January 31, 2013

It's An Irrational Life I Lead

I was watching an episode of Larry King's show when I heard him mention that he professes to be agnostic (an agnostic?). I've always had some level of uncertainty about what exactly being agnostic entails so I did what any normal person in 2013 would do...I looked it up on Wikipedia.

The following blog post that was inspired is not in any way intended to disrespect anyone who adheres to this belief. But it got me thinking about what I believe and I wanted to share something. 

The thing that struck me most about how Wikipedia defined agnosticism was the following sentence: Agnoticism is the view that humanity does not currently possess the requisite knowledge and/or reason to provide sufficient rational grounds to justify the belief that deities either do or do not exist. 

I guess what made me sad about this is the idea that the only things worth doing or believing are the things we can rationalize. I mean, where's the magic in that? And a life without magic is a life I want no part in.

You see, the best things about my life (and yours probably) are the ones we couldn't even begin to rationalize. 

They are things like loving people who don't love you back. 

Giving and wanting nothing in return. 

Hoping for a better tomorrow when there is nothing hopeful about today. 

Believing in someone who can't or won't believe in himself. 

Dreaming you can do something that's never been done before...and holding tight to that dream, squeezing the life out of it until it comes to fruition. 

The most wonderful things in life are the ones we cannot provide sufficient rational grounds to justify. And we shouldn't have to. 

But of course, we were given free will. So each of us is free to believe (or not believe) what we choose. 

The Larry King episode that I saw featured an interview with Rainn Wilson (famous for his Dwight Schrute character on one of my favorite shows, The Office). Larry asked Rainn how he could believe in God without any evidence or proof and I loved his answer. Rainn said "A cow has never seen the Internet...but that doesn't make the Internet any less real."