The whole idea that God existed before anything else (he is outside of and indeed the creator of space, time, energy and matter) and that he has always existed (there is no "before God") and will always exist is difficult enough for humans to understand. Closely related to this reality about God is the difficulty in understanding how exactly God is the Creator and also how he is always in control. I've thought of a simple typical experience that everyone has seen, which can help to understand by putting one in the right mindset.
Think back to a time when you have opened the window on a warm day, and a breeze blows into the window, stirring and moving the curtains. Well, the first step to understanding God is realizing that God is not standing there waving the curtains back and forth for you.
LOL! I know you are saying, well, I never thought that he was! Yes, but the misdirected human understanding of God is not too far from thinking that. The idea that "everything" has a message (from God or "someone else," like a deceased loved one or a "spirit") is only one step away from thinking that God is standing there and it is his "control" that makes the curtains move back and forth in the breeze.
Why is there this confusion? People get confused with three aspects of God's power: 1) his being the Creator 2) his being "in control" and 3) everything that happens is "God's will." This is why I realized this simple analogy will help you to understand each of these three aspects of God's power.
God created the universe, including everything in it, such as the sun which provides the warm day, the earth and the humans upon it, the weather, and thus the wind that moves the curtains. During God's creation God maintains total control over all that is created, and being All Knowing, God perfects his creation so that it continues to develop and function the way he intended. Thus God is in control because he shaped the material of his creation so that it has natural law and forces that support ongoing existence (such as atomic structures, the movement of light, the existence of mass and gravity, the effects of rotation and so forth). This is why the curtains move and God does not have to stand there and invisibly make them flap back and forth for you, ha. The curtains move because God created the materials and the forces (nature laws) of the structure of the universe and then he let them go. It's not like God has to "try it out," because remember, he is All Knowing. When God declared in the Bible that his creation is "good," that is what he meant, that he created all that the universe (and life within it) needed for it to now run on its own.
So when you heat a pot of water over an open fire, God is not having to rub the water molecules together for you so that the water becomes warm and then hot, any more than God is having to combust each of the molecules of the wood so that it would burn. Water heats over a flame because God created the infrastructure and the natural forces that would be "good," as in effective and self sustaining. Another example, gravity works not because God has to put his hand over each object and person and hold them down onto the earth, ha.
Back to our example, God created and controls the waving of the curtain in the breeze because God created time, matter and energy, and thus the forces that align and motivate them in predictable behavior of physics and science. So God created the "raw materials" for the waving of the curtain (the sun, the earth, fibers and wood, people smart enough to build houses with windows and curtains, weather including the development of wind when the temperature and pressure gradients are right, etc). When we say that God is in control, what we should mean is that everything he put into place is functioning authentically and predictably, just as it should. I've written about this before in the blog but just to remind you, an unforeseen and tragic automobile accident where there is a loss of life is in God's control not because God reaches out and pushes one car into another, but because God created a universe where if two heavy objects collide the materials within react according to physics in a predictable way.
Now that you understand, at least on a gut level, through these simple examples, how God 1) creates and 2) controls (to put it simply, he creates the raw materials and the "rules" by which creation continues onward and interacts within itself) you can better understand the levels at which something is God's will. Let's start with returning to the open window with the warm breeze that waves the curtains.
It was God's will that he decided to create a universe in the first place. It is God's will that he created in the way that he did, that it is stable and consistent, but with growth, change and movement. It is God's will that living beings will find what they need to sustain life (such as light, warmth and air). It is God's will that some beings, humans mostly but some animals too, are smart enough to shape their own dwellings. It is God's will that humans benefit from wise decisions (seeking shelter in their dwellings when weather is harsh), but it is also God's will that the power of bad weather, for example, does not suddenly halt and become benign whenever someone makes a bad decision (such as taking a boat out into the stormy seas, and remember, Jesus had to miraculously intervene when the Apostles were set upon by a storm at sea). So it is God's will that all in all, he very very VERY rarely upends and overturns the laws by which the universe of time, energy and matter operates in order to miraculously sustain someone in a bad situation, of their making or not (such as a natural disaster). It is further God's will that humans (and animals) feel pleasure, including aesthetics, in life. Thus it is God's will that the warm breeze feels good, the sun uplifts one's spirit, and the waving of the curtain in the breeze feels homey and aesthetically pleasing. Likewise, if one misjudges and makes an error (such as putting a fragile vase in front of an open window with a strong breeze, and it is knocked down), it is God's will that oops, natural forces continue to work as expected. God neither knocks down the vase nor "makes you feel bad," but that is the natural outcome of the small actions in life as time, energy, matter and human free choice interact.
So when someone devout says, usually after a sad event or loss, that it is "God's will," that is actually not a simplistic observation. It is, rather, the wise summation of the creative, by God, the controlling, by God, and free choice, by humans or by happenstance, outcome for all of the above to exist at all as a result of God's will. Yes, then, when a person dies, his or her "time had come" and it is "God's will," but the slippery slope is that one must not imagine that God is pushing some baby into a swimming pool, or cramming one car into another, or "giving" a person cancer, etc. God created all those materials, energies and potentialities (according to free choice and situations) and it is his will that with very rare exceptions, the rewards or the consequences naturally result. What do I mean by potentialities? Well, I blogged about one example before, which is being around potentially cancer causing smoke. It's not like God has to, nor is it in his nature, to reach inside someone and "give" them "cancer." Further, God does not make a person crave smoking cigarettes. All those potentialities are a matter of chemistry, physics, human genetics and human free choice. It is God's will that life has limitations and dangers, but it is also God's will that humans can seek ways to maximize the benefits of well being. Water is great, and swimming is great, but lack of a fence and a watchful parent over a baby near water is unwise. Likewise tobacco might be pleasurable to smoke in a cigarette but the problem develops when it is done to excess and becomes a habit that stimulates potential cancer in one's self or second hand in others.
So when a person mourns that the loss of a loved one is "God's will," that person is being pious and correct if they realize, as most have done so before these past few generations, that the life that one is given is unpredictable, that life is robust and forgiving while at the same time fragile and subject to defect, and that it is indeed the person's "time" because God will not intervene (except in those rare miraculous circumstances) when the known factors of a person's potential demise intersect. An example of an intersection is 1) smoking to excess 2) being of weak health or prone to easy damage 3) unable or unwilling to receive treatment. God does not 1) make the person smoke to excess 2) "give" him or her bad genes or 3) deprive them of treatment or give them a negative and bad attitude about available treatment. You see what I mean?
Moderns have become, for reasons I've discussed before 1) paranoid 2) narcissistic 3) excessively "magical" thinking and 4) disbelieving in the ultimate goodness of God and God alone. Thus there has been (and I pray that this is changing) an increasing obsession that somehow long life and wonderfulness has been guaranteed to everyone (and some of that is the "deeds" over grace error of thought) and that when an intersection of natural law and situations/human choices occurs that God (or "alien" or "other" forces) have "singled out" a person or group for hardship. That's not only wrong but it's dangerous because one then discards not only authentic belief in God but one also discards common sense and proper survival instincts and thinking.
