Good thread, Curtis. I'm keeping your (I think) retitling of the original thread above, because it ties in well to the rap it inspired in me.
I honestly think that a lot of the bottom line of why some people prefer to believe in a God and some don't is their level of comfort with the idea that someone or something IS "in charge" of life and its machinations. The believers in God (or even in "Nature" as a designing force in the universe) is founded on -- in my opinion, and all that it *is* is opinion -- the desire to believe that there is a Plan. For whatever reason -- consider it a failing on my part if you want, or a strength if you want -- I really don't find any need to believe that there is a Plan. I'm completely comfortable with a random universe, in which there is no Plan whatsoever. I'm comfortable with every "pattern" or "design" or "Grand Plan" that humans perceive in the universe around them -- including my own -- having been *projected* there, out of a desire to believe that things *aren't* random. I don't have any problem with life being random. I don't have any problem with it having some kind of Plan behind it. I will never know for sure, either way. But as far as I can tell, a *lot* of people are *not* comfortable with the notion that life just might be random. They want to believe that their lives have "meaning," that they are an integral part of some Grand Plan that they might not fully understand, but which is in place and proceeding... uh...according to Plan. Cool, I guess. It just doesn't get me off to believe that. My life may have no "meaning" what- soever, and that's just fine with me. That *frees* me to assign my *own* "meaning" to it, even if that "meaning" is as puny a thing as trying to bring my best to each of my interactions with other beings I encounter randomly during the course of each day. That -- how you choose to live each day -- is to me a far greater concern than whether there is some Grand Plan for the universe and what it is supposed to "become." What it may "become" is, in my estimation, a *distraction*, a way of "selling futures" or believing in a "preferable" future, and thus avoiding full immersion in and embracing of what really IS, here and now. A *dissatisfaction* with what IS, here and now, a belief that it doesn't fully represent the "Plan," seems to me to be kinda missing the point. But others find a comfort in believing that there is a Plan for all of this, and that their lives are an integral part of that Plan. Good on them. May that belief allow them to enjoy life and to grow as compassionate human beings. Me, I'm gonna stick with "Plan Agnosticism" as a way of life. I don't know whether there is a Plan or not, and it doesn't matter to me one way or another. If there isn't, then I have to invent my own. If there is, I *still* have to invent my own. I do not hold *any* "scripture" or guideline for how to live life as authoritative or The Truth. *None* of them. They were all -- in my opinion -- speculative works of fiction created by well- meaning human beings who were projecting their desire or need for a Plan onto a random universe. I was born into this software/hardware construct we call Life without a User's Manual. And, being a hacker by nature, I don't feel badly about not having one. Heck, I probably wouldn't have RTFM'd if I *had* been presented with one. I'm content with just pressing keys here and there and seeing what happens, and learning from my own experience. If pressing F8 tends to have the same effect over and over, and I find the effect to be a good thing, then I might adopt pressing F8 as some kind of "spiritual practice" in my life. But if someday I press F8 and the *opposite* happens, I'm not terribly attached to pressing F8 as a way of life. I can drop it like a hot potato and do something else. Pressing F8 is not part of some Grand Plan for me; it's just something I figured out on my own that seems to work most of the time. If it stops work- ing, I try to figure out something else. I'm flexible. And that last word brings up another reason why I think that some people like to believe in a Plan. They're *not* flexible. Something in them is *offended* by the idea that doing the same thing they've been doing for a long time might *not* cause the results they're expecting. They like to believe that the thing they're doing is part of some inviolable, eternal Plan, and should always work the same way. Cool, I guess, if that's what gets these folks off. May they continue through life pressing the same keys they've been pressing in them so far, secure in the knowledge that pressing those keys is part of some Grand Plan. May they continue on their path, secure in the knowledge *that* pressing these same keys will someday result in the "fulfillment" of that Grand Plan, for themselves and for the universe. Whatever floats your boat. Me, I'll keep pressing keys at random, just to see what happens. Doing this has gotten me here and now, and I have *no problem* with who and what I am, here and now. It's been a fine life, even if it has been a random one. I fully expect it to continue being a fine life, even if it *is* random.
