Unfortunately, I only have the 'net at work, so I can't always post with as much thought as I'd like when I'm trying to do it without getting caught
Please bear with my sometimes incomplete trains of thought... That being said,
"Faith is a choice to believe in the absence of evidence" Exactly. Which is MY problem. I find it so difficult sometimes to just
believe. I think it's human nature to doubt. Personally for me, I think it's because I don't really like (?) the traditional Christian theology. I was taught growing up that God is omnipotent, all knowing, all seeing. He always has been, is, and will be. He made us, therefore knows everything about us and EVERYONE from Adam and Eve to the very last person EVER. SO, my main problem is, (i think i mentioned this in the abortion thread) if he knew we were going to sin, and fall short of his expectations, etc. etc. why'd he bother? He already knows if we are going to 'take Jesus into our hearts and accept him as our own Lord and Savior' or we're not and therefor end up in 'Hell'. Why didn't he just make perfect beings in the first place?? I feel like we are just his little gerbils in a cage, for his personal enjoyment. He already KNOWS were going to fail, yet he made us anyway. Sick little dude, that God.
I believe too, that everything happens for a reason, and we don't (or can't)know that reason. BigV's explaination I think would be, don't worry, you may not get it now, but there is a method to God's madness. Which is comforting to him. My explaination is, Shit happens. Life isn't fair. I live by the law of averages I guess. For every 'good' thing that happens to someone, a 'bad' thing must also happen, either to that same person, or another. And, because this world is ruled by ramdomness and entropy?, the good and bad things all happen randomly to those in it. That's why some people seem to have good luck, and others bad, no matter how much they 'derserve' one or the other. I guess I feel like it's human nature to want to be comforted by the knowledge that there is a REASON for everything. And religion serves that perpose, giving a reason (God's (or who ever's) will) for what happens that we don't understand. I am comforted in my belief of Randomness, BigV in his belief that God has a plan. We both use it to go about our daily business so we don't go crazy trying to figure out why bad things happen to undeserving people. He feels that God is looking out for him, I feel like I am just in the right place at the right time He thanks God for his blessings, and I thank 'whoever' for my thus far good luck in life. If something 'bad' happens, he says, God, I don't know why, but I trust you have a reason, I say, well shit. that sucks. but look at all the good things that have happened to me, I guess it's only fair I get some crappy stuff too. We both go on and try to make the best out of what doesn't make sense.
Or, maybe I'm just loopy.