T
therese1998
Guest
I watched a video by Robert Sapolsky, an apparently popular neuro-biologist out of Stanford University. He has whole lecture on the biology of behavior and one of them was about the biological underpinnings of religiosity. It went through what you would expect…what parts of our bodies, specifically our brains, are larger or disordered or over represented in the people who are “religious” (that “religious” in an incredibly ambiguous and loosely defined term is a whole 'nother 25 hours worth of discussion is obvious to me, but…I digress).
What struck me in watching the lectures and in particular the one regarding “religious-minded” people is how different the paradigms are that we are coming from. Robert Sapolsky and I would agree completely on the biology. It is firmly in the bucket of “science”. But it’s obvious to me that he completely lacks a bucket labeled “spiritual” or “God”. And, indeed he is a self-professedly “deeply” atheistic. But it was fascinating to me how clearly his paradigm of the world and it’s facts was leading his conclusions…that this is a random process that happened over millions of years through a un-guided process that, as exceptionally unlikely as it is, HAS to have happened this way because Earth and it’s creatures (including us) would not be present or aware enough to be explaining it to a group of other humans. All the twists and turns and complexities, while awe-inspiring to him, hold no definitive patterns to him. To me, OTOH, it all makes perfect sense within at least an Intelligent Design paradigm and, for me anyway, within an omniscient, omnipotent, loving God paradigm. My paradigm is as incomprehensible to him as his is to me. He in fact quoted the many studies showing the positive correlations in terms of mental and physical health in people who are believers (again, an ambiguous term).
Why should I be blessed to know God and to have His Truth permeate my reasoning and my life and, yet this funny, kind, gentle, sensitive man can neither feel nor find Him?
It reminds me of two things: 1. The naivete I had as a convert (revert) that everyone would find God if only led down the right path; who in their right mind would NOT choose God? and 2. The doctrine of pre-destination, so prevalent in Calvinism, but found in Catholicism as well that I fully admit I’m a little fuzzy with.
Just reflecting; trying to process why what seems so obvious is so NOT obvious to others…and their numbers are growing.
What struck me in watching the lectures and in particular the one regarding “religious-minded” people is how different the paradigms are that we are coming from. Robert Sapolsky and I would agree completely on the biology. It is firmly in the bucket of “science”. But it’s obvious to me that he completely lacks a bucket labeled “spiritual” or “God”. And, indeed he is a self-professedly “deeply” atheistic. But it was fascinating to me how clearly his paradigm of the world and it’s facts was leading his conclusions…that this is a random process that happened over millions of years through a un-guided process that, as exceptionally unlikely as it is, HAS to have happened this way because Earth and it’s creatures (including us) would not be present or aware enough to be explaining it to a group of other humans. All the twists and turns and complexities, while awe-inspiring to him, hold no definitive patterns to him. To me, OTOH, it all makes perfect sense within at least an Intelligent Design paradigm and, for me anyway, within an omniscient, omnipotent, loving God paradigm. My paradigm is as incomprehensible to him as his is to me. He in fact quoted the many studies showing the positive correlations in terms of mental and physical health in people who are believers (again, an ambiguous term).
Why should I be blessed to know God and to have His Truth permeate my reasoning and my life and, yet this funny, kind, gentle, sensitive man can neither feel nor find Him?
It reminds me of two things: 1. The naivete I had as a convert (revert) that everyone would find God if only led down the right path; who in their right mind would NOT choose God? and 2. The doctrine of pre-destination, so prevalent in Calvinism, but found in Catholicism as well that I fully admit I’m a little fuzzy with.
Just reflecting; trying to process why what seems so obvious is so NOT obvious to others…and their numbers are growing.
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I’m endlessly fascinated as well by how others think about the “deep” questions and by how different they are from my own thoughts.