![]() But I needed faith to kickstart all of that. That's probably what helped me maintain my professional reputation and make a success of what I was working at. And being level-headed in a crisis always helped me make better decisions. Keeping calm and not reacting to provocation helped to defuse many potentially explosive situations. Pure rationalism would not have helped me control my stress as simply and effectively.Īnalysing the situation after the fact, perhaps my calmness was itself a major contributor to the solution. I remained calm at work, and nothing catastrophic happened. Faith, however, is self-standing and doesn't require reasoning to back it up. It was entirely possible that my professional reputation would be damaged and I would be out of a job as a result of the conflict. Again, there was no rational reason for arriving at this level of confidence. ![]() My solution was to sit in my car for a few minutes before entering the office and put myself in a state of mind (through prayer) that told me with absolute confidence that my problems would be taken care of. I went through a particularly bad phase in a previous job where a particular individual used to give me a lot of stress. ![]() The other area in my life where faith has helped is in dealing with stress, especially at work. And faith then proceeds to prove its point. Only faith can assert with absolute certainty that a spasm will not occur. If there's no deity, then where can the faith come from? Rationalism cannot produce the relaxation required, because rationalism stubbornly insists that there is always a finite probability of a spasm occurring. That's the scientific explanation, and there is no need to invoke a deity of any sort to explain this phenomenon.īut here's the catch-22. Who may or may not exist.Īfter the fact, the incident is easy to analyse and explain. But I need that faith.Īnd armed with that faith, I turn. I have no evidence at all that a deity has heard my prayers or that such a deity even exists. Note that this is a completely irrational feeling. A feeling of peace, and a conviction that my fervent prayer will be answered. I pray fervently to any deity I can think of. There are no atheists in foxholes or with back spasms, and I pray. Even a low probability is to be dreaded, and I cannot bring myself to take the chance and roll over. If I apply my scientific mind to the problem, I cannot rule out the possibility of a spasm with 100% confidence. How does science or rationalism help me now? They do nothing for me. I want to turn over, and it's such a simple movement, but I dare not. The memory of that excruciating, burning pain paralyses me. I want to roll over onto my back, but I'm deadly scared that the movement will trigger another spasm. As long as I'm lying still, there is no problem, but I've been lying on my side for a long time, and I'm getting tired. The specific situation I want to talk about concerns me lying on my side in bed during one of these episodes when a spasm has laid me low. (It's also chiropractic that has given me what I think is a more permanent solution, but that's another story.) I used to suffer more than one spasm during the first couple of days of each episode, and it was only with the passage of time (and lots of painkillers) that the inflammation eased and the spasms stopped. Every time I had a spasm, it seemed as if my back was on fire, and I could not keep myself from screaming. I have never before or since experienced such pain. These have been so traumatic that the dates have been burned into my memory:, 27 July 2002. On three occasions so far, I have suffered excruciatingly painful back spasms. Let me now talk about how faith has helped me in my own life, even though I'm an unabashed agnostic. I argued that point earlier with the example of imaginary numbers, because humanity has achieved useful results by working with something that doesn't exist! I've always been uncomfortable with the atheistic position that a lack of evidence of God's existence is sufficient reason to stop praying. With that quote, not only can I justify contradicting myself but I can also prove my intelligence to be first-rate! (Thanks, Scott Fitzgerald, I owe you one.)
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