Imagine if someone actually thought that when he opened the window and the sun shone and the breeze blew and the curtains waved that God was just standing there, waving that big peacock feather fan at him, turning on the tanning lamp and just giving him his own personal spa treatment. You'd think that person was crazy, right? Well, as I said, unfortunately many people have gotten on that slippery slope as they should have known better and worse, raised their children or taught their students that entire warped mindset. Thus many young people are paranoid and narcissistic because they feel so manipulated and at the behest of an arbitrary world filled with "unfairness" and "forces" that must be appeased/controlled! By the way, when I say "unfairness" I mean "not fair" by some human standard; I don't mean unjust because then I'd be in total agreement: the world is filled with human injustice and unrighteousness. But the word "fair" in popular thought (separate from political or legal thought) has come to mean that one's life seems disproportionate to one's expectations, and thus subject to some mysterious dispensation of favor or punishment. That kind of thinking results in attitudes such as, just for an easy example, that the life providing process by which a human body makes and stores fat is somehow bad and must be tamed. Um, no one would be alive if the body could not make and store fat, duh. But this paranoid separation from reality (both faith reality and secular reality) results in some messed up thinking.
I yearn for the time when people understood this, as they all did, prior to the last fifty years or so (with a few lunatic exceptions, of course, none of whom I need to name here).
Anyway, rather than get into that whole mess (again) in discussion, I'd rather leave you with this hopefully helpful simple analogy for understanding how God does indeed create, control and exert his will.
Showing posts with label human free will. Show all posts
Showing posts with label human free will. Show all posts
Monday, January 11, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Simple logic about God & human scandal/sin
I'm not sure why everyone misses the point so much these days. I guess it is the increasingly egocentric (and even ego maniacal) focus of even the average person these days. So here is a simple observation to keep in mind.
The more that crime, scandal, sin and bad behavior are exposed in each and every religious organization:
the more it simply proves that humans are broken and imperfect individuals who need awareness and belief in God more than ever.
Have you noticed the lack of logic so many have? Whenever there is a scandal in a church, mosque, synagogue or any other place of faith, the more people say "Ah ha, this is why I question that there is a God."
Yet when the same scandals appear in secular settings (home, places of business) they are called "crimes" or "unethical behavior." Hmm.
So a parent who uses their child in porn, for example, is "sick," "unethical" and "a criminal," while if a religious community member does it, it's somehow "justification" to ''doubt God."
Um, news flash. People have been weak, broken and corrupt since the Garden of Eden. Duh. All humans are unworthy by nature. However, being created in the image of God they have the opportunity to find God and become, again, his child. Whether a person sins/commits crime/is unethical within a religious community or outside a religious community, all it demonstrates is how very far humans remain from God. People need to recognize God and allow him to guide and lead one's life, not jump on falls by religious people or institutions (which will always occur and I promise you, even if you replaced flawed humans with perfect robots, robots will break down and run amok too).
So yes, investigate scandals and hold the faithful accountable for their hypocrisy, but beware, because as you do so, you are excusing the same behavior in those with little or no faith. And you are missing the entire point, which is made clear in the Gospel, which is that humans need to be CONSTANTLY REPENTING AND SEEKING FORGIVENESS OF THEIR ONGOING AND CONTINUAL SINS UNTIL THE MOMENT OF EACH PERSON'S DEATH.
The only perfect person lived two thousand years ago. Everyone else needs continual grace and forgiveness every moment of their life, believer or not, in secular setting or religious.
The more that crime, scandal, sin and bad behavior are exposed in each and every religious organization:
the more it simply proves that humans are broken and imperfect individuals who need awareness and belief in God more than ever.
Have you noticed the lack of logic so many have? Whenever there is a scandal in a church, mosque, synagogue or any other place of faith, the more people say "Ah ha, this is why I question that there is a God."
Yet when the same scandals appear in secular settings (home, places of business) they are called "crimes" or "unethical behavior." Hmm.
So a parent who uses their child in porn, for example, is "sick," "unethical" and "a criminal," while if a religious community member does it, it's somehow "justification" to ''doubt God."
Um, news flash. People have been weak, broken and corrupt since the Garden of Eden. Duh. All humans are unworthy by nature. However, being created in the image of God they have the opportunity to find God and become, again, his child. Whether a person sins/commits crime/is unethical within a religious community or outside a religious community, all it demonstrates is how very far humans remain from God. People need to recognize God and allow him to guide and lead one's life, not jump on falls by religious people or institutions (which will always occur and I promise you, even if you replaced flawed humans with perfect robots, robots will break down and run amok too).
So yes, investigate scandals and hold the faithful accountable for their hypocrisy, but beware, because as you do so, you are excusing the same behavior in those with little or no faith. And you are missing the entire point, which is made clear in the Gospel, which is that humans need to be CONSTANTLY REPENTING AND SEEKING FORGIVENESS OF THEIR ONGOING AND CONTINUAL SINS UNTIL THE MOMENT OF EACH PERSON'S DEATH.
The only perfect person lived two thousand years ago. Everyone else needs continual grace and forgiveness every moment of their life, believer or not, in secular setting or religious.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
First of a few end of calendar year thoughts
Hi everyone. Rather than long postings I'm just going to type in a few musings, keeping them to a few moments of reflection. I hope these help to ease some of the angst and regrets that many have about the sadness of the 2000-2009 years.
Many have written really good columns reflecting on this somewhat nameless decade, mentioning how instead of having names like the "80's" or the "90's," the "00's" really have no verbiage except the old expression, the "aughts." Aught is an old fashioned expression that indicates when the digit 0 is used as a place holder in a number. Old school marms would tell their students to write on the chalk board, in the year 1800 for example, "one, eight, aught, aught" instead of saying to write "one, eight, zero, zero." So the best anyone could come up with is calling this nearly past decade "the aughts."
I know that many are thinking that "the aughts" is certainly a correct name as a pun, regarding the regrets and totally missed opportunities for any sort of improvement or enlightenment, peace, love and reconciliation, as those are the "ought" to haves, or the "oughts." Hardly anyone has wrapped themselves in glory the past decade and they have, instead, missed nearly every opportunity to make a wise and/or generous choice in most matters. Even what seemed like great advances or victories, or progress, nearly all ring hollow now, often surprisingly soon after these victories were achieved. I'm not being critical about specifics right now, simply summing up the zeit geist (the spirit of the times, where spirit means the mood of the times) of the past decade.
Regular readers know that one reason the aughts were the oughts was that many beliefs and goals have slowly been revealed as being imaginary, false, unjust or simply plain wrong headed. The truth is never slow to be revealed, for lies are revealed in a flash, the moment the truth is spoken in anyone's hearing. No, it is the acceptance that one has been deceived, taught wrongly, or self deluding that is slower than a snail's pace in dawning.
