A Minute of Deism [Spirituality & Religion]
I had a very weird experience on Saturday. I was in my girlfriend's car. It was 11:30 pm. We were on our way to watch the Perseid Meteor shower. I was a little sleepy, and had my eyes closed. I was thinking about the enormous complexity of the Universe. And I had what I could only describe as a spiritual experience, something I had never even really understood before. It was... peaceful. For a minute, the idea that a God started our Universe seemed to make sense. In my sleepy and subdued state, it took me a minute to apply reason and logic to my thinking, and basically debunk my own spiritual experience. In the end, it wasn't very difficult to do at all.
But regardless of the fact that my experience had no effect on my beliefs about God's existence, it gave me a tiny insight into what it feels like to believe in a God (specifically in the Deist sense). For just a minute, I understood how comforting that idea can be.
I'm still a Humanist Atheist. In fact, I feel even more concrete in that position. But nevertheless, this experience is important to me. Because it gives me a small bit of empathy for believers that I never had before.
The decision of whether or not to share this story has been weighing on my mind for the past 2 days. As a life long atheist, this kind of experience is embarrasing, for lack of a better word. But after all of my posts on the subjects of atheism, God and religion, I feel it's only fair that I include this with the rest. It may be embarrasing, but it's important.
But regardless of the fact that my experience had no effect on my beliefs about God's existence, it gave me a tiny insight into what it feels like to believe in a God (specifically in the Deist sense). For just a minute, I understood how comforting that idea can be.
I'm still a Humanist Atheist. In fact, I feel even more concrete in that position. But nevertheless, this experience is important to me. Because it gives me a small bit of empathy for believers that I never had before.
The decision of whether or not to share this story has been weighing on my mind for the past 2 days. As a life long atheist, this kind of experience is embarrasing, for lack of a better word. But after all of my posts on the subjects of atheism, God and religion, I feel it's only fair that I include this with the rest. It may be embarrasing, but it's important.
