I think today's passage from God's Debris by Scott Adams offers much food for thought. In particular, he strikes on a theme that I have broached on TRT before. If the Christian God is so perfect and omnipotent, why oh why have they laden him with all sorts of petty human emotions?
Really. As Adams points out, human emotions are the engine behind everything we do. We work out of a sense of duty and to put bread on the table so we don't starve. We play to bring pleasure so we don't have to feel naked, alone and sad. We love because we hope to receive love in return. We believe in deities because we don't want to have our lives be lived for nothing and for death to mean we no longer exist.
A perfect being would have no need for emotion because, as Avatar points out, God could "do anything, create anything, be anything. "
In fact, from my perspective, a perfect being -- God -- would have absolutely no fathomable reason to send his beloved son to earth to be crucified. This act alone arises from the emotions of love and pity; a perfect God would be emotionless.
So the foundation of Christianity seems to be built on the ultimate contradiction -- a perfect God beset with very imperfect personality traits!
As to the idea that life is God's debris, I have less of a strong opinion. It sounds to me like it could simply be another way of expressing a common Taoist theme -- we're each a manifestation of Tao; our separate and individual lives are the illusion.
Really. As Adams points out, human emotions are the engine behind everything we do. We work out of a sense of duty and to put bread on the table so we don't starve. We play to bring pleasure so we don't have to feel naked, alone and sad. We love because we hope to receive love in return. We believe in deities because we don't want to have our lives be lived for nothing and for death to mean we no longer exist.
A perfect being would have no need for emotion because, as Avatar points out, God could "do anything, create anything, be anything. "
In fact, from my perspective, a perfect being -- God -- would have absolutely no fathomable reason to send his beloved son to earth to be crucified. This act alone arises from the emotions of love and pity; a perfect God would be emotionless.
So the foundation of Christianity seems to be built on the ultimate contradiction -- a perfect God beset with very imperfect personality traits!
As to the idea that life is God's debris, I have less of a strong opinion. It sounds to me like it could simply be another way of expressing a common Taoist theme -- we're each a manifestation of Tao; our separate and individual lives are the illusion.
I have axioms on which I base my understanding of the universe. I presume we all have such axioms.
ReplyDeleteMy God is not bound by space and time as I am; so, I'm not capable of describing God.
I cannot fathom that the universe just exists, so there must have been some intentional act that created it. From this axiom, my Christian beliefs follow. I then make speculations and deductions that I find consistent with the reality I perceive.
There it is again: "emotion".
ReplyDeleteEmotionlessness...
Not too many people would voluntarily jettison emotion: that would be scary, wouldn't it?
But without emotion, who would feel any fear?
Emotion=ego I am sure.
You can bet God doesn't have an ego.