The aughts aka the oughts are the culmination of previous (snappily named) decades of delusion and misguided focus (on all fronts in all areas of secular life and of course tremendous amounts of false prophecy in the spiritual life). It is like vats of sad gooey slowly burning tar has fallen onto many people's heads, but that tar has been collected and cooking for several decades now.
Here is the second problem with the aughts aka the oughts. Not only do you have the first problem whereby this soon past decade is the culmination (unpleasant consequences) of lack of truth and very bad goals, but the second problem is that even when the truth dawned of bad choices, many continued to try to use the false tools to "fix" things, the tools that were fashioned based on error and delusion in the first place. Often people who claimed to "think outside the box" were those most guilty of being stuck in tar, gum and chains inside a false box to begin with.
The only way to make the next decade bearable is to return to genuine faith and reasoning, with authentic search and emphasis for truth and justice, and not the "identity theft" that faith, reasoning, truth and justice have been subjected to. If I had to give a sound byte or a slogan to help focus good intentions for the next decade it would be to regain authentic understanding of righteousness.
The righteous man or woman, boy or girl not only are the ones who will gain heaven, but they are the ones who have the correct leavening of faith and reasoning to live life honorably and to pursue genuinely virtuous goals. Without faith based righteousness (as opposed to the undesirable self righteousness) each person and their communities are like compasses that not only lack the needle, the markings of the cardinal directions, but also lack the proper container, and one is only grasping at agenda and illusion rather than the truth.
Many have written really good columns reflecting on this somewhat nameless decade, mentioning how instead of having names like the "80's" or the "90's," the "00's" really have no verbiage except the old expression, the "aughts." Aught is an old fashioned expression that indicates when the digit 0 is used as a place holder in a number. Old school marms would tell their students to write on the chalk board, in the year 1800 for example, "one, eight, aught, aught" instead of saying to write "one, eight, zero, zero." So the best anyone could come up with is calling this nearly past decade "the aughts."
I know that many are thinking that "the aughts" is certainly a correct name as a pun, regarding the regrets and totally missed opportunities for any sort of improvement or enlightenment, peace, love and reconciliation, as those are the "ought" to haves, or the "oughts." Hardly anyone has wrapped themselves in glory the past decade and they have, instead, missed nearly every opportunity to make a wise and/or generous choice in most matters. Even what seemed like great advances or victories, or progress, nearly all ring hollow now, often surprisingly soon after these victories were achieved. I'm not being critical about specifics right now, simply summing up the zeit geist (the spirit of the times, where spirit means the mood of the times) of the past decade.
Regular readers know that one reason the aughts were the oughts was that many beliefs and goals have slowly been revealed as being imaginary, false, unjust or simply plain wrong headed. The truth is never slow to be revealed, for lies are revealed in a flash, the moment the truth is spoken in anyone's hearing. No, it is the acceptance that one has been deceived, taught wrongly, or self deluding that is slower than a snail's pace in dawning.
The aughts aka the oughts are the culmination of previous (snappily named) decades of delusion and misguided focus (on all fronts in all areas of secular life and of course tremendous amounts of false prophecy in the spiritual life). It is like vats of sad gooey slowly burning tar has fallen onto many people's heads, but that tar has been collected and cooking for several decades now.
Here is the second problem with the aughts aka the oughts. Not only do you have the first problem whereby this soon past decade is the culmination (unpleasant consequences) of lack of truth and very bad goals, but the second problem is that even when the truth dawned of bad choices, many continued to try to use the false tools to "fix" things, the tools that were fashioned based on error and delusion in the first place. Often people who claimed to "think outside the box" were those most guilty of being stuck in tar, gum and chains inside a false box to begin with.
The only way to make the next decade bearable is to return to genuine faith and reasoning, with authentic search and emphasis for truth and justice, and not the "identity theft" that faith, reasoning, truth and justice have been subjected to. If I had to give a sound byte or a slogan to help focus good intentions for the next decade it would be to regain authentic understanding of righteousness.
The righteous man or woman, boy or girl not only are the ones who will gain heaven, but they are the ones who have the correct leavening of faith and reasoning to live life honorably and to pursue genuinely virtuous goals. Without faith based righteousness (as opposed to the undesirable self righteousness) each person and their communities are like compasses that not only lack the needle, the markings of the cardinal directions, but also lack the proper container, and one is only grasping at agenda and illusion rather than the truth.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Some very wise words about love
This is from Archbishop Fulton Sheen's book "The World's First Love," which is about Mary, the mother of Jesus. I thought this section was wonderful about the general topic of love, something that I think there is terrible aridity and misunderstanding about in these increasingly freak show modern times. So read this and think about it, especially you young people (hi again, with much affection) who are drowning in the previous generation's abandonment of genuine love.
Freedom is ours really to give away because of something we love. Everyone in the world who is free wants freedom first of all as a means: he wants freedom in order to give it away. Almost everyone actually gives freedom away. Some give their freedom of thinking away to public opinion, to moods, to fashions, and to the anonymity of "they say" and thus become the willing slaves of the passing hour. Others give their freedom to alcohol and to sex and thus experience in their lives the words of Scripture: "He who commits sin is the slave of sin." Others give up their freedom in love to another person. This is a higher form of surrender and is the sweet slavery of love of which Our Savior spoke: "My yoke is sweet and my burden light." The young man who courts a young woman is practically saying to her: "I want to be your slave all the days of my life, and that will be my highest and greatest freedom." The young woman courted might say to the young man: "You say you love me, but how do I know? Have you courted the other 458,623 young eligible ladies in this city?" If the young man knew his metaphysics and philosophy well, he would answer: "In a certain sense, yes, for by the mere fact that I love you, I reject them. The very love that makes me choose you also makes me spurn them-and that will be for life."
Love therefore is not only an affirmation; it is also a rejection. The mere fact that John loves Mary with his whole heart means that he does not love Ruth with any part of it. Every protestation of love is a limitation of a wrong kind of free love. Love, here, is the curbing of freedom understood as license, and yet it is the enjoyment of perfect freedom-for all that one wants in life is to love that person. True love always imposes restrictions on itself-for the sake of others-whether it be the saint who detaches himself from the world in order more readily to adhere to Christ or the husband who detaches himself from former acquaintances to belong more readily to the spouse of his choice. True love, by its nature, is uncompromising; it is the freeing of self from selfishness and egotism. Real love uses freedom to attach itself unchangeably to another. St. Augustine has said: "Love God, and then do whatever you please." By this he meant that if you love God, you will never do anything to wound Him. In married love, likewise, there is perfect freedom, and yet one limitation that preserves that love, and that is the refusal to hurt the beloved. There is no moment no sacred in freedom than that when the ability to love others is suspended and checked by the interest one has in the pledged one of his heart; there then arises a moment when one abandons the seizure and the capture for the pleasure of contemplating it and when the need to possess and devour disappears in the joy of seeing another live.
And an interesting insight into love is this-that, to just the extent that we reject love, we lose our gifts. No refugee from Russia sends a gift back to a dictator; God's gifts, too, are dependent on our love.
