So now that we have chosen 'Intelligent Design' (the choice of the second scientist) where do we go from here? We start looking for whatever we can find that relates to the subject of our choice Intelligent Designer (or StarMaker, if you will) in our culture, our history and that of the entire world. We search for people who appear to have made the same choice. One of the first things we find, of course, is religion. As you can see from the (Merriam-Webster) definition it can mean many things, based on other definitions of words like service, worship, supernatural, commitment, faith, observance, institutionalized system, attitudes, beliefs, practices, ardor, etc. In addition, there seems to be such a bewildering array of 'religions' all over the world, most of which appear to be in a constant state of conflict and strife with one another, that our search for answers will definitely not be easy! When I was about your age (18) I came to a crossroad where I needed to make a decision.
I had grown up in a 'religious' environment at home and school and church, some of the restrictions of which did not quite agree with my rebellious nature. I had a hard time with practices such as observance, ardor and commitment, especially where it concerned the commitment (definition 2c) of ardor to the observance of celibacy (definition 2a). Instead of applying my ardor (as described by definitions 1c and 1d) to this observance, I generally tended to find more satisfaction in the application of definition 2 which, quite understandably, brought me in direct conflict with the rules and regulations of the religion of my parents and would have led to strife were it not for my decision to keep my mouth shut about these irregularities. To my youthful and impetuous mind, most of my parent's religious observance appeared to be focused on what you should not be doing, and then on Sunday you had to go to church (twice). The concept of heaven was supposed to be the main attraction in this exercise, but when I was told that this would be a place where you would be wearing white clothes and walk around singing hymns all day long I really was not exactly looking forward to going there! However, in view of the pervasive nature of all the injustice, deception, violence and other disturbing circumstances in our existence on this planet, I did like the idea of there being a just and loving God (or StarMaker, to avoid religious specification) who would make everything perfect in another existence after our time here on earth had ended. There was one specific aspect in my parent's religion, however, that caused me to make the decision that I mentioned at the start of this paragraph.
According to the dogma of my parent's faith this (just and loving) God would have pre-selected certain people to be destined for eternal bliss in Heaven, while others would arbitrarily be destined for (eternal) suffering in Hell. This concept was entirely in absolute conflict with my own sense of Love and Justice.
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