If you were ever a theist...

[*Deidre*]

Wow, thank you...I never knew your ''story'' all this time. ''Intuitive grasp of reality'' ...these insights are not lost on me, so you all know. It is very interesting to me to read of what led people to faith, even if it was indoctrination (like I had been through in childhood, but didn't return to it now, due to that, although, it might seem that way lol).

Do you at all believe that life can be a mixture of objective reason towards reality AND intuition? I mean, I know intuition (let's call it in the case, spiritual intuition) is subjective.

Intuition is very powerful in that it can 'see' things that are in perpetual shadow.   But it's also very fickle in that it doesn't explain the connection between intuition and reality; it leaves you at the mercy of time to explain its unfolding.  In that sense, one can't directly compare reason and intuition.  The one is reliable but limited, the other not so limited but also fundamentally unreliable (in the sense that we can't understand the truth as it is, rather than how our subjectivity colors it).  The problem is not in using both, for most often they don't compete in what they tell you.  The problem is in determining which one to trust on subjects at which they are at odds.  I lost the option to choose 'intuition' at one point where they conflicted and had no choice but to triumph reason.  For most things however, such a choice is seldom necessary.  Except in the case of religion, where it seems intuition speaks in terms of shadow that never clearly reveal themselves, and reason is perpetually trying to draw us back into the light.

Neither way on their own seems wholly satisfying.

This is so good, it really is. You know, I have mainly atheist friends in my offline life, and one of them said one day recently, that he thought maybe life should be a blend of belief and fact. Belief based on some loose facts and a leap of faith. My fiance is a Christian, but was an atheist for a long time, and he's sort of a ''loose'' Christian, not ultra-practicing, etc. But, even he was like...really? lol There were some wine and spirits involved in this conversation that day, but suffice to say that we all wonder. I think where the danger comes in, is when people dictate to others what to believe. Many Christians are that way. Intuition for me, can't also be yours. You have to find your own, if you so desire to seek it, you know? 

Having identified as an atheist at one time, really helped me. The joy I have in believing again, comes also from a time when I didn't believe. And didn't care. It is in that freedom to choose either path, that we find meaning to life, I guess. Neither way on their own seems wholly satisfying, as you put it. I like that a lot.