I personally don't believe that life is a blind and pitiless existence (apologies for typo in OP). As a JW my life was a treadmill of works and guilt. Now I'm free from that and I enjoy life to the full and I choose to believe in God and praise and worship Jesus.
If it offends sensibilities to ask such questions regarding life and its purpose, or to choose to be appalled at the notion of "human animals" or to ask if atheism is blind faith, I'm not going to apologise; as has already been pointed out elsewhere, it's the internet. I'll choose not to be offended at being called a self-righteous arse. I'll do my best to live and let live, as I try and do away from the internet.
There should be the room and space for these questions and objections to be raised and discussed, even if it takes us to the edge of our comfort zones, no matter where our religious or philosophical boundaries currently are; surely that's a good thing.
I've got a fantastic life, an amazing wife and 3 uniquely inspirational children. I'm surrounded by friends and acquaintances of every cultural stripe (I shared a car journey with an Indian civil engineer from a Christian background the other night, then later a cup of tea with a recovering heroin addict and a guy who, up until a year ago, was a die hard skeptic. I regularly chat with a family who practice various forms of pagan religious beliefs who live down the road from us (their son is good friends with our oldest son) and I enjoy their company and world-view immensely). I'm working in my dream job, the job I fantasized about having for many years and we live in a beautiful part of the world.
Under pinning all of that, though, is a belief in God and a relationship with him. That's a choice I made, to explore what it would be like to actually have God in my life. I'm challenged often in my faith, I have days of incredible belief and days of consuming doubt. I choose to put myself in positions where my faith is challenged (I'm leading the Alpha Course in my church and within the course I'm leading a small group of around 8 people, most of whom are skeptics; I want to be challenged and to learn from them). However, each time I go through a period of doubt I seem to come out the other side with a greater appreciation for who I believe God to be and a closer relationship with him. My faith ends up stronger, and I'll concede that I become a more aggressive apologist.
In that, though, I fully appreciate that for some the exact opposite is the case.
Changing tack slightly; cigars are no more. I don't know what happened, but I can't even stand the smell of them anymore, lit or unlit. Weird. I did recently get a tattoo, though, so I suppose part of me still wishes to buck religious perceptions of what or who a Christian should be.
I wish everyone on this thread, and the others I recently started and contributed on, peace.
