Tarryk, you forgot one key element

[Vallikat]

Procreation.

Sampler wisdom says:

One hundred years from now ...
It will not matter what your bank account was,
The sort of house you lived in,
Or the kind of car you drove ...
But the world may be a better place because
YOU were important in the life of a CHILD

That is our legacy. Even if you never have any children of your own, if you ever, in even a small way, make an impact on a child, you will go on.

As to an afterlife, I believe in it. It is a comfort to me to believe in it even if it cannot be proven. I don't need the proof. I'm comfortable in my faith. Also, I have seen a miracle in my son's life. That is perhaps a story for another time. But I will forever be convinced that the fact that he's still here with me is as a result of a true miracle. So maybe that only proves that there is a Big Guy up there, but I'd like to think I'll get a chance to thank Him face to face some day.

So there you go, we go on and we live and we do what we do for our children and their children and so on.

Now...

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REASON TO REGRESS?
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1. Gambling is driven by instinct.

2. There is an infinitely small chance that the above analysis is false.

3. Daddy needs a new pair o'shoes. *rolls the dice*

*takes a big wiff and smells chaos theory*

[Tarryk]

I don't think I forgot that element at all. In fact, I distinctly pointed it out in my analysis. A primary reason to continue through life is the influence that we leave on others (in the case you present: your children).

What I'm pointing out, however, is that the rationale of having a child being some sort of proof that there is a higher being...well, I disagree. Having a child enhanced your faith in God, but it did nothing to increase the chances of any higher power actually existing. In effect, the only thing it proved was that you are capable of procreation; something that even the smallest forms of life on this planet can do.

I'm not attempting to diminish the effect that procreation has, nor am I trying to say that having faith is a bad thing. I'm simply saying that by taking any objective viewpoint on the reason for faith's existence in the absence of applicable instinct, and comparing it to the objective stance on the chances of the existence of self-awareness in the universe, it is highly unlikely that God exists, no matter how comfortable anyone is in their self-appointed faith.

Faith is, as defined in my theory, a neccessary replacement to instinct when self-awareness enters the equation.

To speak through Lei: Instinct is a good thing because it keeps species' alive and evolving. Therefore faith is a good thing because it does, too.

The point is: None of that makes either Faith OR Instinct an objective reason to live. They are simply genetic methods of keeping a species alive through selective evolution.

I could go further to enhance that point by talking as specifically as you do on the subject. You have faith, and that faith has given you applicable reason to procreate, therefore you have a child. I have very little faith, therefore I see no applicable reason to procreate, therefore I do not have a child. If that is a reasonable standard to place on the human species as a whole, which I suspect it is, then faith itself is genetically governed by selective evolution.

One could be bold enough to sum it up by saying:

Belief in God is proof of Evolution.

[Vallikat]

Belief in God is proof of Evolution.

I like that statement a lot. I think mostly because I follow my own little theory on the creation of the universe that is somewhere between creationism and big bang.

As to faith, here's a big leap of faith: I believe that life begins in the moment of conception. I believe that we are graced with an immortal soul at that point. Now, before anyone says it, I'm not exactly a pro-life proponent. I don't believe in forcing my faith down anyone else's throat.

Anyway, it is because I believe in the existance of the soul that I believe in an afterlife. I further believe that I or an amoeba would not have the ability to procreate if not for God.

But I realize that it can't be proven.

So then what is the point?

Well my first thought on reading your last post was that it is not faith OR instinct, it's faith AND instict. However, people who have no faith still go on living and still feel a need to "make something" of their lives.

So it's instinct. Primal instinct. Survival instinct still exists with or without faith. It is inherent in all sentient beings. But...then... that only explains survival and nothing more. However because our brains are complex and we have the ability to feel a variety of emotions and dream big dreams, these things all dictate the form our survival will take. We don't just want to survive. We want to live our dreams.

<<I was waylayed in typing this because a thunderstorm is passing and I'm a weather-aholic. There are those who believe that the proof of God is in the storm.>>