BUT DO YOU HAVE PROOF? – my Atheist friend screamed in my face for the 10th time as we were debating a spiritual topic – one that HE had brought up. I almost felt like throwing my plate at his smug mug but resisted. I still wanted to eat the cake that was on it.
Why do Atheists like engaging in spiritual discussions if they keep interrupting them with rabid demands for proof? If you’ve ever come across a fanatical Atheist, and made it through without peeing your pants, you’ll be familiar with their loud and agitated denouncements of any type of theory or belief that cannot be studied in a lab or through science.
I understand their demands because in many ways I am a skeptic as well – my friends think I’m wishy-washy but my official term for myself is Agnostic. I constantly swing from theism to atheism depending on my mood, the day, and how much caffeine I’ve chugged. Similar to Atheists, I cannot accept theories based simply on blind faith and man-made dogma. And I do have atheistic inclinations often, especially when I see the latest news and get disgusted at all the suffering and evil that always seems to be surrounding us. Watching ISIS cruelly slit a person’s throat or an innocent child being abused causes me to violently rebel against the idea of a higher, loving power in existence.
But overall, if I had to place my chips, I would ultimately bet that there IS a planned design to the universe, and there IS a higher plane of existence – a happier place we can go when we pass on (one where chocolate has negative calories). In general I believe that we have free will and therefore there is a reason for our existence.
And when questioned, here is how I try to explain my theistic leanings to my scary Atheist friends:
We might not have proof, but we may have circumstantial evidence. In both QUANTITY and QUALITY.
WHAT IS CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE?
Circumstantial evidence is defined as indirect evidence that establishes a conclusion by inference or reasoning. It is generally considered weaker and less valid than direct proof, though in many cases, it is still enough to convict someone of a crime. For example, you may not have witnessed me stealthily eating your piece of cake too, but the frosting on my lips would be a strong indicator of guilt. Circumstantial evidence plays a big role in our justice system. In the case of Casey Anthony and OJ Simpson, there was not enough circumstantial evidence to prove a crime, but it was strong enough to lead many to believe that they were guilty. It is not always possible to find the smoking gun, but there may be a sufficient number of indirect clues that add up to a specific conclusion.
In the case of my spiritual inclinations, I may not have conclusive evidence to support them, but they have been formed due to the cosmic circumstantial clues that seem to surround us. I am referring to child prodigies, ghost sightings, NDE (near death experiences), past life memories, small miracles, ESP, and more.
Normally I am not a superstitious person. If a mirror breaks, I figure my beauty was simply too breathtaking for it to behold. In addition, I am not ruling out the possibility that all of these phenomenon are simply fake stories or concepts and that none of the above exists. That could be so.
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QUANTITY AND STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE
However, it’s hard to dismiss the statistical significance of SO many stories existing of supernatural phenomena. Can they ALL be false? It seems highly unlikely. Perhaps. But unlikely. Maybe the idea of vampires or zombies or levitation or séances doesn’t resonate with me. And I’m pretty sure the Easter Bunny isn’t real. But I can’t dismiss everything.
Even if one idea is fake, and the next, and the next, surely one of the numerous supernatural stories we’ve heard is true? After all there are hundreds of thousands of them over the centuries, from exorcisms to haunted houses to past life memories to child prodigies to mind reading to fortune telling. I am sure there is a way to discount and ignore each story on its own – and indeed, none of them have ever been provable or measurable through repeatable, scientific measures. But taken as a whole, and looked at from a macro perspective, surely there must be SOME FIRE with this much smoke?
QUALTITY, CONSISTENCY, AND CREDIBILITY
Besides the sheer QUANTITY of supernatural stories in circulation, the QUALITY of some of those stories, as well as the storytellers, also seems to influence my beliefs. The fact that so many NDEs exist with similar variables – a bright light, an intense feeling of love, a knowledge of one’s surrounding events even while the brain was supposedly dead – all these stories seem to match one another across time, geography, cultures, and people. Like many skeptics, my first reaction is to dismiss such experiences as hallucinations. But when thousands of NDE stories are so consistent in detail they seem more believable.
Child prodigies like Mozart did and do exist, and though we might argue that their upbringing and genetic makeup created their genius, not all child prodigies can have their unexplainable talents attributed to a nurturing environment. One can’t completely dismiss the possibility that a wise, talented old soul may have been reincarnated into a new body.
Credible storytellers such as doctors and surgeons who swear they’ve seen unexplained miracles at play in the operating room, and former atheists turning deists due to some personal experience, also budge my needle from skepticism to belief. The Scalpel and the Soul was written by a Harvard neurosurgeon who detailed various unexplainable experiences with his patients which he ultimately attributed to something not yet understood by science. I’m not saying every medical or scientific professional is unquestionably certified as an author of such recountings – many could very well have cashed in on their reputations and schemed to make money with such books. But they do lend weight to the growing pile of cosmic clues.
In my own personal experience, I’ll admit to being a little spooked when a friend of mine – who I’ve known to be a scientist and hard-core Atheist for most of her life – startled me a few years ago when I went to her new home for a housewarming party and she breathlessly swore that her last house was haunted. She gave me several examples of incidents that had occurred. I finally had to cut her off after hearing a few of them, I was scared I’d go home and not be able to sleep at night. These creepy incidents were the main reason she had moved. Astonishingly, she is now open to the possibility of the supernatural. I realize that none of you would know my friend and how surprising this was for me, but think of it as the equivalent of a Bill Maher or the former James Randi coming out of the closet and suddenly admitting they believe in a God or ghosts.
NO SMOKING GUN BUT COPIOUS COSMIC CLUES . . .
As an Agnostic, my needle will never be at 0 (atheism) or 100 (theism). But it does seem to waver between 30 and 80 depending on the latest I’ve heard or experienced.
It is hard to explain all this to a thundering, red-faced Atheist who is understandably angry at organized religion for all it may have done to foster wars, persecution, and suffering. To them the burden of proof is on a Theist, not themselves. And when concrete, indisputable proof is not forthcoming, it is not surprising that many turn away from any kind of belief in a planned design or higher power.
But for many of us Agnostics, we are open-minded and unable to dismiss the copious cosmic clues that surround us daily. There are too many stories and storytellers who have described time and again, supernatural phenomenon that cannot be explained. For many of us, there is enough circumstantial evidence to point to the likely conclusion that there is, indeed, a soul or consciousness or a better place we can go when we pass on. And it is for this reason that I now talk nicely to the monsters under my bed – just in case they exist.
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