The thing that worries me about the all powerful father figure who has a plan for you and that plan is objectively good (no matter what), is that it trivializes causation. There are plenty of people in my family that refuse to learn from life experiences or try new things because "the plan" is already set in stone, and it is good (by definition) so why change anything?
In my study of both Judaism and the yogic tradition, what you described is NOT the intention.
Free will (fundamental to religion) means our choices matter. I am equally "capable" of helping or hurting someone. I realize I can do either, but I know which one resonates with me deeply and which one is abhorrent.
All religion in its pure form is empowering people to grow and change for the better. Stagnation you are talking about is real, but those people are missing the point I fear.
That's quite the stretch.
Most of the largest pseudo-monotheistic mythologise effectively preclude free will by virtue of their various predestination fables.
Free will does suggest that all prophets are making educated guesses, rather than receiving divine insight into future events. In Christian mythology there's the classic Matthew 26:21 bit that atheists like to point out in any discussion about free will (or lack of).
I don't have any insight into the texts of the other two large organised religions, but I'm sure there's a some number of distant predictions in those that stretch the 'everyone has free will' claim.
The best way to describe the difference is through a parable that's often told - the man who is stuck on his roof top during a flood. The man is stuck on top of his roof, praying to God that he should be saved from the rising water. A series of first responders arrive, by boat, by helicopter, etc; the man waves them all off, saying "God will save me".
After the man drowns, he meets God in anger, saying "why did you not save me?" God replies, "I sent a boat and a helicopter.. what more do you expect?"
The message I get from this parable is that your life experiences are far from pre-ordained, and that you are not hopelessly dependent on some other higher power for your welfare. Exactly the opposite! You must seize the opportunities you're given and grow to appreciate and nurture the natural abilities you have in order to live a fulfilling life.
Please don't take this as a "Gotcha" question, it's just something I've always wondered
As far as your question, I would recommend reading Viktor Frankl’s book A Mans Search for Meaning. It’s powerful as any book you’ll ever read and give you an insight to how at least one person persevered through the most horrific of circumstances.
I kinda feel like you beside the notion of God. I understand that living in anxiety (my previous way of living) is not optimal. That things are too chaotic, and often relying on paradoxically blind trust can yield better solutions. Paradoxical in the sense that trust also help you to see things calmer and clearer which is a requirement for reasoned thinking.
I guess this ties into the problem of living in chaos[0], which is how the world used to be, and probably how humans managed to go through with such high levels of uncertainty.
[0] pardon the link but trading also exemplify this.
I understand your point and if it was "just" that it would be valuable enough as you say.
The only thing I can say for my case, is I came to this point through religious study that was motivated by a search for truth. This calmness is an unexpected side effect, it was not the motivator.
What caused you to seek truth (even though I guess most of us have this reflex 24/7) ? Then chose to do so through religious study ?
To answer your question, part of it has always been there. Eg my parents raised me to always question and grow. Meaning, if I have a day where I just ate/played/slept with nothing to show for it, it didn't feel good. If I learned and understood something new then it's a good day. So I was kinda bootstrapped with that approach.
Then over my life (I turned 40 this year) I have been exposed to different things that I approached with open mindedness. When I got more exposure to at first yoga and then Judaism, I recognized on both of these things a tradition of people trying to push their levels of understanding, in the same way that I am compelled to. To a naive person religion comes across as dogmatic, just unquestioned answers, but I quickly recognized that religion is really about asking the biggest questions there are and then the smartest people of their generations have spent cumulative millennia contemplating the answers. So it slowly but surely resonated with me.
It's kind of like.. imagine someone never had watermelon until they were 30, but once they tasted it they loved it. The reality is that they must have always loved watermelon they just didn't know it. And luckily they were open minded enough to taste it which let them discover that they had this hunger within them to begin with.
God bless and I hope your beliefs help provide inner peace.
I call it the Tao, Loch Kelly calls it Level 3 (of 5), and I think you call it G-d.
As someone who was raised with a light touch of Islam, defected the Atheism only to circle back to Zen and Taoism, I’m looking for the “link” between Abrahamic religions and (my Western interpretation) of Eastern practices.
On the level down, as I study Judaism deeper and esoterically, I find concepts that are conceptually aligned to concepts I found deep in Yogic tradition.
I think the primary divine spark is a man waking up and going "there's more to this, I want to connect to it emotionally and intellectually" -- that's the starting point of religion. Whichever path you take to explore that will end up in a conceptually similar place I think (at least based on these experiences.) Good luck!
> James argues that we may be justified in adopting a belief even if we don't have enough prior evidence in support of it, and in some cases, 1) we may only have access to supporting evidence only after we have adopted the belief, or 2) our adoption of the belief may make the belief true. For James, religious beliefs are paradigm examples of such beliefs.