Fulton Sheen, 1952
***
(Note: hence his reference to the dictator of Russia which was in full out Communism at that time, which thankfully has changed since the 1990's. Still the analogy holds true: When one escapes from oppression, slavery or dictatorship, one does not send back a "thank you gift.")
I'll let you all mull this over, as it's one of the wisest things I've seen about love and you need no real commentary from me. Do, however, compare this to the "meat market" and "shopping for the hottest at the time" mentality that so many of the past two generations have, and realize that is real slavery, not freedom, per the Archbishop's explanation and analogy of dating and comparing one's choice to all the other young ladies in an entire city!
Freedom is ours really to give away because of something we love. Everyone in the world who is free wants freedom first of all as a means: he wants freedom in order to give it away. Almost everyone actually gives freedom away. Some give their freedom of thinking away to public opinion, to moods, to fashions, and to the anonymity of "they say" and thus become the willing slaves of the passing hour. Others give their freedom to alcohol and to sex and thus experience in their lives the words of Scripture: "He who commits sin is the slave of sin." Others give up their freedom in love to another person. This is a higher form of surrender and is the sweet slavery of love of which Our Savior spoke: "My yoke is sweet and my burden light." The young man who courts a young woman is practically saying to her: "I want to be your slave all the days of my life, and that will be my highest and greatest freedom." The young woman courted might say to the young man: "You say you love me, but how do I know? Have you courted the other 458,623 young eligible ladies in this city?" If the young man knew his metaphysics and philosophy well, he would answer: "In a certain sense, yes, for by the mere fact that I love you, I reject them. The very love that makes me choose you also makes me spurn them-and that will be for life."
Love therefore is not only an affirmation; it is also a rejection. The mere fact that John loves Mary with his whole heart means that he does not love Ruth with any part of it. Every protestation of love is a limitation of a wrong kind of free love. Love, here, is the curbing of freedom understood as license, and yet it is the enjoyment of perfect freedom-for all that one wants in life is to love that person. True love always imposes restrictions on itself-for the sake of others-whether it be the saint who detaches himself from the world in order more readily to adhere to Christ or the husband who detaches himself from former acquaintances to belong more readily to the spouse of his choice. True love, by its nature, is uncompromising; it is the freeing of self from selfishness and egotism. Real love uses freedom to attach itself unchangeably to another. St. Augustine has said: "Love God, and then do whatever you please." By this he meant that if you love God, you will never do anything to wound Him. In married love, likewise, there is perfect freedom, and yet one limitation that preserves that love, and that is the refusal to hurt the beloved. There is no moment no sacred in freedom than that when the ability to love others is suspended and checked by the interest one has in the pledged one of his heart; there then arises a moment when one abandons the seizure and the capture for the pleasure of contemplating it and when the need to possess and devour disappears in the joy of seeing another live.
And an interesting insight into love is this-that, to just the extent that we reject love, we lose our gifts. No refugee from Russia sends a gift back to a dictator; God's gifts, too, are dependent on our love.
Fulton Sheen, 1952
***
(Note: hence his reference to the dictator of Russia which was in full out Communism at that time, which thankfully has changed since the 1990's. Still the analogy holds true: When one escapes from oppression, slavery or dictatorship, one does not send back a "thank you gift.")
I'll let you all mull this over, as it's one of the wisest things I've seen about love and you need no real commentary from me. Do, however, compare this to the "meat market" and "shopping for the hottest at the time" mentality that so many of the past two generations have, and realize that is real slavery, not freedom, per the Archbishop's explanation and analogy of dating and comparing one's choice to all the other young ladies in an entire city!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Thought for the day
Has anyone ever thought about how sad God is, and does indeed grieve, whenever someone rejects being happy with him in heaven, and insists, repeatedly, on going to hell?
God does indeed feel deep sadness and grief that you cannot imagine when someone who he has repeatedly reached out to turns his or her back on him.
God does indeed feel deep sadness and grief that you cannot imagine when someone who he has repeatedly reached out to turns his or her back on him.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Fulton Sheen about sin and human nature
While not (yet) declared a saint, few of this past century have led more to God than the late, great Archbishop Fulton Sheen. One can never go wrong reading the writings of Fulton Sheen, or watching those episodes of his television show that one can find. Here is a section of his writing, taken from the Michael Dubruiel book “Praying in the Presence of Our Lord with Fulton J. Sheen” that I’ve wanted to share and point out to you for several days now.
From “Peace of Soul” by Fulton Sheen:
First, man is not an angel, nor is he a devil. He is not intrinsically corrupt (as theologians began claiming four hundred years ago) nor is he intrinsically divine (as philosophers began saying fifty years ago). Rather, man has aspirations to good which he finds it impossible to realize completely by himself; at the same time, he has an inclination toward evil which solicits him away from these ideals. He is like a man who is down in a well through his own stupidity. He knows he ought not to be there, but cannot get out by himself. Or, to change the picture, he is like a clock whose mainspring is broken. He needs to be fixed on the inside, but the repairs must be supplied from without. He is mistaken if he is an optimist, who believes evolution to be the mainspring, or a pessimist who believes that nobody can fix him. He is a creature who can run well again, but only if some watchmaker will have the kindness to repair him.
Second, this conflict has all the appearances of being due to the abuse of human freedom. As the drunkard is what he is, because of an act of choice, so human nature seems to have lost the original goodness with which a Good God endowed it, through an act of choice. As St. Augustine said, “Whatever we are, we are not what we ought to be.” The origin of this conflict has been told by medieval and modern theologians through the analogy of music. Picture an orchestra on stage with a celebrated conductor directing the beautiful symphony he himself composed. Each member of the orchestra is free to follow the conductor and thus to produce harmony. But each member is also free to disobey the conductor. Suppose one of the musicians deliberately plays a false note and then induces a violinist alongside of him to do the same. Having heard the discord, the conductor can do one of two things. He could either strike his baton and order the measure replayed, or he could ignore the discord. It would make no difference which he did, for that discord has already gone out into space at a certain temperature at the rate of about 1100 feet a second. On and on it goes, affecting even the infinitesimally small radiations of the universe. As the stone dropped in a pond causes a ripple which affects the most distant shore, so this discord affects even the stars. As long as time endures, somewhere in God’s universe there is a disharmony, introduced by the free will of man.
Could that discord be stopped? Not by man himself, for man could never reach it; time is irreversible and man is localized in space. It could, however, be stopped by the Eternal coming out of His agelessness into time, laying hold of the false note, arresting it in its flight? But would it still be discord in God’s Hands? No! Not if God wrote a new symphony and made the false note its first note! Then all would be harmony again.
From “Peace of Soul” by Fulton Sheen:
First, man is not an angel, nor is he a devil. He is not intrinsically corrupt (as theologians began claiming four hundred years ago) nor is he intrinsically divine (as philosophers began saying fifty years ago). Rather, man has aspirations to good which he finds it impossible to realize completely by himself; at the same time, he has an inclination toward evil which solicits him away from these ideals. He is like a man who is down in a well through his own stupidity. He knows he ought not to be there, but cannot get out by himself. Or, to change the picture, he is like a clock whose mainspring is broken. He needs to be fixed on the inside, but the repairs must be supplied from without. He is mistaken if he is an optimist, who believes evolution to be the mainspring, or a pessimist who believes that nobody can fix him. He is a creature who can run well again, but only if some watchmaker will have the kindness to repair him.
