the time!! :-)