Day 51/365
I've written about this before, but today I'd like to just reflect briefly on my conundrum, especially in light of the conundrum as I see it.
If I imagine these two mountains on either side of me, religion on the right and science on the left, I see myself in a valley between them. I enjoy both science and spirituality immensely, and all the greatest thinkers I've followed closely in my life love both of them too. Unfortunately, there are lots and lots of people who live on one mountain or the other, and just hate the other mountain. It's worse than a sporting team versus sporting team kind of hatred, or even a political party against political party kind of animosity; this is a full-blown-epidemic kind of crazy, a mass refusal to acknowledge any redeeming qualities in the other mountain.
The attacks on the mountain of religion are everywhere, and the attacks on the mountain of science are just as prevalent, if not more baffling, because facts get thrown out the window when people attack science. So I find myself stuck in the middle here between these two mountains.
The stubborn religious people (and I'm talking about the really far-gone ones, not the everyday church-goers), well, they don't seem to have any common sense at all. Some of these nut balls (and yes, I do feel quite comfortable calling someone a nut ball who thinks dinosaur bones were planted as decoys by Lucifer) are out to demonize science as innately evil. Why? All scientists are doing is examining cold, hard facts. Calling them your enemy is like calling basic math the work of Hitler.
And the stubborn fools on the other mountain? The scientific atheists? They think anyone who's had any type of spiritual experience must be either crazy or stupid, or at the very least suffering from false hopes and sick delusions. They refuse to listen to the accounts of so many people who have had so many absolutely real experiences. They think we're all just psychotics or false dreamers.
It's to these science-minded fools that I feel much more disappointment, because they're smarter than this. I expect more from them. I expect them to see the vast amount of unexplainable phenomena as worthy of lots and lots of further study. Instead, they write people off, saying it must be explainable by science and science alone. God, whatever God is, must be impossible.
So this is my God problem. I'm seeing people on either mountain who just refuse to see things from the other mountain's point of view, and worst of all, refuse to even meet me in the valley.
I cannot tell you with proof that my experience of the resurrected soul of my father was real. I cannot point you to a place in my brain where you can find that recording, and watch it for yourself, understand it for yourself. Yet I know without a shadow of a shadow of a doubt that it all happened exactly as I've told the story a hundred times.
Religious People: Dismissing science as just a dangerous road heathens walk on is just ridiculous. They may not have the same goals as you do, but they want to learn, to understand, to pursue Truth the same as you do, if just differently.
Science People: I understand why you need facts, but surely your love and appreciation for knowledge seeking would show you this is a vast mystery even to you. Surely you see that the mysteries of so many spiritual phenomena are worth analyzing instead of just dismissing outright.
I find myself in this valley, and I know I sound like I'm just throwing stones at the mountains. But if you don't mind, I'd like to make a choice between them now, between nut balls and stubborn fools, because quite honestly, I'd rather talk with the stubborn fools. I'd rather keep pleading with the science- and logic-minded atheists to find the proof for God I know must be out there. I'd much rather have meaningful conversations with them than throw stones with the crazies.
So call me a fool then too. I don't mind. I'm a fool for believing--in science and spirituality. I'm a fool for believing we can all try a little harder to learn from each other, try a little harder to talk to one another, and open our minds to all we still don't know.
I may be a fool for trying, but trying is less foolish than staying put on just one mountain.
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