The earthquake that hit New York City last week did not turn the Big Apple into applesauce. Had it hit with greater magnitude, the death toll would have been enormous. Say goodbye to Broadway, Lincoln Center, Columbia University, the U.N building, the New York Stock Exchange, and to my fifth-floor walk-up apartment on East 81st Street, back in the day.
A quote from William James: “God, being the first cause, possesses existence per se; He is necessary, and absolute, unlimited, infinitely perfect, one and only, spiritual, immutable, eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent.”
This is an impressive philological parade, but it gets one no nearer to an understanding of God. It is all high-level (meaningless) abstractions. Qualities are abstract, you cannot touch them anywhere on planet earth. Qualities are mutable with the ages, and as men change what they think, qualities change.
Qualities of observable phenomenon, and of the “spirits” have always been invented, and they have the purpose to make us feel good about the unknown. There is no doubt about it, that they do. And because Jesus is a “PERSON”, we will have a personal and comforting relationship with him.
Pagan beliefs were superstition, and they sought to “bribe” the gods to be nice to us, and bribe the spooks to leave us alone. Bribes were the sacrificial offerings. We felt better for it, even if our god Perun demanded human sacrifice, or our Catholic church demanded old women be burned alive tied to a stake (by the 100’s of thousands), we felt relieved.
To say that God made and earthquake to punish us, and that actually it is for the good of the survivors? – well – Perhaps you have nothing better to occupy your time with. Next you can consider how many angels dance on the head of a pin.
Gracie, there is a song,”I cast all my cares upon you, I lay all of my burdens down at your feet etc”. For those who fervently believe, God is comforting. I had an eighty year old woman in one of my mind/body classes wh nursed he sick husband for ten years. She said she could not have gotten through that without faith. A lot of people say they just don’t know, it’s a mystery. Many say religion doesn’t make sense, which, I suppose the concept of faith developed.
I think I mentioned this before but I grew up in a rigid Catholic home. We were taught to offer every sorrow or disappointment up to God. I don't know why. But this would put stars in your crown for heaven. Don't ask me. I didn't understand it then and don't get it now. It makde me feel stupid then b/c it didn't make sense to me and it sort of still makes me feel stupid. I long ago left every tenet of Catholocism behind b/c it didn't make sense. I am a seeker though, always wanting to pursue the truth, Only recently have I begun to put my hands up and say I don't know. And actually be okay with that. Maybe I am tired of thinking and I just want to sit on the beach and watch the waves, let those blues sink in, and just be. 🤷🏻♀️
Hi Gracie: I look at how mankind has always manufactured a subtle world made of deities and demons, as a counterpoint to this more solid world where we have to live. There seems to be a need to explain the unexplained, and you hit on it by being willing to say, "I just don't know". It is definitely an emotional relief, because unknowing does produce anxiety, if you don't know how to defuse it.
The trouble with laying all sorrows and disappointments at the feet of God, is that you don't look into what part you play in creating them. So you have a God who will comfort you, at the expense of always being an incompetent victim. I say that you create ALL of your disappointments, by having a false sense of expectations. If you expected that there will be periodic set-backs, and took them as a challenge for growth, they wouldn't sting so much.
So any funny story will due to fill the gap and quiet the emotions. And they all really work - if you put your belief into it. We can look at 1,000's of years of history and have a great laugh of what people purported to believe. So why would we not have a great laugh today. Let's look even at science. According to the "Big Bang Theory" all of the trillions of observed galaxies (not planets, but galaxies), began in one location, the size of a pin head. (Maybe the size of a pin point?) then:
BLEWY! - They were all shot out radially from that one origin, to where we see them today. (Actually where we see them yesterday, since light takes a long time to travel.) And it really WORKS. Scientists have been satisfied with this hokum for decades, because it filled their not-knowing gap.
