(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . If you choose not to decide... You still have made a choice [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-23 My first inclination is to shut my mouth and just shake my head when reading all the diaries with all the takes on religion(s) and the various alternative points of view. Everything from agreement to insult and all as part of a debate that really is not possible. To properly debate the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin you first have to provide the spec sheet of an angel and the dimensions of the pin. If you want to talk about belief systems sharing is completely appropriate. Everyone has one and no two are ever perfectly aligned — there are always a few wrinkles. To find one you can browse through centuries of philosophical and theological writings looking to find a good fit. Another option is also used by large numbers of folk and that is if you cannot find a fit just make something up. Remember we are discussing something that is what you choose to believe. No one in the world lives in your head but you and only you can know what really fits. There really are no rules but there are a few things that are real basic to almost any system of belief. Digging as far back as you can, you find the bottom when you get to the question of creation. Creation is pretty inescapable — we exist — the world exists — at some point and in some fashion the world and the life on it were created by… someone? — something? — some? Every human, since humans got brains that could ask questions, has asked at some point in their life — How did I get here? Why am I here? History offers a nearly endless list of suggested answers, religious and not so much — from Ra to Abraham et al and on to the FSM. Of course all thoughts from the Indigenous Peoples and the Heathens and Pagans and Wiccans need consideration along with all the offerings from the rest of the globe. You can literally spend a lifetime browsing the list . Your choice of answers defines your beliefs and advises your moral code. This works like the song *— if you chose not to believe you still have made a choice. And how do you pick your answers? You pay attention and sort out the ones that make sense to you. They more or less sort themselves so you can begin a search picking a major category — sort of like picking Home Depot over Auto Zone when you shop for lumber A step by step guide. 1. Accept that you exist in the world you woke up in this morning. (De Cartesian philosophy is a subject for another discussion). This very fact of your existence is the reason you have questions. You are here and want an answer to… how did I get here — why am I here — what am I supposed to do here (all really the same question asked different ways). 2. Pick a general framework to work with: Agnostic You just do not know. You care and you question but you just do not believe there is any way to get any real answers about how it all works from where you are now. Full disclosure: I consider myself an agnostic — I just don’t believe it is possible get answers I can rely on. So I just live with the idea that the great unknowns are just gonna stay that way. I honestly would love some answers to a LOT of questions I have and truly hope I get them one day but for now I have to just settle for my best guess of the moment. I so do want to believe completely in Karma but that may just be an irrepressible hope that Justice is real. Religious (a guiding hand in the broadest sense) There is a Creator. Beyond that there are no limits — if you believe there is some force that caused the deliberate creation of our universe and the life in it — congratulations! You have “Faith in God” even if you think he is now an alien in orbit around Uranus. You can define your faith in any way you feel is proper. Alone, with a group, with some really big groups, and these days even on the internet. Across the entire planet in one form or another this is the chosen option. Billions of people share this concept and are guided in their daily lives by the religions and laws they create and share. Sometimes the outcomes are mixed but it all comes down to choices people make. I wonder at the amount of control some people are willing to suffer under but that is just another thing I cannot understand — like why some of the nicest people you will ever meet choose to marry folks who are... lets just say light years from nice, bless their hearts — go figure. Atheist You are certain that no sort of supernatural creator exists because everything made itself — the main explanation I’ve seen lately is that this is not some sort of faith but rather the only rational reaction to the lack of any real evidence that something like God exists. Nice try but that is just whistling past the graveyard. By the totality of all the evidence you exist and were created. If you want to ascribe that to some sort universal random number generator (RNG) plugged into evolution and say it all just happened citing science then go for it. The problem is that you cannot drive very far down the science road before you run out of facts and wander off into speculation with no evidence. It is one thing to point out evolution is real but it opens more questions than it answers and has no answer for things like what is the mechanism that actually did create life. What caused the first basic cell to form? How did DNA come into existence? Can you offer any real evidence of how it was all done? Not knowing how a cosmic RNG could even begin to sort this all out but believing that it did so is no different than believing magic is real. And certainly not better or worse than someone else’s choice of belief. This would not be science — it would be faith. It does have the advantage of less potential moral baggage but that can be good or bad depending on the baggage you live with. You are kind of at a loss when it comes to questions like “What caused the big bang?” or “If the universe is expanding what is it expanding into?” sort of thing but it gives you something to work on. The Matrix The premise of existence is wrong. We are in a giant video game and nothing here is real. This does offer some possible and attractive explanations for our screwed up world. The problem for me is that I was never asked if I wanted to play. I mean really if you had read any of the reviews beforehand or played the preview would you be here??? Even the remote possibility that I paid to be here is just beyond depressing. How the hell do I pop up the quit window? 3. Take the framework of your choice and live a good and happy life filling it in as you go. Make adjustments to allow for reality as needed. If you find folks of like mind, who are going down the same road, enjoy the company and if not be happy on the road less traveled. Avoid the urge melt into a like minded herd — if you surrender your power choice it can be a problem to get it back. And those folks that drive you nuts with their working to “inform” (translations: educate/convert/enlighten) you are just telling you they are not really sure they are right and they think getting more folks to agree with them somehow improves their odds. 4. Allow yourself to actually believe what feels like the truth to you. Your opinion is the only one that counts and life really does get easier. Faith — even faith in the unknown — is all we have when all the pretense is gone. And a final comment — belief systems do not start wars — politics, religion, etc. are often exploited to manipulate people but what starts wars is some greedy asshole who wants what someone else has and thinks they can just get away with taking it. That would not be a belief system but rather a character defect. * For the most part Rush figured it out in 1980 [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/23/2154142/-If-you-choose-not-to-decide-You-still-have-made-a-choice Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/