Mysteries, Miracles, Myths, Mania

World of Warcraft Character

People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances without own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.  
— Joseph Campbell (The Power of Myth)

"Those who don’t believe in God are widely considered to be immoral, wicked and angry," wrote Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman in an opinion column for The Washington Post: ("Why Do Americans Still Dislike Atheists?").  Anecdote only goes so far, but I can tell you that my own personal experiences agree with this observation.  I'll never forget, about twenty years ago, someone said to me, "Gee, you're just too nice to be an atheist!"  Was that intended as a compliment?  I decided to take it that way, until that person further added that he felt that I must "believe in the spirit," that I simply didn't know it.  I don't know what I believe?  He knows better what I believe than I do?  What a farce!  That was twenty years ago.   Write Paul and Zuckerman, "More than 2,000 years ago, whoever wrote Psalm 14 claimed that atheists were foolish and corrupt, incapable of doing any good. These put-downs have had sticking power. Negative stereotypes of atheists are alive and well. Yet like all stereotypes, they aren’t true — and perhaps they tell us more about those who harbor them than those who are maligned by them. " About a year ago, I came out of the closet as an atheist to another individual--a very nice, intelligent person who was also a church-going Christian--and, stunned, she started crying!  How am I supposed to respond to something like that?  I was baffled.  I think she meant well, that she was crying over the loss of my soul (from her point of view, not mine), but couldn't she see that, from my point of view, her crying was like my crying because she is no longer a virgin or because she is fat or because she is anorexic or because she is black or because she is white or because she is straight or because she is gay or because of anything that is decidedly who and what she is?  No, I'm not immoral, no I'm not wicked, but--hell yeah--I'm angry!

"A growing body of social science research reveals that atheists, and non-religious people in general, are far from the unsavory beings many assume them to be," report Paul and Zuckerman. I'd like to believe that I am a part of the "good guys" on this planet, especially when I know of so many "bad guys" who are deeply religious (Chrisitan, Muslim, Jewish--whatever).  I have absolutely no qualm about someone being a religious person.  Religion has its place--many people need it.  Many people need structured lives, and certain religious institutions provide that in constructive, positive ways.  Why, oh why, cannot someone accept me as not requiring religion in my life?  (For the record, I also don't require many other things--such as alcohol, entertainment drugs, back surgery, breast implants,....) 


This doesn't mean that I don't revel in the mysteries of life.   I LOVE this video--it speaks volumes for me (and I've posted it before, so I apologize for re-posting it):




We do not have an adequate word in the English language for the acceptance of incomprehension.  Mysteries, in our world, must be solved--and if they can't be solved, they are call miracles, until they are solved, and then those miracles are re-labeled as myths.  Why can't we be comfortable with saying to ourselves, "I don't know. I don't have an answer, but I'll keep working at finding the answer, enjoying it as I would a fantasy video game, a game that I may never conclude."  Life as a never-ending fantasy game: now there's a thought.  But it is just a thought, not a conclusion.  Rather than focusing upon getting to the end, we should focus upon the journey (the "getting to").  Otherwise, it's shear mania.