God, Are You There?

Do you ever doubt God's existence? And if He does exist, have you felt that He really just doesn't care about you?
Me too.
Sometimes, it's not even that I doubt God's existence. I just doubt His existence in my life.
That's how I've been feeling lately.
"Coincidentally" I've "stumbled" upon some information today that highly suggests otherwise.

I had a whole lot of time to spare today at the school. So I spent it in the library. Mostly because it's normally pretty warm in there, and I have access to the computers. Once I finished my homework, checking facebook, and surfing on people's blogs, I "randomly" decided I'd read. Not a book. I must confess, the only time I (typically) read a book is if it has to do with school. And if I read something that doesn't have to do with school, I must learn something from what I'm reading. I cannot read for pleasure's sake; it's dreadfully boring to me. So, I read a National Geographic magazine. And I found this article about twins.

Apparently, Scientists of all sorts have been studying twin;s DNA makeup in great depth for several years. Scientists of the past have said that the two factors, Nature and Nurture, is what develops people into who they are. In other words,
"We forget that 50 years ago things like alcoholism and heart disease were thought to be caused entirely by lifestyle. Schizophrenia was thought to be due to poor mothering. Twin studies have allowed us to be more reflective about what people are actually born with and what's caused by experience."

Now Scientists are saying that instead of only being two factors into making a person who he/she is, there's also a third factor called Epigenetics.

"If you think of our DNA as an immense piano keyboard and our genes as keys—each key symbolizing a segment of DNA responsible for a particular note, or trait, and all the keys combining to make us who we are—then epigenetic processes determine when and how each key can be struck, changing the tune being played." Now, take a look at this story: 

"The story began with the much publicized case of two brothers, both named Jim. Born in Piqua, Ohio, in 1939, Jim Springer and Jim Lewis were put up for adoption as babies and raised by different couples, who happened to give them the same first name. When Jim Springer reconnected with his brother at age 39 in 1979, they uncovered a string of other similarities and coincidences. Both men were six feet tall and weighed 180 pounds. Growing up, they'd both had dogs named Toy and taken family vacations in St. Pete Beach in Florida. As young men, they'd both married women named Linda, and then divorced them. Their second wives were both named Betty. They named their sons James Alan and James Allan. They'd both served as part-time sheriffs, enjoyed home carpentry projects, suffered severe headaches, smoked Salem cigarettes, and drank Miller Lite beer...they had the same crooked smile, their voices were indistinguishable, and they both admitted to leaving love notes around the house for their wives." 

Weird, right? 

Epigenetics is also what explains identical twins that look the same, share the same DNA, but act completely different. National Geographic said that "Mother Nature" is what is responsible for epigenetics. Personally, I believe that God gave humans epigenetics. Isn't it funny how twins who share the exact same DNA are inclined to do the same things in their lives even when they aren't raised together? Maybe the identical twins who experience this is just God trying to tell us something? Maybe this implies that God actually programmed us with a plan for our lives? I mean, not all of us have identical twins to test this theory...but it sure gave me something to think about. 

If you want to read more about epigenetics, go to NationalGeographic.com. 

Another interesting thought that I "stumbled" upon today came from my Philosophy text book I was reading while waiting at the Doctor's office. I was reading one of Plato's works entitled, "Meno." It was a dialogue between Socrates and a guy named Meno. The main premise of the dialogue is that Socrates is trying to prove to Meno that people "do not learn, and what we call learning is only a process of recollection." 

As I began to read this, I thought, "How stupid. That makes no sense." 

But then I got more and more into it...

Socrates begins to ask simple questions about geometry to Meno's slave. The slave has never been taught or schooled. Socrates draws a simple square and then asks hundreds of simple questions that begin with "this is a square?" and ending with still simple yet complex questions about the geometry of a square. The unschooled slave answered every question correctly. This then proves to Meno that the untaught slave knew about geometry the entire time. He just had to be asked simple questions in order to unlock his knowledge. 

Socrates ends with: "And if the truth of all things always exists in the soul, then the soul is immortal. Wherefore, be of good cheer, and try to discover by recollection what you do not now know, or rather what you do not remember." 

This got me thinking, what if Socrates really was onto something here?  

So...I decided to test it on my youngest brother. Of course, he's been schooled quite a bit. But at any rate, he was the best test subject I have. I decided to use phonics questions to sound out a word. Mostly because I'm too lazy to spend an hour asking geometry questions. So I spelled out each letter, one at a time, asking questions like, "This is an 'H', right? And and H makes this sound, right?" He answered, "Well yeah." By the time we got to the end, I asked, "What does this spell?"...

 "Hieroglyphics," he said. "Tad, before I asked you those questions, would you have been able to sound out this word?" He said no.   

...Strange. He knew how to sound out every letter separate and even every letter combination, but yet he couldn't read that word. 

The book said that this forgotten or locked knowledge was learned by people in a previous existence. I believe that if learning really is just recollecting what we already know...then God has programmed that  information into his creation. How cool!  

"He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." -Ecclesiastes 3:11 

I looked up the word origin of the word 'world' in this verse and it means "Man's Existence."  

So, I guess that means that God intended for me to ask questions, but not to understand everything. :) 

The last thing I "stumbled" upon today was a video posted by at least 4 of my facebook friends. I thought it  was super awesome. It says everything I've never been able to put into words about religion. 

Even though I began today doubting God's existence in my life, I'm ending today feeling pretty confident. He is very existent in my life, He has a plan for me, He created me so darn special and detailed that philosophers and scientists can't even wrap their heads around it, and He took care of everything on the cross. I don't need religion to make Him love me anymore. 

How awesome is that?!