This started as a comment at CenterForInquiry Forum but it ballooned into an essay and since it turned into a pretty fair presentation of my thoughts on this topic, I figure I'd post it over here.
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Back to the original thought:
“When circumstances are terrible, certainly you will suspend your atheism.”
Why? For what purpose?
Some put all this stock in Holy Books and people’s interpretations of those books along with the images we weave in our minds, created out of the desires in our hearts. But that’s your/their god, a security blanket, and we all need our security blankets, I’m not knocking that. It’s the arrogance and defensive super-natural Faith folks imbibe it with, (exemplified in that bold boast at the start of this essay), that’s over the top.
There are some who have gone through personal struggles and rebirths, folks who understand Jesus’s Passion for what it is, a guide (support and inspiration) for our own personal spiritual journeys - with it’s various personal trials and tribulations, for aid and support in transitioning through our own lives, from dependent, self-centered, selfish child, into balanced self sufficient adulthood and eventually beyond to wise person and adept societal matriarch or patriarch (metaphorically speaking) - according to each circumstance.
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Once one’s spiritual foundation grows beyond our mental images of God and Holy Stories (the Shadow Plays that help us glimpse a greater awareness) that awe gets transferred to the reality of our Mother Earth, the organism that created this world and each of us -
and a totally different, much more solid, dare I say mature, type of spiritual foundation is formed.
Rooted in a deep understanding of Evolution's Pageant and its creation of ever more complex building blocks that drove yet more complexity. The evolution of atomic particles and elements, gravity and star formation, Ah, the stars, factories creating one element after another, up to Iron. Then the wonder of exploding giant stars (Super Novas) that created all the heavier elements in a flash. Thus making future complex worlds possible. Fascinating. Gravity and solar system formation and the wonder of our planet’s development. Then that early addition of the moon, by way of a furious collision! Don't that beat all in the Holy Books?
The early moon's orbit was much closer to Earth with constant gravitational churning…
