re: I have a quiet envy of religious people

What the heck, I’ll chime in. I will only speak for myself, but I go through periods of struggling with my faith, belief if you will. I have been in one of those valleys of late. I always come out of these better than I went in KNOWING that there is a God who loves me, even when I feel unloved. In the end, I worry. I think too much. I ask those same questions of “why”?? I don’t know why. I get angry, and I am convinced that I am not condemned for my struggles. And that makes all the difference.

Excellent point, MikeAV8s.
Every Christian feels that way.
Hills and valleys.
I have minister friends who have stood in the pulpit on a Sunday, delivering The Word, as they deeply question their faith.

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What initiates the electrical impulses?

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The brain and its programming.

God made man. I KNOW that. In the end, it all springs from Him as the Creator.

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The burden of multiple degrees and the life of an *intellectual."

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“My favourite definition of an intellectual: 'Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence.
? Arthur C. Clarke, 3001: The Final Odyssey

“Intellect is not wisdom.”
? Thomas Sowell, Intellectuals and Society

“Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.”
? George Orwell

“The man was such an intellectual he was of almost no use.”
? Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

“There is nothing that an intellectual less likes to change than his mind, or a politician his policy.”
? Theodore Dalrymple

Damn. This is sounding veeeery familiar. I tend to take things of this topic very literally. It makes it hard to keep faith sometimes. You want to have simple faith but you’ve read this or that and..well sometimes the Word doesn’t seem consistent to me. You didn’t see the apple thing coming? Your infinite. I’m going to leave this alone because undoubtably I’ll offend someone with simple questions. But I think I know where your coming from. Just hang on.

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The burden of multiple degrees and the life of an *intellectual."

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Prof Ian Hutchinson (among a multitude of others) would like a word with you.

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I can’t explain it but I know there’s more than this realm and what I am is just attached to this physical......body I guess.

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Many of the people that were far advanced beyond their time or made important discoveries were acutely aware this. Da Vinci, Tesla, Mendeleev, Ramanujan, Einstein, even Jobs... The collective unconscious, Akashic records, whatever you want to call it is undeniable to anyone willing to look at the evidence with an open mind.

The problem with most people that think of themselves as intellectuals is that they are "too smart" to be wrong. They are so set in their beliefs and smugness that they refuse to objectively look at any evidence that contradicts their worldview.

In my experience, the people that have to tell you how smart they are are never as smart as they believe.

I understand this idea.

I have people who "know that they know that they know". I think you can't feel that way past a certain IQ. I also envy it at times. Seems comfy.

It is comforting to know that in the middle of all the turmoil and riots going on, God is still in control. God knows what is going to happen next. He has a plan. If you will just trust Him, he will take care of you. He has already prescribed how this world is going to end. I don’t know all the answers. And I don’t know everything. But I do know who does. If we only believe in ourselves and our own abilities, we cause ourselves all kinds of problems. Do not worry! God knows what you need.

25 Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment? 26 Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure of his life? 28 And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31 Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

I know. TLDR. You are more important than flowers and birds. If you seek God, he will take care of you.

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Too rational. Too questioning. Too doubtful. 

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An apt description of many Christians!
C'mon, you'll fit right in!

I too have multiple degrees.