Second, this conflict has all the appearances of being due to the abuse of human freedom. As the drunkard is what he is, because of an act of choice, so human nature seems to have lost the original goodness with which a Good God endowed it, through an act of choice. As St. Augustine said, “Whatever we are, we are not what we ought to be.” The origin of this conflict has been told by medieval and modern theologians through the analogy of music. Picture an orchestra on stage with a celebrated conductor directing the beautiful symphony he himself composed. Each member of the orchestra is free to follow the conductor and thus to produce harmony. But each member is also free to disobey the conductor. Suppose one of the musicians deliberately plays a false note and then induces a violinist alongside of him to do the same. Having heard the discord, the conductor can do one of two things. He could either strike his baton and order the measure replayed, or he could ignore the discord. It would make no difference which he did, for that discord has already gone out into space at a certain temperature at the rate of about 1100 feet a second. On and on it goes, affecting even the infinitesimally small radiations of the universe. As the stone dropped in a pond causes a ripple which affects the most distant shore, so this discord affects even the stars. As long as time endures, somewhere in God’s universe there is a disharmony, introduced by the free will of man.
Could that discord be stopped? Not by man himself, for man could never reach it; time is irreversible and man is localized in space. It could, however, be stopped by the Eternal coming out of His agelessness into time, laying hold of the false note, arresting it in its flight? But would it still be discord in God’s Hands? No! Not if God wrote a new symphony and made the false note its first note! Then all would be harmony again.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Understanding God: all knowing not predestination
Every once in a while I don't mind a dash of Calvinism because they are healthy reminders that there is a real, genuine terrible hell, and that people really do go to an actual hell. Too many moderns do not preach fear of going to hell enough, to be honest. So sometimes I joke that we need some fire and brimstone preaching about hell from Calvinists.
However, there is a very fundamental error in Calvinism (beside the whole Protestant split from Catholicism quarrel) that needs clearing up. Calvin and his followers believe in "predestination," which is the cause of much of the historic antagonism between Calvinism and Catholicism. Catholics assert that there is free will, where people choose whether or not to sin, and thus must bear the consequences of sin. Calvinists believe that all of this is "predetermined" before one is born, and thus one is born to either be saved to heaven or doomed to hell, no matter what that person does.
Predestination is an error and is incorrect. It results from a misunderstanding of God's "all knowing-ness." For those of you new to my blog or new to reading my "understanding God" series, if you follow the label you will be able to read what I have previously written about God's attributes (for lack of a better word), including his knowledge of all that was, all that is, all that will be, and all that could ever be (the answer to every "what if" question), to the minutest level. I discuss how God knows the action, past present and future, of every subatomic particle, no matter how small, every void of space, and all the matter, energy, time and nothingness that ever was, could be (if God had willed it to be), or will be (what he does will). For example, God knows each subatomic particle in one cell of your skin, for example, knowing where each particle came from and where it is going, to the end of time.
Thus God knows the thought of every human being, their intentions, their actions, and also all that they have done and all that they will do. However, there is a great difference between God knowing what one will do throughout life (and thus where one will go after life, when one dies) and predestination. God knows what choices you will make in life, but God still allows you to make those choices, one after the other. If one was genuinely "predestined" to heaven or hell, God would not allow humans to make individual choices about behavior day to day. You would find that you are marching through a script, and that most certainly is not true. So Calvinists believe that a person is going to go to hell, for example, no matter what they do in life, and likewise someone else is destined to heaven. That most assuredly is not true and both God in the Old Testament and Jesus Christ in the New Testament emphasize that one must make continual choices throughout life, to be righteous or to sin. God knows what choices each person will make, but that does not mean that God has made those choices for you.
Each person still has to make individual choices that in sum total are 1) acceptance of the grace of God and 2) are righteous and 3) are genuinely repenting of sin in order to achieve heaven. In other words one has to live life, step by step, decision by decision, and God is not going to make those decisions for you. God knows what you will decide and that is God's "all knowing." However, you still have to live your life and work to make good life affirming decisions, and to shun and regret sin when it does occur.
Think about it with this theoretical. Suppose one felt that he or she was "predestined" for heaven, no matter what he or she did. Would that incline a person to be very mindful of the consequences of their behavior? No, it would not. Likewise a person who thinks they are predestined to hell will not make much of an effort to do what is right. Predestination is such a pernicious and filled with despair attitude that it gave qualms to even some of the most holy of the saints, when they encountered this idea in their youth. What people must remind themselves of is what is in the Bible. From cover to cover, and with plain and loving but stern speech by Jesus Christ himself, the Bible teaches the avoidance of temptation and evil and the choosing of the good. The Bible would not continually teach good choices in life if the fact was that the choices were already made for someone due to "predestination."
So the Calvinists misunderstand the fact that God knows in advance the heart and the deeds of all humans with thus assuming that God has predetermined as in established as a fact where they are going before they are even born. This is simply not true and remember, God created humans in the first place so that they can make choices and be individuals who elect God and love their neighbor. If God wanted robots he would have created really good ones and not have bothered with either humans or angels (who also made their choice whether to serve or to not). God knowing in advance what choices one will make does not mean God requires, forces, or guides one's steps inexorably down that "path" to either heaven or hell. Each human does that all on his or her own, with each step of their life.
Remember too that God would not have given each person guardian angels if the purpose of the angels was just to watch one group march to hell, and the other group to heaven. Angels interact with humans with a continual bias and spirit toward doing the good, doing the best, and resisting temptation. Likewise the Holy Spirit moves constantly among all people, those who are making good choices but especially among those making bad choices, trying to guide them back to the healthy, the good, the loving and the righteous. I hope that you have found this helpful.
Joshua 24:15
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
However, there is a very fundamental error in Calvinism (beside the whole Protestant split from Catholicism quarrel) that needs clearing up. Calvin and his followers believe in "predestination," which is the cause of much of the historic antagonism between Calvinism and Catholicism. Catholics assert that there is free will, where people choose whether or not to sin, and thus must bear the consequences of sin. Calvinists believe that all of this is "predetermined" before one is born, and thus one is born to either be saved to heaven or doomed to hell, no matter what that person does.
Predestination is an error and is incorrect. It results from a misunderstanding of God's "all knowing-ness." For those of you new to my blog or new to reading my "understanding God" series, if you follow the label you will be able to read what I have previously written about God's attributes (for lack of a better word), including his knowledge of all that was, all that is, all that will be, and all that could ever be (the answer to every "what if" question), to the minutest level. I discuss how God knows the action, past present and future, of every subatomic particle, no matter how small, every void of space, and all the matter, energy, time and nothingness that ever was, could be (if God had willed it to be), or will be (what he does will). For example, God knows each subatomic particle in one cell of your skin, for example, knowing where each particle came from and where it is going, to the end of time.
