...a quiet Wednesday night...

Do you ever feel like there are a ton of things that you could do when you're in class but then the moment you get home, you just dont feel like doing anything? Yeah...that's how I'm feeling right now. So, I figured I should pick up my book again...The God Delusion...and continue reading. :) People should be proud...I could watch cartoons...but, I'm going to read. Anyways, there was this one quote that I wanted to put in here...but never had the chance before when I had read it. This is a passage that I have sort of been contemplating about for the past 3 years of my life:

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
pg. 104
"By why, in any case, do we so readily accept the idea that the one thing you must do if you want to please God is believe in him? What's so special about believing? Isn't it just as likely that God would reward kindness, or generosity, or humility? Or sincerity? What if God is a scientist who regards honest seeking after truth as the supreme virtue? Indeed, wouldn't the designer of the universe have to be a scientist?....Then again, suppose the god who confronts you when you die turns out to be Baal, and suppose Baal is just as jealous as his old rival Yahweh was said to be...Mightn't Pascal have been better off wagering on no god at all rather than on the wrong god? Indeed, doesnt the sheer number of potential gods and goddesses on whom one might bet vitiate Pascal's whole logic?..."

Pascal's logic: "You'd better believe in God, because if you are right you stand to gain eternal bliss and if you are wrong it won't make any difference anyway. On the other hand, if you don't believe in God and you turn out to be wrong you get eternal damnation, wheras if you are right it makes no difference. On the face of it the decision is a no-brainer. Believe in God."

I am on a search for truth I suppose. To discover what beliefs best suit me. Since being in college, religion has become a newfound interest for me. It is absolutely fascinating...it is a force that is able to prompt people to do good and bad things...depending on your opinion of what is good and bad. Ever since I could remember, my family has always been "Christian." My grandparents on my father's side are deeply devoted and growing up, I felt that that was what I wanted to be. Up through middle school, I became very "involved" with the church...and I have to say, looking back, that I believed alot of things without realizing if it was what I really believed in. It makes sense...if the important adults in your life are all attending church and are Christian, you would want to embrace this belief because you knew it had to be it. However, as I moved away from the only church I have ever knew to another place, distance created doubt...even understanding from my perspective. Much of my first thoughts follow along the lines of the first quote...how could good people be punished for simply NOT believing? I mean, all of the religious leaders in the world, all of the Buddhist monks and nuns promoting a peaceful way of living, Gandhi, and people who aren't religious. Are they to be condemned to eternal suffering because of this idea of believing? Surely my God was to be more merciful than this. In college I took a Eastern Religions class and ran across this quote: The Truth is one, the sages just call it by different names. It's funny...no matter how hard I try to find this quote...I can't find it...in my religions text that is...where I first found it. This was when I began to realize something new...something I now believe. :) Something I shall share in the future.

Oh, I just read this one section **yeah, I'm reading it while blogging this** and it puts my idea forth much more elegantly: Page 174
"More than any other species, we survive by the accumulated experience of previous generations, and that experience needs to be passed on to children for their protection and well-being...there will be a selective advantage to child brains that possess the rule of thumb: believe, without question, whatever your grown-ups tell you...trust your elders without question...but the flipside of trusting obedience is stlavish gullibility...and authomatic consequence is that the truster has no way of distinguishing good advice from bad."

I really haven't understood for myself whether religion is a good or bad thing. I only thing I do know is that that the consequence of it has produced both good and bad. Religion.