Each of us has grown up with certain beliefs or non-beliefs about God or religion. Some of us have had experiences in life that make us question the existence of God, and some of us have experienced reasons to believe in God. Then some of us have never really known what to believe in our lives and we wonder what reasons there are for horrible events.
Religion is a powerful element in one's life if one has grown up in a church-going family. The person has developed a relationship with a God of some kind and has a driving reason to get through hard times. No matter what religion one believes in, the underlying feeling behind it is the same; it is a force that holds life together and provides reasons for terrible events and gives us strength to continuously move on.
On the other hand, those who grew up in a non-religious family arguably must search for the reasons for why difficult situations happen. Of course, there is always the naturalistic philosophy that there is no reason for things; we are all just subject to the elements of nature. Just like Stephen Crane's story "The Open Boat," we are just sitting in a little boat hoping to live, but regardless of our efforts, we are at the mercy of the sea, not a Godlike force that might have reasons.
The world is filled with terrible events every day. Most don't affect an individual directly, but even reading about it is just the same; we need to find a way to understand why these things happen. It is a primal need for humans to try to understand, to fill the void with a Godlike presence so that we might feel better that we aren't living in a naturalistic world.
It is a depressing though to assume that nothing would have control of life, whether it is us or a supernatural element. The idea is the same when someone dies. Even if not religious, many will still often find themselves "talking" to lost loved ones or perhaps even praying in a moment of extreme duress.
I have never been a religious person. However, after the passing of my father, I realized that I was torn between my beliefs. I didn't believe in God, because why would he take away someone so great? But I believed in heaven, because it was the only way my dad could still be "looking over me." Over the years, it became hard to try and find truth in one philosophy or another.
Recently, however, I have discovered a new way of finding a middle ground. I call it a spiritual transcendence. I don't necessarily believe in a particular religion or a God, but I believe that spirits exist. I believe those who have passed can impact our lives after they are gone and they do it in whatever way they choose. Some might see ghosts. Some might dream about the person. Some might go through a terrible experience and realize it was their loved one(s) teaching them a lesson about life — they had to experience the worst before they could discover the lesson or the truth. I feel that accepting the middle ground here could be a powerful key for the recovery from bad events. The idea of spiritual transcendence provides a middle place where you don't have to believe in religion, but you can still find comfort in some sort of conscious afterlife for yourself and those whom you have lost.
Believing that there is a conscious spiritual afterlife could help many nonreligious people become more at peace with the ongoings of life. Whether we live in a naturalistic world or a world guided by a God of some kind, the theory proves we can have an effect on others after we die. The idea offers a solution to those searching for their own way, those searching for reason, or those who don't know what they believe in. It offers comfort in times of terrible tragedies that offer no reason for their existence.
Cristina Himka is a senior in English. The opinions expressed in her columns do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Barometer staff. Himka can be reached at forum@dailybarometer.com.
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