God, the afterlife and meaning

Well, while they’re stuck in one form of existence, I may find out what it’s like to be part a bolt of lightning above Tanzania. Or a breath of wind in a sail.

As for the “meaning of life” I find it perplexing that so many people appear to find this difficult. The meaning of life is what makes you content. Some may think this leads to a life of hedonism, but it’s been my experience that the purest forms of happiness come in reflected form from helping others. Thus, for most, a successful pursuit of contentment comes from kindness. My suspicion is that those who pursue selfish ends tend to fail when evaluating the meaning in their lives.

OK - that’s the agnostic spirituality downpat - now on to where it fits with other religions.

As I watched this Mormon documentary, it occurred to me that the family community they spoke of was quite a beautiful thing. There was support extended through their church network and there was always a smiling face at hand.

My thought was “it’s a shame there’s so much ritualistic nonsense needed to accomplish this”.

Then I stopped for a moment - these people appeared genuinely happy. Who was I to judge how they had achieved these ends?

I wondered - could I become a Mormon if I wanted that lifestyle?

The answer, initially, was no. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t embrace the ritualistic beliefs, even if I could embrace the family environment.

But on the other hand I came to the conclusion that this ritual system was creating a community based around a family concept that appeared warm and inviting - it was this ritualism that made it possible. When I coupled that with the realisation that I believed in a God and if I were to accept the necessity of these rituals - not as an explanation of existence, but a necessity in maintaining such a tightly knit community, then perhaps I wasn’t far off.

I wondered whether it would be worth bludgeoning my brain into accepting “faith” in the literalism of biblical texts. I came to the conclusion that I shouldn’t have to, but it gave me a more charitable belief in faith - I no longer see it solely as a self-imposed ignorance, but I do think its benefits can be had without discarding reason.

Not bad, I thought, for someone who can’t embrace the idea of a creator God. I’m not about to run off and become a Mormon, though if as an agnostic, I was able to see such commonalities and reasonableness in such a ritualistic faith, perhaps there’s not as much separating our beliefs as we think, save for the fundamentalist attitudes that tend to be more of a mark of people than a religion.