Empathy

Definition, EMPATHY: The intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.

WARNING: This post is about the belief in God. I am not discussing the existence or non-existence of God; only the belief therein. I do not mean to offend anyone. If speaking empirically about the existence of that belief, or lack thereof, will possibly offend you, please read no further. Go in Peace. Realize that I mean no harm, nor disparage your beliefs; I am not trying to de-convert you. I only question your logic because I want to understand it. A word of caution, I have spent a life time looking for that belief for myself, including in the Bible. I once had a running partner who was an Evangelical pastor, and after three years he still couldn't convince me, even with his vast knowledge in apologetic's. I would like nothing better than find that belief and faith, to work around the logic and doubt lodged in my mind. To have that community, the sharing of those deeply held convictions. To allow the ad hoc explanations for the contradictions, the faults, the outright immorality found in the good book.

When we speak with someone on a given topic, one of our first responses is to find common ground, to create harmony and connection in conversation (ie: Where you from? Really? I live only a couple miles from you). We do this instinctively; we are pack animals, we want safety, connection and trust.

To the word, empathy. Listening to those who believe, I cannot get to any sort of empathetic position for your belief; its an empty glass. Vaporous. No, not even vaporous; Null. I cannot have any empathy for anyone who claims a belief in God; I can only have questions, which I continually ask when given the chance.

On the other hand, ANYONE who has Christian beliefs understands perfectly my position of non-belief; if you doubt that, Christian friends, consider Islam. You have no trouble dismissing the God of Islam under the pretense of non-belief; whether you've ever considered it or not, we are all ATHEIST NON-BELIEVERS from someone else's religious perspective.

So, Christian friends, before we converse on the belief in the Christian God, if our discourse is strictly on the Islamic God (or even better, Evolution), you and I, we will surely find common ground. We share the same thoughts, mis-givings, questions, and logic. We have empathy you and I. As I do with the Islamic believer when discussing the non-belief in the Christian God. We are all empathetic with others when it comes to non-belief; it just depends on whose God we are discussing.

The only difference between you and I: I extend it one non-belief further than you do.

I do not know and probably will never experience what it feels like to know or believe in the Christian God, though I tried for a long time. I cannot fake it, or declare I do believe, without a deep fundamental misgiving that I am lying. Lying at my core. I was once given the advice to 'fake it until you feel it', which felt even worse. Faking creates a wall, a receptacle of the lie, and the original conviction only grows stronger, not weaker. I don't recommend that tactic. Its something akin to brain washing.

So, I hope in this short post, I hope, we have found empathy you and I. We both use a critical eye to look dispassionately and logically, trying to find the evidence, discarding faulty thinking and unreasonable belief. If only in the negative space; the emptiness, the void of the thousands of other options in the word non-belief.

Its what we've got; its our empathy, yours and mine.

So dear readers, for the first time in a loooooong time I am opening up this post for comments.

(Footnote Warnings. If you start quoting the bible as evidence for your belief in it, I will declare your logic circular and immediately dismiss it. Example: I have a book that was written by a pink elephant. I know the pink elephant exists because I have the book, and it says he exists. Another example, called un-falsifiable evidence: He is invisible and lives in my pocket; you are asked to disprove it. The burden of proof should always lie with the one who makes a claim, not the other way around. This last example is more on the existence of God and not your belief in him, I provide it mostly as a warning to think critically.)