Some wonder how true agnostics can cope without faith. Without the comfort of a guaranteed afterlife. Without the belief that everything happens for a reason and it is “God’s plan”.
If you have faith then I would never want to deny you that comfort. I just can’t share it myself. This stance arose in me slowly and naturally. I am not sure we can actually control what we believe about the great mysteries of life.
I can say why a good life is possible for an agnostic. It has to do with living in the present and with appreciation.
I don’t need to know the source of the creation to understand that it is a secular miracle.
We don’t need a heaven when we understand that we already live in one. I am not concerned with an afterlife but rather with this one. The only one I am sure of.
It means loving the world just as it is, now. It means doing work that matters to people and other living things now.
But how can Earth be heaven when we must die and so must everyone else?
It is heaven because it is teeming with life. In millions of different forms. And because we get to experience the whole damn thing. I don’t need to explain beauty or the function of a soul.
Don’t be surprised I use that word. A soul is life force combined with consciousness. We have that and so do many other life forms. It is possible to be both agnostic and have a spiritual life. I do and so do many others.
It just means I am not able to form a belief about things which I can’t verify. The existence of a deity or deities. What happens after death.
There is no proof of any of it and likely never will be. So I am left with what remains when those elements are removed from consideration.
All we have to do to find heaven on Earth is to put down our weapons and accept what is right in front of us. Beauty, tragedy, love, and serenity beyond our capacity to imagine. It’s all here.
Death is natural. Our egos don’t like it. But it is the only way. Everything that lives is just a bubble of consciousness and all bubbles go back from whence they came.
But right now I am here, drinking a cup of coffee and watching the morning sunlight. A cat purring on lap. And that is all there is and all that needs to be.
Miracles! In every direction! Within and without!
To believe that one knows the master plan is a form of what the Greeks called "Hubris." Heed the words of the Delphic Oracle: certainty brings ruin. Agnosticism is a form of humility. And brings its own guiding light. Heaven is below our feet; also above us in majestic, unfathomable beauty.