Nevertheless, I Persist

Here is the human dilemma.  We appear.  We are here.  Then, we disappear.  Is there any meaning to any of this?  Other than a few relatives and friends, does it matter that we exist for the time we are here?  How can our brains cope with all the suffering and evil we encounter in a lifetime?  Is there a God or is that something we made up and then conveniently forgot we did so?  If there is a God, is there any way we can understand how he, she, it operates in the world?  Given the absurdities of life, how should we live during the relatively brief time we are here?  Is there anything like an afterlife or do we just disappear, poof!?  As much as we try not to think about them, religious questions will not go away.

These questions persist because we have not been able to definitively answer them.  Each religion has its responses to the questions.  Over the years they each have developed sophisticated rationales and defenses created to deflect objections or doubts.  They assert what they assert with certainty but with precious little proof. 

But here is the thing, this is nothing new.  Religions have always been tentative vectors, glimpses, faith statements, creeds, hymns, prayers, hopes against hope, imaginations, mysteries, dim paradoxical visions along with questionable assertions and extrapolations.

Yet I remain a religious person because I trust there is something more going on than meets the eye.  I am aware that I could be wrong.  But, nevertheless, I persist.  I am haunted by these questions.  They will not let go of me, nor I of them.

We are all caught having to determine where we stand despite the fact there is no solid ground.  The stoics were right.  To live the way we have to live requires courage, self-control, equanimity and wisdom.  Keep working on those four, don’t give up on the religious questions, persist nevertheless.