This essay is responsible for the term “leap of faith,” where one’s ability to follow through with something depends upon their belief that they are able to. This is applicable to part of the scientific process as well: following an insight is what gives rise to hypotheses.
[0] https://godandgoodlife.nd.edu/digital-essays/the-will-to-bel...
[1] https://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090714151749/http://falcon.jmu....
So maybe it's something deeply rooted in humans, since one of our great sources of success as a species was the ability to pass on information through generations, allowing it to compound.
And it makes sense that it works, if all narratives were literal then they'd be quite boring, maybe less memorable.
Scientific literature has it's own way of conveying information, but serves a different purpose, without magic and mythology. I think very few people look at religious books as scientific material/source, maybe a very small, but loud, minority.
Others simply evolved in that direction, through thousands of iterations, so it seems like lot of religions might be quite "optimized" and boiled down to the essentials of human condition, so the type of narratives, frames and contexts influence our perspectives and help us thrive and propel us forward in life.
I do consider them as a projection of our limits, and some kind of stuff to respect a bit because when you deviate too much long term, you lose.
It's always been my experience that motivation depends on the spirit you can manufacture in yourself.
On whether I am rational or not, I'll just say this: Einstein believed what I believe. Newton believed what I believe. That doesn't mean I am right but I am certainly in good company.
No, they did not [1] [2]. The two believed such diametrically opposed things that I can't believe anyone could claim to be in the company of both at the same time.
Please leave the condescension at the door. It does not reflect well on your beliefs.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_and_philosophical_vi...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Isaac_Newto...
“For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstition… As far as my experience goes, they are in fact no better than other human groups, even if they are protected from the worst excesses by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot perceive anything ‘chosen’ about them.”
Sounds very Calvinist.
Cool, so now instead of having anxiety of how to make complicated and wide-reaching decisions, you've told yourself that a deity is guiding you so you don't have to second-guess yourself, and when shit hits the fan it wasn't your fault anyways because you were just trusting the deity. All you've done is shift responsibility and burden off yourself, of _course_ that makes you feel better!
It's very troublesome that somebody steering large organizations, as you claim, has this irresponsible mindset.
That's like saying you're fine driving at 90mph in the rain because Jesus is on your side. You're choosing to not feel the true weight of your responsibility because it's easier to just "have faith" that Jesus will take the wheel. That doesn't sound strictly better at all, that sounds irresponsible and immature.
To correct your analogy: We have a destination in mind. We know it's down this dark and rainy road. I can't foresee every twist and turn on this road and I am able to be at peace with that.
This makes me a better driver because I am able to focus my heart and soul and energy on the road on front of me, without being distracted by what I don't and can't know.
I control the controllable and I know the knowable - and I do that no less well than when I was areligious. The difference is now I give no thought to the uncontrollable and unknowable - that's on G-ds hands. I focus on what's in mine.
I can't misunderstand what doesn't make any sense.
> We have a destination in mind. We know it's down this dark and rainy road. I can't foresee every twist and turn on this road and I am able to be at peace with that.
When people say "they're at peace" with things like this in the context of religion, it usually means they've replaced the importance of the here and now with valuing the beyond and the ephemeral. Things in the here and now just aren't that important because God or Jesus will take care of things. I would argue that being at peace when you're in danger, driving down a dark and rainy road, would make you a much worse hypothetical driver. To be a bit snarky, I for one wouldn't want my driver thinking in the back of his mind that if we all die in a crash, it's no big deal because it was God's plan anyways.
You're gonna say that that's not what you do, but that peace has to come from somewhere, and from what you've been saying it sure sounds an awful lot like the peace comes from absolving yourself of responsibility for things that you can't control, even if they are still your responsibility to handle.
But the latest game changer in my life including my ability to succeed, has been religious in nature.
It's hard to describe to someone who hasn't felt this but it went something like this - once you accept that everything that exists is the purposeful creation of G-d, including you exactly as you are and your circumstance exactly as it is, it changed my perspective.
Normally, my approach to situations has been one of anxiety - how do I steer this ship to good waters, how do I become someone who is capable of that, etc. I surely achieved a lot but also faces a lot of self doubt, procrastinated etc.
Now, it's "easier." I recognize that G-d has blessed me to know who I am and what I am like, as well as plenty of opportunities to hone those things. And the roles I am in require just that from me. So all o need to do is go where I know I need to be and be me in those situations. Don't worry about my ability to see how the thing works out, just know that I am where I am intentionally and I am meant to be there.
This has reduced my anxiety and procrastination a lot. And lest this sound hippy dippy, what I actually do for a living is steer large organizations, drive clarity, hold people empowered but accountable. I just do it now with more ease. Thank G-d.