Thus God knows the thought of every human being, their intentions, their actions, and also all that they have done and all that they will do. However, there is a great difference between God knowing what one will do throughout life (and thus where one will go after life, when one dies) and predestination. God knows what choices you will make in life, but God still allows you to make those choices, one after the other. If one was genuinely "predestined" to heaven or hell, God would not allow humans to make individual choices about behavior day to day. You would find that you are marching through a script, and that most certainly is not true. So Calvinists believe that a person is going to go to hell, for example, no matter what they do in life, and likewise someone else is destined to heaven. That most assuredly is not true and both God in the Old Testament and Jesus Christ in the New Testament emphasize that one must make continual choices throughout life, to be righteous or to sin. God knows what choices each person will make, but that does not mean that God has made those choices for you.
Each person still has to make individual choices that in sum total are 1) acceptance of the grace of God and 2) are righteous and 3) are genuinely repenting of sin in order to achieve heaven. In other words one has to live life, step by step, decision by decision, and God is not going to make those decisions for you. God knows what you will decide and that is God's "all knowing." However, you still have to live your life and work to make good life affirming decisions, and to shun and regret sin when it does occur.
Think about it with this theoretical. Suppose one felt that he or she was "predestined" for heaven, no matter what he or she did. Would that incline a person to be very mindful of the consequences of their behavior? No, it would not. Likewise a person who thinks they are predestined to hell will not make much of an effort to do what is right. Predestination is such a pernicious and filled with despair attitude that it gave qualms to even some of the most holy of the saints, when they encountered this idea in their youth. What people must remind themselves of is what is in the Bible. From cover to cover, and with plain and loving but stern speech by Jesus Christ himself, the Bible teaches the avoidance of temptation and evil and the choosing of the good. The Bible would not continually teach good choices in life if the fact was that the choices were already made for someone due to "predestination."
So the Calvinists misunderstand the fact that God knows in advance the heart and the deeds of all humans with thus assuming that God has predetermined as in established as a fact where they are going before they are even born. This is simply not true and remember, God created humans in the first place so that they can make choices and be individuals who elect God and love their neighbor. If God wanted robots he would have created really good ones and not have bothered with either humans or angels (who also made their choice whether to serve or to not). God knowing in advance what choices one will make does not mean God requires, forces, or guides one's steps inexorably down that "path" to either heaven or hell. Each human does that all on his or her own, with each step of their life.
Remember too that God would not have given each person guardian angels if the purpose of the angels was just to watch one group march to hell, and the other group to heaven. Angels interact with humans with a continual bias and spirit toward doing the good, doing the best, and resisting temptation. Likewise the Holy Spirit moves constantly among all people, those who are making good choices but especially among those making bad choices, trying to guide them back to the healthy, the good, the loving and the righteous. I hope that you have found this helpful.
Joshua 24:15
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Prayer by a saint who had all 7 gifts
Before posting the Bible citations regarding the gift of the Holy Spirit Understanding, and before moving on to discuss the gift of the Holy Spirit that rests on all the previous gifts, Wisdom, here is a prayer that is written by a holy man who not only had great fullness of all seven gifts, but also demonstrates the gifts in this prayer that he wrote. This is by the great St. Augustine, who was born and lived in Africa 354-430. It is quite an understanding of the reality of the temptations and realities of human nature. Only a man so thoroughly receptive of the gifts of Fear of the Lord, Piety, Knowledge, Fortitude, Counsel, Understanding and Wisdom could comprehend humans and God so well, and write this.
Prayer of St. Augustine
Before Thine eyes, O Lord, we bring our sins, and we compare them with the stripes we have received.
If we examine the evil we have wrought, what we suffer is little, what we deserve is great.
What we have committed is very grievous, what we have suffered is very slight.
We feel the punishment of sin, yet withdraw not from the obstinacy of sinning.
Under Thy lash our inconstancy is visited, but our sinfulness is not changed.
Our suffering soul is tormented, but our neck is not bent.
Our life groans under sorrow, yet amends not in deed.
If Thou spare us, we correct not our ways: if Thou punish, we cannot endure it.
In time of correction we confess our wrongdoing: after Thy visitation we forget that we have wept.
If Thou stretchest forth Thy hand, we promise amendment; if Thou withholdest the sword, we keep not our promise.
If Thou strikest, we cry out for mercy: if Thou sparest, we again provoke Thee to strike.
Here we are before Thee, O Lord, confessedly guilty; we know that unless Thou pardon we shall deservedly perish.
Grant then, O almighty Father, without our deserving it, the pardon we ask; Thou who madest out of nothing those who ask Thee. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
V. Deal not with us, O Lord, according to our sins.
R. Neither reward us according to our iniquities.
Let us pray.-O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy suppliant people, and turn away the scourges of Thy wrath, which we deserve for our sins. Through Christ our Lord. R. Amen.
Prayer of St. Augustine
Before Thine eyes, O Lord, we bring our sins, and we compare them with the stripes we have received.
If we examine the evil we have wrought, what we suffer is little, what we deserve is great.
What we have committed is very grievous, what we have suffered is very slight.
We feel the punishment of sin, yet withdraw not from the obstinacy of sinning.
Under Thy lash our inconstancy is visited, but our sinfulness is not changed.
Our suffering soul is tormented, but our neck is not bent.
Our life groans under sorrow, yet amends not in deed.
If Thou spare us, we correct not our ways: if Thou punish, we cannot endure it.
In time of correction we confess our wrongdoing: after Thy visitation we forget that we have wept.
If Thou stretchest forth Thy hand, we promise amendment; if Thou withholdest the sword, we keep not our promise.
If Thou strikest, we cry out for mercy: if Thou sparest, we again provoke Thee to strike.
Here we are before Thee, O Lord, confessedly guilty; we know that unless Thou pardon we shall deservedly perish.
Grant then, O almighty Father, without our deserving it, the pardon we ask; Thou who madest out of nothing those who ask Thee. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
V. Deal not with us, O Lord, according to our sins.
R. Neither reward us according to our iniquities.
Let us pray.-O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy suppliant people, and turn away the scourges of Thy wrath, which we deserve for our sins. Through Christ our Lord. R. Amen.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Addressing the "Why does God allow" question
I am writing this with particular attention and concern for parents and other loved ones who have lost someone, particularly a teenager, to an impaired driving, speeding, or youthful inexperience automobile accident. I know that this is a wound that is very difficult to heal, if it ever does completely. I also know that some people have their faith affirmed, while others have theirs deeply shaken. I know it is not helped when those wishing to comfort you may say that it is God’s will, and so, while I’ve addressed this before, I want to try to ease your sorrow by directly addressing situations of teenage drivers and their passengers who through impairment, speeding or youthful inexperience lose their lives in an automobile accident.