If I'm remembering correctly, astronomers in the twenties and thirties, were very, very reluctant to accept the Big Bang theory. They were invested in the Steady State theory, which simply meant the universe had always existed. Einstein did not feel comfortable with it; another said he didn't want it to be true. Reluctance stemmed, in part from the uncomfortable implication that the Big Bang, if true, sort of confirmed, "Let there be light." Yet they all eventually came around. They had to; the math was there. The James Webb telescope is looking back in time, confirming the expanding universe.
When I read about the James Webb, I read it has thoroughly DIS-proven the big bang theory. Maybe you and I are reading something opposite about astronomy.
I used this premise of science only as an example of a belief in the abstract. Like a belief in God. A belief that God rained this disaster on me to teach me a lesson and for the good of all those concerned. My point is that any explanation, no matter how absurd, will plug the "feeling gap". (The Big-Bang Theory IS ABSURD). Besides plugging the feeling gap, the imagined relationship with God DOES offer you relief. To lay all your problems at the feet of God.
Saying that God did this or did that or allowed or disallowed something is abstract.. Abstract means it is only in the minds of men. It is nowhere on earth to be found or touched. I have no basis to deny the existence of God, abstract or not. I only claim that there is nothing you can say about God that is not abstract. No words, no qualities, no actions, no history, no creation. Nothing You Can Say. So I let God be. I don't interpret nor interfere. I can honor my life and the LIFE that surrounds me. I could call it gratitude too.
Great stuff. I agree with a lot of what you said. I'm going to read further on the James Webb telescopes conclusion. I know the Big Bang is impossible to grasp, sounds insane., but being a layman in theoretical physics, astronomy, and the high level math, I accept it. They say that gravity appeared in one ten millionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of second after the Big Bang. (I memorized that one). How in the world can they know that.?
One trillion is 12 zeros. T x T x T is 36 zeros, then a 10 millionth is 7 more zeros for a total of 43 zeros. (before the decimal point).
One Planck time is 5.39 x 10 -44 seconds. which is one half the time of T T T 10th M. (A Planck time is the shortest possible time in our universe comprised of matter.) So it took 2 Planck time units for the big bang. (How generous of them).
Does that solve racism in your town, (or in your mind)?
A quote from William James: “God, being the first cause, possesses existence per se; He is necessary, and absolute, unlimited, infinitely perfect, one and only, spiritual, immutable, eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent.”
This is an impressive philological parade, but it gets one no nearer to an understanding of God. It is all high-level (meaningless) abstractions. Qualities are abstract, you cannot touch them anywhere on planet earth. Qualities are mutable with the ages, and as men change what they think, qualities change.
Qualities of observable phenomenon, and of the “spirits” have always been invented, and they have the purpose to make us feel good about the unknown. There is no doubt about it, that they do. And because Jesus is a “PERSON”, we will have a personal and comforting relationship with him.
Pagan beliefs were superstition, and they sought to “bribe” the gods to be nice to us, and bribe the spooks to leave us alone. Bribes were the sacrificial offerings. We felt better for it, even if our god Perun demanded human sacrifice, or our Catholic church demanded old women be burned alive tied to a stake (by the 100’s of thousands), we felt relieved.
To say that God made and earthquake to punish us, and that actually it is for the good of the survivors? – well – Perhaps you have nothing better to occupy your time with. Next you can consider how many angels dance on the head of a pin.
.
Gracie, there is a song,”I cast all my cares upon you, I lay all of my burdens down at your feet etc”. For those who fervently believe, God is comforting. I had an eighty year old woman in one of my mind/body classes wh nursed he sick husband for ten years. She said she could not have gotten through that without faith. A lot of people say they just don’t know, it’s a mystery. Many say religion doesn’t make sense, which, I suppose the concept of faith developed.
