(Opinion)
This is an excellent question ("How do you avoid conflict between your logical and spiritual beliefs?") with a fairly straightforward answer. I don't have any conflict because when I need to understand something about God, I turn to the Bible. For understanding scientific matters, I refer to sources like encyclopedias and textbooks. In my view, confusion only arises when we try to use science to understand God or God to understand science, creating a potential for conflict that others can and most likely will exploit. This is a very brief answer but if you're interested in a deeper look, feel free to continue reading.
Just keep in mind that these are my personal opinions and beliefs and are intended for educational/entertainment purposes only. I also skipped editing so it is a little longer than usual.
In my writings, I've frequently discussed balance, which I see as the essential component enabling all existence through the principle of cause and effect, or more precisely, the opposing forces of positive and negative. Without this universal conflict, nothing would exist. This is also supported by the laws of physics, leading me to regard it as factual based on current information. This is just a brief overview of how my logical side perceives things but it will be expanded on later.
My spiritual perspective is based in emotion, so it is a bit more complicated as it interprets these positive and negative forces as "good" (positive) and "evil" (negative). They are the same thing respectively. Terms coined by humans long ago to make these invisible forces comprehensible. The closest we can get is an all-powerful being which naturally led to the concept of a Deity, "God," as the source of all things deemed "good." This is where balance re-enters the discussion. According to Newton's Laws, a positive (action) must have an equal negative (reaction) to counterbalance it, a truth that applies even at a sub-atomic level. Yes, contrary to popular belief, we humans are indeed subject to the laws of nature, and in this context, we serve as the ballast. Too far to one side or the other and the ship (our species) sinks.
Now, to be perfectly clear. I am not implying in any way that we created "God," a misunderstanding I frequently encounter. We merely assigned these two forces names and then developed philosophies and religions around them because it was the only way we could grasp them with our limited understanding of the world. Our comprehension has evolved significantly, but it remains relatively limited because the idea of infinity still overwhelms us when we ponder it for too long. It is a barrier we cannot cross. Try it—our minds start to wander more the more we think about it. Why is that? What would happen if we could truly grasp infinity? What doors might that open in our evolution as a species?
Unfortunately, these are questions I won't live long enough to answer. This does however bring up another point I wish to clarify. I believe in evolution because there is more than substantial evidence that it has occurred and continues to occur, with humans standing as the prime example in my opinion. In order to get where I am coming from you need to understand evolution the way that I do. This quirky little video explains it very well based on provable fact. When I say "evolution" this is what I am talking about.
"Modern humans" however did not evolve from lesser apes or anything else; we are a unique species that was introduced into the gene pool at a specific point we can track. The obvious question becomes who or what introduced us, and I personally understand that unknown entity to be "God," my source of all things "good," which by default means I see all things "bad" as connected to "Satan," or evil. I also do not practice a religion, and there are many reasons for that which I won't discuss here. However, all of my beliefs are centered on the Christian Bible. I have studied many religious texts and philosophies throughout my life because that's what I do—I study things—but the Christian Bible is the one that made the most sense to me from both my logical (factual) and spiritual (emotional) perspectives.
I guess this would be the most concise explanation of how I reconcile my spiritual and logical sides. Neither side can definitively prove anything beyond the religious "Creation" theory and the scientific "Big Bang" theory. There is however another theory I tend to agree with, which unsurprisingly isn't widely accepted by either side, but I see it as commonsense given what I know and believe. Creation and the big bang were the same event, and the ongoing debate is due only to others manipulating us into choosing sides. Why? Because it's in our nature to be in conflict with one another. Human beings are a warring species and that is never going to change. Understanding and accepting this simple fact is critical and you can verify this yourself through a simple observation that many of us are already aware of but haven't given much thought to.
It is a fact of life that no matter what "IT" is, regardless of how beneficial it might be for everyone involved, there will always be those who dislike it, and they will unite to resist it in every possible way. The motives for the opposition are countless and often completely illogical, yet people still back it. Why? I have theories about that too, scattered throughout my writings, but let's concentrate on the theory that places me at odds with both sides of this issue.
In short, I believe that God created the universe just as the bible says, and science is slowly revealing how he did it. Even an explosion is a process after all but seriously, can anyone offer a better description of "let there be light" than the Big Bang? Humanity, meaning us has taken these two interpretations of the same occurrence and developed belief systems around them. (Remember, no matter what "IT" is ...) Those who reject religion (Atheists) tend to become adherents of science, sometimes to the point of completely excluding anything related to "God" and vice versa. Remember, the concepts of good and evil are two sides of the same coin separated only by our own perspectives.
Getting back to my logical side now, I am not alone in my belief that science is gradually uncovering how creation happened, as each layer of history we explore reveals more about the processes used to achieve such a monumental feat as creating something from nothing. Genesis 1 describes creation, stating that God made the heavens and the earth in six days, resting on the seventh. However, the Bible doesn't clarify what a day means to an omnipotent being—could it be a human century, a million years, or ten million? We were created last so that would be the moment of human time, right? We simply don't know, but since the universe's creation also marked the creation of time itself, how much time actually passed, what forces were at work during that time frame all before humans were made on the sixth and final day? The Bible doesn't provide these answers, but by aligning scientific insights with the Bible, we can fill in many of the gaps it leaves. I've seen this repeatedly demonstrated through anthropological and archaeological discoveries related to biblical events, and I've confirmed it through my own studies so I cannot simply ignore it.
In essence, I don't perceive a conflict between my spiritual and logical beliefs because none exists. The only conflict I see is manufactured by others pushing their own agendas, and I recognize it as a distraction, a manipulation to pull us toward one side or the other, leading us to a harsh truth we try our damndest to avoid. These positive and negative forces that enable existence that we named "ggod' and "evil' have been here long before humans and will remain long after our time ends—this is an undeniable fact. However, many people still refuse to accept what many others have—that it's ultimately a choice we all must make, and we are the only ones responsible for the consequences of that decision. We have no one to blame, not God, the devil didn't make us do it nor did any other person because we made that choice. While "good" and "evil" exist, only humans can perform acts of good and evil; only through our actions can either concept become reality. That is what separates us from every other species on earth.
This brings us back once again to the concept of balance, which involves adding or removing weight or force to reach equilibrium. Humans, however, never truly achieve equilibrium because our quest for balance hinges on something again, unique to us: that choice. We can either choose to follow our inherent nature, which I perceive as "evil" (negative) by default, or we can choose to resist that nature and pursue the path of "good" (positive). The former is easy, which is why many opt for it, while the latter is difficult, sometimes extremely so. Yet, many people still choose this challenging path and live by it throughout their lives. I found that fascinating and wanted to learn more.
The next question I usually get asked after explaining this is "Where do all of the negative or evil people keep coming from?" Well, we create them, and they create us. Positive and negative cannot exist without the other.
So, the cold hard truth is we inevitably create the thing we oppose by the very act of opposing it. Our positive must have a negative to exist. Of course we are talking on a grand scale here, not individual people or even the scale of nations because it encompasses our entire existence as a species. The only way to end evil is to also destroy good which necessitates the elimination of human beings because we are the solitary manifestation of both on earth. The only true conflict is within ourselves.
When I first reasoned my way to this conclusion I sat back and thought, "Man, what a mind fuck!"
Something to think about, until next time. ~Ghost
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