First, to answer the question directly, “Why does God allow this to happen?” Here is what would have to happen if God were to stop these accidents, which he could. Every time that a teenager drinks, speeds or lacks automotive experience and gets in danger, God would have to intervene with a miracle. If they crashed their cars, God would have to “rewind time” just for them, and either raise them from the dead or intervene at every moment that is the “point of no return,” such as forcing the speedometer down so the car cannot go any faster, or having an angel steer the wheel of the car of an inexperienced driver. It would obviously be unmistakable that God is intervening in thousands of lives on a daily basis.
In no time at all teenagers would stop wearing their seat belts, try to put “the pedal to the medal” as hard as they can in order to test how far they can speed, take drugs (to see if God only “fixes it” when they are drinking or if he will “fix” “too much” drug use too). Perhaps an extreme sport would develop where teens would race their cars to see who could get farther before God intervenes and stops the race, or they would even smash into buildings with their cars, to see if God will stop them this time, or raise them from the dead.
You know I’m not exaggerating, even though that may be your first impulse of response. If God were to answer your pleas, literally, to not allow these things to happen to teenagers, he’d have to directly intervene thousands of times a day on a miraculous basis in a way that could not be mistaken and would obviously become widely known, anticipated, and even demanded. Soon those who die in war would wonder why they are not preserved, when they are serving their country, yet teenagers who drink and drive are saved. Then the cancer and heart patients would wonder why God does not fix them, especially if they lived worthy lives and worked for many years, while God is miraculously saving those who drink and drive and now also those who fight in war. People would stop trying to be safe. It is as simple as that. People would stop trying to do better, to be safer, and to be more caring of each other, to be more childlike as children and more mature as young adults. People would soon think that staying alive no matter what one does (and how one hurts others, such as the passengers in a drunk driver auto) is all that matters, and who cares about leading a good life in order to prepare for the eternal afterlife. That is human nature. Look at people who will do anything for a high, inhaling things that outright kill them. Humans have an adrenaline addiction and an immaturity that providing miraculous cures and preventions for each instance would only encourage, not discourage, that behavior. God, in their minds, would not be “Robo-cop” but “Robo-cure,” where youngsters and eventually everyone thinks they can do whatever they want, and then the button gets pressed and God performs a miracle to cure them.
So when people say that it is God’s will that someone dies in such an automobile accident, they mean that it is God’s will that humans have alcohol, roads, cars, children and physical laws that govern mass and energy during impact. It also means that God has foreseen this event, since God is all knowing, and that he is not going to intervene, for precisely the reasons that I described above. Therefore by not intervening with a miracle it is God’s will. But it is not God’s will that a young person drink, drives and dies. How do we know that? The Bible forbids intoxication. It’s as simple as that. If God ever approved of intoxication it would be in the Bible. So when a youngster drinks, drives and causes an accident, he or she is not performing God’s will. It is God’s will that natural law continues to consistently apply when human behavior dictates.
Having said that, I would understand if at that point you think that God must be a pretty chilly character and does not understand your pain. You’d be wrong. God is all knowing and here is what that means in this context. God not only knows your pain, the pain of your loss, but he knows every iota of it now and at every moment in the future, before you even experience it. So God, obviously, being the all-knowing, knows every bit of pain and the effect it has on you from start to finish, “all at once,” as he knows every iota of the future. For example, God knows every tear you shed and will shed, every stress hormone that you emit, every pang of memory that you have, and every change in your health and behavior that you experience, all in advance, until the day that you pass on. This of course is true of everyone, all of the survivors, all of those who mourn, and the impact even on strangers and the community of each passing.
Further, while you can only imagine, and I know this is painful, all that your loved one would have experienced if he or she lived, God actually knows what would have happened in your loved one’s life. God has “the facts” and knows whether they would have graduated, gone to work, gone to college, served in the armed forces, bummed around Europe as a tourist, fixed cars, married, had children, been a grandparent, retired, and so on. So far from being a chilly character, God knows precisely the full cost and lost potential of every single person and knows the grief of that curtailed life.
God himself does not grieve because God encompasses everything, including the eternal that is outside of the boundaries of life, so God, for lack of a better expression, always puts even the saddest loss of life within the overwhelming context of eternity. But God knows humans better than they know themselves, so God indeed knows the grief of a loss to the fullest measure, more than even the parent can comprehend, since God has “all the facts” including the details of “what would have been.” No one, either God or the angels, is “happy” when someone suffers or dies tragically, but remember they are on the other side of the door seeing that person’s immortal soul. It is hard to grieve the loss of a person when that person is there with you. Thus God and the angels feel particular pity and comforting love for those who on earth, alive, suffer the loss of their loved one, and who must still go on. It is then that if one believes, and continues to believe, one can turn to God and know that as Jesus Christ taught, “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).
First, to answer the question directly, “Why does God allow this to happen?” Here is what would have to happen if God were to stop these accidents, which he could. Every time that a teenager drinks, speeds or lacks automotive experience and gets in danger, God would have to intervene with a miracle. If they crashed their cars, God would have to “rewind time” just for them, and either raise them from the dead or intervene at every moment that is the “point of no return,” such as forcing the speedometer down so the car cannot go any faster, or having an angel steer the wheel of the car of an inexperienced driver. It would obviously be unmistakable that God is intervening in thousands of lives on a daily basis.
In no time at all teenagers would stop wearing their seat belts, try to put “the pedal to the medal” as hard as they can in order to test how far they can speed, take drugs (to see if God only “fixes it” when they are drinking or if he will “fix” “too much” drug use too). Perhaps an extreme sport would develop where teens would race their cars to see who could get farther before God intervenes and stops the race, or they would even smash into buildings with their cars, to see if God will stop them this time, or raise them from the dead.
You know I’m not exaggerating, even though that may be your first impulse of response. If God were to answer your pleas, literally, to not allow these things to happen to teenagers, he’d have to directly intervene thousands of times a day on a miraculous basis in a way that could not be mistaken and would obviously become widely known, anticipated, and even demanded. Soon those who die in war would wonder why they are not preserved, when they are serving their country, yet teenagers who drink and drive are saved. Then the cancer and heart patients would wonder why God does not fix them, especially if they lived worthy lives and worked for many years, while God is miraculously saving those who drink and drive and now also those who fight in war. People would stop trying to be safe. It is as simple as that. People would stop trying to do better, to be safer, and to be more caring of each other, to be more childlike as children and more mature as young adults. People would soon think that staying alive no matter what one does (and how one hurts others, such as the passengers in a drunk driver auto) is all that matters, and who cares about leading a good life in order to prepare for the eternal afterlife. That is human nature. Look at people who will do anything for a high, inhaling things that outright kill them. Humans have an adrenaline addiction and an immaturity that providing miraculous cures and preventions for each instance would only encourage, not discourage, that behavior. God, in their minds, would not be “Robo-cop” but “Robo-cure,” where youngsters and eventually everyone thinks they can do whatever they want, and then the button gets pressed and God performs a miracle to cure them.
