Michael, presupposing the existence of a god is not the right path, if you want to be intellectually honest.
As a scientist, I'd assume that you try to be as intellectually honest as possible with everything in your life.... however, on this particular subject, you enter in conflict, or what looks like cognitive dissonance.
Religion is one aspect of our mental beings, whereby we can easily hold an unwilling Suspension Of Disbelief. Ok, the link goes for willing suspension of disbelief, but it's enough to get the picture, as standard suspension of disbelief is attributed to fiction - movies, books, etc...
Religions are usually imbued at a young age, when the individual is unable to distinguish the fiction that his caregivers supply from the reality that science attempts to describe. The individual is then, for the most part, trapped in an unwilling suspension of disbelief. Nothing from your senses tells you that there is such an entity as a god, and yet... your mind believes there is.
Of course, you already knew all this, but still you trudge on with your belief. I'm curious as to how that works. How can you, an otherwise rational human being, live in that cognitively dissonant and intellectually dishonest state?
As a scientist, I'd assume that you try to be as intellectually honest as possible with everything in your life.... however, on this particular subject, you enter in conflict, or what looks like cognitive dissonance.
Religion is one aspect of our mental beings, whereby we can easily hold an unwilling Suspension Of Disbelief. Ok, the link goes for willing suspension of disbelief, but it's enough to get the picture, as standard suspension of disbelief is attributed to fiction - movies, books, etc...
Religions are usually imbued at a young age, when the individual is unable to distinguish the fiction that his caregivers supply from the reality that science attempts to describe. The individual is then, for the most part, trapped in an unwilling suspension of disbelief. Nothing from your senses tells you that there is such an entity as a god, and yet... your mind believes there is.
Of course, you already knew all this, but still you trudge on with your belief. I'm curious as to how that works. How can you, an otherwise rational human being, live in that cognitively dissonant and intellectually dishonest state?