I think I mentioned this before but I grew up in a rigid Catholic home. We were taught to offer every sorrow or disappointment up to God. I don't know why. But this would put stars in your crown for heaven. Don't ask me. I didn't understand it then and don't get it now. It makde me feel stupid then b/c it didn't make sense to me and it sort of still makes me feel stupid. I long ago left every tenet of Catholocism behind b/c it didn't make sense. I am a seeker though, always wanting to pursue the truth, Only recently have I begun to put my hands up and say I don't know. And actually be okay with that. Maybe I am tired of thinking and I just want to sit on the beach and watch the waves, let those blues sink in, and just be. 🤷🏻♀️
Hi Gracie: I look at how mankind has always manufactured a subtle world made of deities and demons, as a counterpoint to this more solid world where we have to live. There seems to be a need to explain the unexplained, and you hit on it by being willing to say, "I just don't know". It is definitely an emotional relief, because unknowing does produce anxiety, if you don't know how to defuse it.
The trouble with laying all sorrows and disappointments at the feet of God, is that you don't look into what part you play in creating them. So you have a God who will comfort you, at the expense of always being an incompetent victim. I say that you create ALL of your disappointments, by having a false sense of expectations. If you expected that there will be periodic set-backs, and took them as a challenge for growth, they wouldn't sting so much.
So any funny story will due to fill the gap and quiet the emotions. And they all really work - if you put your belief into it. We can look at 1,000's of years of history and have a great laugh of what people purported to believe. So why would we not have a great laugh today. Let's look even at science. According to the "Big Bang Theory" all of the trillions of observed galaxies (not planets, but galaxies), began in one location, the size of a pin head. (Maybe the size of a pin point?) then:
BLEWY! - They were all shot out radially from that one origin, to where we see them today. (Actually where we see them yesterday, since light takes a long time to travel.) And it really WORKS. Scientists have been satisfied with this hokum for decades, because it filled their not-knowing gap.
.
If I'm remembering correctly, astronomers in the twenties and thirties, were very, very reluctant to accept the Big Bang theory. They were invested in the Steady State theory, which simply meant the universe had always existed. Einstein did not feel comfortable with it; another said he didn't want it to be true. Reluctance stemmed, in part from the uncomfortable implication that the Big Bang, if true, sort of confirmed, "Let there be light." Yet they all eventually came around. They had to; the math was there. The James Webb telescope is looking back in time, confirming the expanding universe.
When I read about the James Webb, I read it has thoroughly DIS-proven the big bang theory. Maybe you and I are reading something opposite about astronomy.
I used this premise of science only as an example of a belief in the abstract. Like a belief in God. A belief that God rained this disaster on me to teach me a lesson and for the good of all those concerned. My point is that any explanation, no matter how absurd, will plug the "feeling gap". (The Big-Bang Theory IS ABSURD). Besides plugging the feeling gap, the imagined relationship with God DOES offer you relief. To lay all your problems at the feet of God.
Saying that God did this or did that or allowed or disallowed something is abstract.. Abstract means it is only in the minds of men. It is nowhere on earth to be found or touched. I have no basis to deny the existence of God, abstract or not. I only claim that there is nothing you can say about God that is not abstract. No words, no qualities, no actions, no history, no creation. Nothing You Can Say. So I let God be. I don't interpret nor interfere. I can honor my life and the LIFE that surrounds me. I could call it gratitude too.
.
Great stuff. I agree with a lot of what you said. I'm going to read further on the James Webb telescopes conclusion. I know the Big Bang is impossible to grasp, sounds insane., but being a layman in theoretical physics, astronomy, and the high level math, I accept it. They say that gravity appeared in one ten millionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of second after the Big Bang. (I memorized that one). How in the world can they know that.?
One trillion is 12 zeros. T x T x T is 36 zeros, then a 10 millionth is 7 more zeros for a total of 43 zeros. (before the decimal point).
One Planck time is 5.39 x 10 -44 seconds. which is one half the time of T T T 10th M. (A Planck time is the shortest possible time in our universe comprised of matter.) So it took 2 Planck time units for the big bang. (How generous of them).
Does that solve racism in your town, (or in your mind)?
.