By Allen Van Hoosier
Being raised a Baptist, I am in an interesting position, having been schooled in a steady diet of reading, writing and scripture, scripture, scripture. As an adult, I found myself at numerous crossroads – too many to mention.I feel strongly God exists. There must be a wonder and magnificent grand architect to all of this. Everything is to closely related for there not to be.
But does that God - the creator of all things heaven and earth, creator of all of the galaxies and planets that are trillions of light years away from earth, populated with life, but who knows what kind of life it is, interested with paying me, a Homo sapien any special interest over any of the other planets and their species?
Ever notice how no grandiose miracles are found today - as found in scripture? Mass communication was so non-existent then, and if you get two people to believe that you changed water in to wine, and more than likely - that's all that were present to witness it, or be convinced of a magic trick, and they spread the word on foot, all over the place by word of mouth - how will the story get told as it reaches each new person?
If you line up 100 people in a line and you tell them to say "The sun is yellow, and it's in the sky - pass it down." By the time it gets to the last person - it will be "My son's a cool fellow, he can jump real high."Tests prove this time and time again. That's why there are 4 gospels in the bible - each person who wrote each recollection spins a different tale. Hell - Pontius Pilot isn't even mentioned until you get to Luke, not to mention that as you read each gospel, the more anti-semantic they get.
And what about the 15,000,000 people on the planet who were Hindus and all of the other earth-based and ancestor worship-based religions all over the planet at the time of Jesus who would have had no way of even hearing of Jesus, much less even knowing there was a city called Jerusalem anywhere on the globe? Are they lost?
If there is a God that has an active interest in our daily lives, I do not believe in the "holiness" per se of Jesus. I believe God would not curry favor to anyone people - and this case the Jews (who believe the son of God has not arrived yet) and for Christians (who believe the Jewish son of God was Jesus).
I think the idea of the "son-of-god" was invented by the Jews 4000 years ago out of pure human ego and a desire to put the grand architect on a human playing field to make God - for us lowly humans, "reachable" and attainable.
I think I believe in God. But as far as the human's ability to understand and communicate our feelings and thoughts to this God, - I like to use this metaphor:
The next time you are in your house, and you see a small cockroach - just before you kill it - try this. Try telling the cockroach in a monotone voice, "Hello little cockroach. I am a human being. I have a brain that is capable of creating the very house you live in right now. I have a brain that is capable of growing the very food that you are in search of right now. I also have a brain capable of creating poisons and traps which I am going to buy and put in my house. Now - if you understand what I just said, walk around in four complete circles, then stop, and do a figure eight - that is - if you can understand what I just said."
Understand the metaphor? And unfortunately, just like our relationship with God, Our miniscule and pathetic little brains as far as God’s concerned is 1 millionth the size of a bug.Take note: when we turn the lights on to go talk to the cockroach, they run for lives, ignoring everything around them.
As is with God.
I do practice my figure-eights from time to time. One can never be to sure…
Article for important and interesting reading is Pascal’s Wager:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pascal-wager/
Keep trying to convince yourself, because the more you try, the more you prove the opposite.
ReplyDeleteIf there is a God, he long ago figured that we're no longer the cockroaches that he used to be able to squash. Now he hides from us out of fear that we've sufficently armed ourselves to fight back when he tries to step on us. He's afraid we'll make him dance a jig while singing "La Cucaracha" at gunpoint.
God and religion are a creation made by evil men to control the masses that can't seem to figure out how to be good without a cruel dictator (i.e. God and his chosen ones) telling them to do so.
I will not way judgment on if there is God or not. It comes down to matter of personal faith. Do you have it or do you not. But it sounds like you taking the right path. Listen to your own heart and I am sure you will be right.
ReplyDeleteI do have a comment about miracles. Is it that grandiose miracles do not happen today? Or is that we do not recognize a miracle for what it is? I think miracles have become so commonplace so part of the background that we do not recognize them for what they are. The man who is diagnosed with terminal cancer and two years later he is cancer free. The toddler who dials 911 to save his family during a home invasion. The fact that I chose not to wear a seatbelt driving to school on a icy day. (I would not be alive today if I was wearing one.) Some of these miracles are subtle. Some aren't. But no matter what we seem to dismiss them as just happenchance or think well that's a good story as we read it on CNN.com and then forget about it. But they do happen. I am not saying that you should use these mondern day miracles as a proof of god's existance. There is no proof of God. But we should see them a proof that life can be wonderful even in a time when horrors seem to abound around the world.
Allen sounds "condemned to be free," despite professing an existential belief? Please stay away from Camus and Dosoyevsky, as you seem to be a nihilist waiting to happen
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