EVIDENCE AND SENSE: WHAT DOESN'T WORK FOR ME AND WHAT DOES.

Let me come out of the gate first with what doesn't add to my story, even through it will raise some concern among some others.  That is the whole subject of "Evidence".   

I have heard a lot of voices from the AHA community (Agnostic, Humanist, Atheist ) that evidence is the driving force behind their life's direction.  Evidence or lack there of is what is the deciding factor for most of their conclusions about the universe and everything that spins around in it.  That is great for those minds who have access to evidence... but where does that leave me?  I've never looked through the lens of a telescope in my life.  The moon looks the same to my naked eye as it did to those people who concluded it was made of cheese.  

To claim that evidence is the foundation of my understanding requires that I have access to something more than just other people's words.  Right now, at this juncture of my life, all I have is people's words for most things that involve my existence.  I don't have access to evidence.  So what then helps me understand my world and follow a different path than my old narrative?  

 

The word is "Sense".  Some call it common sense, but I don't think how I see life is very common.  There are some things that just make sense to me.  I don't have enough confidence in the evidence to get on any platform and convince others of my perspective.  I just embrace it for what it is to me.  Some may call that "belief" and maybe it is.  Who am I to debate their preference for a different label.  

The definition in Webster's for "sense" took up more than one column.  But what stood out for me was this...

"a priori instinct of man to approve what is good and dislike what is evil". 

"Good, sound, practical judgement; normal mental power or understanding; brains"

Some things just make sense to me.  I have no proof that would be admissible in court, I have no ground to convince someone who doesn't agree with me.  There's just something in me that convinces me that there is the better way to process the information I'm given.  

It makes sense to me that the earth is a globe that travels around the sun.  Maybe there is data that can cross my path that would correlate to evidence, but I don't call it that, because I'm not the defence attorney for the cosmos.  It makes sense to me that the earth and the cosmos is very old.  It makes sense that the story of Genesis is a mythical portrait of the beginning of the cosmos.  It makes sense that I am a very small part of a very massive story.  I'm just not the one who can recite the data ad nauseum to anyone.  

I admire people who can do that, and I like to listen to them on occasion with the hope of soaking at least a morsel of what they know.  I just don't have the confidence to take that information to others who need me to be able to justify my position.  

This point of view probably doesn't hold much water with anyone who needs to be certain of their positions.  Those certaintists either require evidence or faith to navigate the world.  I just can't stretch that far.  I am just more comfortable with "This makes sense" or even better...  "I don't know".