No Ordinary God

People pray to their dieties. What do they expect to gain from that? Do they picture their gods in humanoid or animal forms, and do they believe that they are conscious entities capable of turning input into thought or action?

I do not.

Belief or faith is something that is thought true, but unproven. This is what separates it from science, which is conserned with proven truth, or possibly provable theories.

A belief or faith is an explanation or idea we can cling to when we face something scary beyond our control. When chaos strikes, faith gives us a solid and familiar footing to gain the courage we need to see things through. At least that is the hope, and it is nice to be prepared like that.

I believe in something too, but not in one of the mainstream religieons or any modern cult. It is a belief I have deviced myself with my own reasoning.

I believe in no surpreme being or higher power, but rather in the lowest of the low: the fundamental laws of physics and math that govern our universe, and the event that started it.

Our unirvese grew, and still grow, from this initial state according to the laws. The present is a function of the past, and given the same laws and the same state, the same universe will always develop. This works at a level even lower than the probabilistic quantum mechanics, and means that everything is predetermined.

A fatalistic philosophy thus far, but it goes further. Fatalism will have you resign yourself to fate because every choice you could possibly make is pointless in the face of the predetermined. This is the thinking of a defeatist, and I do not subscribe to it. In my belief, fate works on a level much too low to be percieved by our senses, or reasoned with in the concrete by our minds. A decision comes and a choice is made, and both of these are, not predetermined, but inevitable. At the state at which everything is, there was simply no other possible outcome. Such are the laws, but the details of the concrete instance is beyond us. Understanding a single event means understanding all the involved state and all the laws that govern it. An impossible task.

Because our reality is thus disconnected from fate, the illusion of free will remain pervasive and true. We cannot from our point of view observe any difference between reality and the illusion, and therefor the illusion is as good as real.

How does this help me, when others turn to their gods? In short: we cannot change the past, but we can decide to move on. When we are down, we can decide to rise up on our own two legs and walk down the path that leads to a better life. Sometimes this means taking some pain, or some risks. What it takes depends on the situation.

To move through the darkest hours, one must first decide to move.