On Being Lazy About Religion

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In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. -Abraham Lincoln

I know someone who often says (i paraphrase) ” I don’t like agnostics because that’s just being lazy.” Yes, the Lazy is his word, not mine. He usually explains that just “believing” or saying “something is there.” is really just abdicating your responsibilities in the manner. You should either say, I believe in God, or just saying you don’t. But for me, the question shifts a bit further. What is the true vision of being agnostic?

Lazy? Far from it. Agnostics believe in something, precisely because it is undefined and cannot be. In an instant, from Chaos came order, and that same being/event created the rules of the universe. Even science admits that the rules of the universe we know did not exist for the first 3 minutes after the big bang. [In that time, everything was possible, and the impossible happened].

Let’s get back on track, hmm. In one of the greatest gifts of creation, we are gifted with free will…, and with that freedom is the freedom to reject anything and everything, including our own creation; to test creation’s boundaries and the make sure what we believe is real. As humans, we delight in finding these rules, for there are many. Personally, I have a secret delight when one of the rules we think we know fails, because it gives us (us being humanity) more reasons to keep searching.

We can reject everything about a supreme being, and yet, be loved by him. To me, this is truely a divine compassionate being, giving freely and not expecting anything in return.

For agnostics, it is not that they do not believe in god, or that they believe in something greater. It is that we refuse to believe that imperfect beings as ourselves [humans] can tell any one of us definitively they know the truth of existence and that they are arrogant enough to believe that they are the interpreter of the infinite power and perfection that created us.

Seriously? Go ahead. Try to convince me again you’re a channel for an divine, infinate being and all rules for life are written down somewhere.

To be Agnostic is not to be lazy about religion; it’s to be free from being locked in the impossible mental falsehood that we, as tiny beings, can possibly understand, describe or even relate to the force and magnificence of the everlasting universe. So now you point to this and say “isn’t that God?”

No.

To name it, is to define it. The act of naming something is the first step to try to control it, to trap it, and gain power over it. What I described cannot ever be named, given description on text or words or books, or ever, ever be controlled. No agnostic believes you can name God. You can name works, examples, beings, and entities, perhaps moods or emotions.

To say “God” is to invite the question. What God, which God? The God of the Jewish people? The God of Islam? The God of the Brazilian Rainforest, or the God of the Pigmy’s. It is indeed a trap because as humans we focus our world and experiences thru a small lens, and indeed, our interaction with our chosen god is a perception of us and how we perceive him and the world. Such an explanation would be too limiting for a true infinite being.

So yes, Agnostics believe in something, just nothing definable by any person on earth. Sorry.

OceansOfThought @ March 17, 2008