If there is one thing I love to chat about it is philosophy. Especially philosophy dealing with the concepts of God, faith, etc. Now, I have one tenant rule for anything I ramble on about. 93==YMMV. (I defined this after many posts using it back in March of 2003).
Understanding “93==YMMV”, here were some wonderful questions and how I responded.
So, today I got randomly asked a question.
In your Opinion – why does God (higher power) choose to leave everything ‘broken’?
This got my mind churning. I had to say simply:
balance and growth.
Now granted, I come from a definition of God which can be oversimplified to:
The limitless single totality of all things that are, were, and can be.
I then tried to explain the progress of the emanations of the tree of life from the one (one) to the two (not one) to the three (that which differs one from two), and so forth.
This culminated in me seeing Kether as like Hadit while seeing Malkuth as Nuit. Kinda my morning’s “Gnostic Clang”
This led to her next question:
So, do you think that is where the “illusion” exists of there ‘not being God’?
Hmn, I think the simplest reason for the ‘illusion’ of “God” not existing is twofold. The concept itself is so amorphous and undefinable that too many people present too many inadequate definitions; so people can’t find a definition to hold onto. Secondly; since you’re dealing with a concept the inevitably goes beyond proof; the only “existence” can be defined by faith which some people are unwilling or unable to use.
Then I decided I was really happy with how that came out and decided to post.
My conversation partner responded:
I am wondering though, given your explaination as to whether people ‘can’t’ … or simply “Won’t” put for the effort to defining their understanding of God.
that it is sheer ‘Faith’ that keeps them from persuing it any further
In my definition. (and as always 93==YMMV) God has to come from within (not without) God is merely the divine perfection of self (No easy task)… Therefore… a true atheist who believes only in himself; is on his own way… on a divine path towards god in self
I’m always open to anyone else’s “93==YMMV” on the topics.
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My question usually stems from my dabbling in Buddhism and such, and my having been an atheist for a decade now – why is the concept of God a necessary one?
Is a concept of God necessary
I’d have to say that’s entirely up to the individual and their self-identificaiton of spirutal pursuit. The atheist will tell you with no uncertainty that there is “No God”. The fundamentallist Judeo-Christian who follows rather than seeks self elightenment almost ‘requires’ a concept of God as a point of validation to the source of followed teachings.
Personally, I use my conceptuallization of God as an archetypial reference point to effectively give me a ‘vector’ in my own spiritual pursuits in trying to fine my own path towards divinity/enlightenment.
As in all things associated with this topic, I don’t know if I actually answered your questions or not 🙂
Re: Is a concept of God necessary
I’m an apatheist, and wonder what the fuss is all about. All the rituals and services, the doubt and faith, the wars and suchlike, all seem to stem not from god, but from the belief in god, and I just kind of wonder why anyone would willingly divert attention from here-and-now to focus on up-and-never.
*shrugs*
I would not have responded otherwise, except for the “unwilling or unable” verbiage (regarding faith), which really bugged me. Also the “atheist on a path to god in self” – why is god the goal, in all of this mess? Why not the realisation and actualisation of our own potential?
I’m such a filthy humanist.
I strongly believe the concept of God is necessary for people to fill holes in their understanding. It is my opinion that Man created God to make life more comfortable when there are no answers — yet ’cause if we look, we understand more and more over time.
Why not… why not work to fill the understanding? Or come to terms with the lack of understanding?
I’m almost convinced that god-faith is a secretion in the brain, and I ent got it.
I’m still stuck on wondering, what did they mean by “broken”? Is that a reflection of the current state of the earth, such as natural disasters? Or is that a reference to the state and consciousness level of mankind?
In your Opinion – why does God (higher power) choose to leave everything ‘broken’?
I do not find this question meaningful. What is ‘broken?’ Often it seems that when you press people for an explanation of ‘broken’ (or ‘evil,’ ‘wrong,’ etc.) they end up translating the term to ‘something I just don’t like.’ Um… is a hurricane ‘broken,’ or ‘evil?’ Of course not, a hurricane is just something a lot of people don’t like because it makes life difficult. Most things people blame ‘evil’ for seem to fall into this category.
Personally I’m with the sin as rejection of truth concept, and would define ‘broken’ as ‘the mess humans make of things when they think the truth is too scary or inconvenient.’ (trust me, I am as much prone to this as anyone else :-/ ) However, I doubt the person you were conversing with was coming from that POV.
Anyway, the ‘broken,’ or ‘evil’ argument always annoyed me. It’s all so perspective dependent. The rattle snake that bit the hiker was defending itself, not put there by the devil to kill the hiker, and if one were looking through the rattle snake’s eyes, they would feel as though god was punishing them by plopping the hiker in their path. How useless.
borken
In your Opinion – why does God (higher power) choose to leave everything ‘broken’?
I was reading Stephen Hawking’s book “A Brief History of Time” and came across an interesting explanation for this dealing with the laws of thermodynamics. Basically the reason things seem to be broken is because keeping them unbroken requires constant work due to thermodynamics, the simple fact that things are in constant motion and there are many more combinations which are unordered then ordered.
The thing I found interesting about all this is that we only perceive things this way because we remember the past but not the future, and the reason for that has to do with the way memory works in requiring an expenditure of energy to form the memory which increases entropy. Therefore, we could well perceive the universe as constantly increasing in order even now, but we cannot remember it in a chemical sense because of how memory works.
I’ve recently started studying Gnosticism (which, I know, is an extremely broad term), so I find this discussion quite interesting. I especially liked the ’93==YMMV’ post you linked to.
(also: noticed that you friended me the other day and have been lurking about ever since. hi!)
Thank you for both…
I have to admit, I added you initially on recommendation for OKCupid which seemed to think that we might have much in common.After looking at your profile, userinfo, and some of your posts… I’d be inclined to agree with them 🙂 This also means I’ve also been lurking a bit. (*guilty as charged, your honour*)
Personally, I haven’t focused my studies into the details of gnosticism, but I always love discussing the ramifications and processes that come out of different divine and philosophical theories.
Please feel free to drop a line any time via email, IM, or OKC. 🙂
Re: Thank you for both…
I’m reading a few books and discussing a lot with my boyfriend, who’s a Hermetic Gnostic of some flavor (I get confused about the different layers just as yet). I began this path as a Wiccan five years ago (well, and as a Mormon from my childhood) and have transitioned slowly into more of a generic Solitary Pagan… it’s nice to have something new to study that really catches my interest. Still working on finding what fits me best, but I’m enjoying the journey.
No worries about the lurking; you are welcome to. =) I haven’t been terribly exciting as of late, things have been a bit hectic ’round home and work with my schedules changing, and that always interferes with my posting of anything of actual substance. 😉
Nice to meet you, in any case. I look forward to reading further. =)