Matt’s Journal

The God Delusion

Posted by Matt under Religion

When Katie and I went to Lanzarote, I took with me a few books. My mother had started going to church again and I had become more and more interested in religion after attending church (for the wedding) so I decided to take a book called “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins.

This book is written by a biologist and it focuses on his points of why God doesn’t exist. I read the book and whilst I concurred with a few points of his, it was a tad aggressive and lent itself to taking context from passages that I don’t think were written in that vain.

My friend nabiy has taken my recommendation and has purchased this book. As a devout Christian and also leader of his church, he would be a great person to go to for advice and for a balanced opinion on the book. And so with that, I ask you to head over to his site and view his thoughts, it makes me think differently about the book because he can lend a different perspective that contrasts the authors.

If it’s not your cup of tea, move along

What The Bleep Do We Know

Posted by Matt under Religion

Filmed in Portland, Oregon, What the Bleep Do We Know blends a fictional story line, documentary-style discussion, and computer animation to present a viewpoint of the physical universe and human life within it, with connections to neuroscience and quantum physics. Some ideas discussed in the film are:

• The universe is best seen as constructed from thought (or ideas) rather than from substance.
• “Empty space” is not empty.
• Beliefs about who one is and what is real form oneself and one’s realities.
• Peptides manufactured in the brain can cause a bodily reaction to an emotion.

I see this as an introduction to the String Theory (everything in the universe is connected), but also attempts to explain how if everything is connected, it can be exploited or altered by our consciousness at any given time. It questions the existence of God, faith and belief using science as it’s basis.

You can watch the film using the players below.

Part One:

Part Two:

It raises questions that made me think about how I can influence my outlook on life. Whilst the quantum physics side sounds plausible, I am still not convinced. I find that if you do concentrate on something happening, I can happen, but not because everything in the world is connected. I take what I deem relevant and discard the rest.

What are your thoughts?

The God Question

Posted by Matt under Religion

Something I have found myself pondering lately is the existence of God. Both myself and my fiancée Katie have been attending church for the last few months in order for us to be married in the parish and at the church we had chosen. As a result of this, we have been learning more and more about faith and Christianity. Recently my mother has told of her interest in learning more about Christianity and decided to attend a course named the “Alpha Course“, which is a course that is designed for people who aren’t church goers but have questions about religion and the Christian faith.

In my mothers words; “It’s a chance to learn about Christianity without having it forced down your throat by a man of the church”.

When I return home on the weekends, I ask my mother how her course is going, she tells us of all the stories she has and shares what she learns from her Monday evenings once a week. It gets quite philosophical at times and my mother always ends up saying that in the not-too-distant future she will probably commit to a Christian life because it’s something she feels she can believe and trust in more and more.

Rewind 5 years and I would have laughed at her and probably taken the piss out of her for doing so (much as my younger brother does now), but these days I find myself more and more open to discussions about there “Being a God”. In the past I have purchased books written by Umberto Eco called “The Name of the Rose” and “Foucault’s Pendulum” which delve into Templar history, mediaeval church history, philosophical treatise to surmise. One of my favourite films is “Stigmata“, a film about “a self-professed athiest who manages to somehow be afflicted with The Stigmata, a paranormal experience wherein the “victim” or the “gifted” (dependant upon one’s point of view) is afflicted/touched by God and with manifestations of the wounds Christ suffered at His Crucifixion. These include the wounds through the wrists, the feet, the crown of thorns, the scourging of the back and finally the spear through the side.“. Something about the whole mystery of faith, particularly Christianity, compels me to learn more. When we attend Church, I ask very relevant and provoking questions, so much so that the vicar at our Church suggested we attend a Bible Study evening on Tuesday’s because he felt we could add a lot to the conversation.

What happens to someone after they die?

This is the question that is seriously making me question my feelings about life after death and ultimately if there is a God. After Katie’s Nan had passed away, I found myself questioning where the energy that once filled her body had travelled/dissipated/transferred to. Just yesterday I was discussing this same question with my friend Graeme, where we discussed our thoughts on what happened to me/you/everyone after they die.

My belief is that when someone is alive, they have energy in their body; Potential/Kinetic/Chemical, you name it. When someone takes their last breath and the body ceases to no longer produce electrical impulses from the brain, the heart stops beating; that energy cannot be destroyed, it must transfer to another matter. This matter could simply be the air, the energy that once filled a human body is released into the air, where I then breath it in, thus transferring that energy from a once living body to another living body within minutes or even seconds.

A notion of mine is that there has to be a place where someone goes after they die, a place where that energy is stored or manifested. Does the non-destroyable energy from the dead body culminate into a single consciousness where it can be transported to a place where other consciousnesses have gathered? That’s the question I feel more and more aware of recently and I’ll be damned if I can answer it.

I believe in Ghosts. Can the idea I described above relate to this aswell? Does a single consciousness remain at a human level and still have the power to manipulate physical objects?

So many questions and not enough answers. It makes for good reading though. I have literature that I will read to try and get answers, I don’t even know if once I think I have found the answer that seems logical to me, that I will be happy with it.

Heavy stuff, you know you love it