So when people say that it is God’s will that someone dies in such an automobile accident, they mean that it is God’s will that humans have alcohol, roads, cars, children and physical laws that govern mass and energy during impact. It also means that God has foreseen this event, since God is all knowing, and that he is not going to intervene, for precisely the reasons that I described above. Therefore by not intervening with a miracle it is God’s will. But it is not God’s will that a young person drink, drives and dies. How do we know that? The Bible forbids intoxication. It’s as simple as that. If God ever approved of intoxication it would be in the Bible. So when a youngster drinks, drives and causes an accident, he or she is not performing God’s will. It is God’s will that natural law continues to consistently apply when human behavior dictates.
Having said that, I would understand if at that point you think that God must be a pretty chilly character and does not understand your pain. You’d be wrong. God is all knowing and here is what that means in this context. God not only knows your pain, the pain of your loss, but he knows every iota of it now and at every moment in the future, before you even experience it. So God, obviously, being the all-knowing, knows every bit of pain and the effect it has on you from start to finish, “all at once,” as he knows every iota of the future. For example, God knows every tear you shed and will shed, every stress hormone that you emit, every pang of memory that you have, and every change in your health and behavior that you experience, all in advance, until the day that you pass on. This of course is true of everyone, all of the survivors, all of those who mourn, and the impact even on strangers and the community of each passing.
Further, while you can only imagine, and I know this is painful, all that your loved one would have experienced if he or she lived, God actually knows what would have happened in your loved one’s life. God has “the facts” and knows whether they would have graduated, gone to work, gone to college, served in the armed forces, bummed around Europe as a tourist, fixed cars, married, had children, been a grandparent, retired, and so on. So far from being a chilly character, God knows precisely the full cost and lost potential of every single person and knows the grief of that curtailed life.
God himself does not grieve because God encompasses everything, including the eternal that is outside of the boundaries of life, so God, for lack of a better expression, always puts even the saddest loss of life within the overwhelming context of eternity. But God knows humans better than they know themselves, so God indeed knows the grief of a loss to the fullest measure, more than even the parent can comprehend, since God has “all the facts” including the details of “what would have been.” No one, either God or the angels, is “happy” when someone suffers or dies tragically, but remember they are on the other side of the door seeing that person’s immortal soul. It is hard to grieve the loss of a person when that person is there with you. Thus God and the angels feel particular pity and comforting love for those who on earth, alive, suffer the loss of their loved one, and who must still go on. It is then that if one believes, and continues to believe, one can turn to God and know that as Jesus Christ taught, “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).
I hope that you find this helpful. Truly everyone knows that the only help for a terrible loss is the gradual effect of time. I think, though, that talking through the difficulties of God actually intervening in every case such as this is helpful, as I know that people in their pain do not think it through when they wish that God could have saved their loved one. God could do so, but that is precisely the point where humans say to God, “Well, we can’t manage our own business and live without being micromanaged, so make us robots and life will just become one big game of ‘let’s see when God will save us next.’” Remember too that it is not as if God is silent. The Holy Spirit and the guardian angels are constantly encouraging good and safe, life affirming behavior. As I’ve written previously, if one were to conduct an experiment and the Holy Spirit and the guardian angels were removed of their silent influence, life would suddenly be so dark and unbearable that humans would not even be able to stand up. The guiding encouragement of the Holy Spirit and the guardian angels is like oxygen, it is so natural and taken for granted that one would only notice it if it were totally removed, God forbid. All I can say is that parents and loved ones need to band together to reduce the immaturity and bad influences of society on the young, especially in high risk behavior, which they are all so prone to, as many humans are by nature.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Understanding God (9 of a series)
Before discussing the attribute of the infinite mercy of God, it is important to understand how God punishes. This is because humans do not seem to be able to grasp how merciful God is as long as they hold to the delusion that God punishes to be arbitrary and cruel, or to the delusion that God does not really exist as the all-knowing, and thus he does not punish at all. Whenever I discuss his mercy with humans, they always worry first to know about the punishment, hiding their own anticipation of guilt behind delusions of God's "unfairness" (too severe punishment or arbitrary) or his lack of "involvement."
A quote from the Qur'an is the most pithy in explaining the by far the most common way that God punishes. Here is the passage from the Qur'an:
Surah 22:1-2
O people! guard against (the punishment from) your Lord; surely the violence of the hour is a grievous thing.
On the day when you shall see it, every woman giving suck shall quit in confusion what she suckled, and every pregnant woman shall lay down her burden, and you shall see men intoxicated, and they shall not be intoxicated but the chastisement of Allah will be severe.
In this passage you observe two examples of God's punishment yet, how are people to interpret this, since they are examples of bad human behavior? In the first example women no longer nurse their babies and in fact, they lay down the entire burden of having children, abandoning it. And the men are not working, or protesting their women no longer caring about their children, but instead are lolling around drunk and "under the influence." So how is this punishment by God, to say nothing of being "violence" of punishment, its most severe?
It is simply this. When God seeks to punish he just steps out of the way, and grows silent, and lets humans "do what they want." The Holy Spirit stirs less and less (though never totally abandoning humans) and humans are left free to architect their own downfall. Nothing God could "think of doing" to "cause suffering" is worse than what humans come up with on their own, in their grave woundedness and hubris. And is this not exactly what we have seen in society today? Has not God let you all have "just what you wanted?" Birth control so that families are totally abandoned, abortion, pornography, sexual violence, sexual exploitation of children, violent entertainment, depressive goth and vampire "culture," use of occult tools, idolatry, alcohol and drug addiction? These are all things that have stemmed from humans deciding that they know best about being "liberated" and "sensual beings." And so millions of women have laid down and denied the joys and the responsibilities of having and caring for children, and two generations of men have been drunks and drug pushers and users. Whenever you open up a news story on any given day you can read what "joy" and "liberation" such a "free will" society has become, whether it is a child gunned down in her bed because drug gangs have a shoot out in the street, or crack or meth head parents letting their infants die of neglect, often horribly abused in addition to the lack of care. And so many women just want to be "sex in the city single" with no child and no bulges to their figure from pregnancy that there are times when I worked in Manhattan that I could go weeks without seeing a child. A generation has been skipped, and now when women (often too young) do have children, they grew up with parents who didn't have a clue how to properly and lovingly raise a child. And so you have babies born to mothers who beat them to death, or who let their boyfriends do it for them.
How can anyone not see this freak show society as punishment? I feel punished every day just watching all of you who think that you have achieved "liberation."
So when God punishes, he doesn't "zap" someone, or have a temper tantrum like humans do (for example, a Swedish rapper just drove over a California musician pedestrian, killing him, in a "crosswalk" "road rage" situation). When God has tried and tried and tried to get humans to use their free will in a healthy and loving way, and all else fails, and he must punish, he steps aside. God simply steps aside and lets all of you "do your own thing." And a woeful thing it is that you do. I love how modern atheists like to blame organized religion for everything. Gosh, yep, those bad religions, going out and making people be addicted to porn, booze, drugs, guns, forming violent street gangs, popping off children, convincing crack and meth head parents to beat them to death (maybe after first filming them being sexually abused)... yep, you sure got us there. I'm surprised that secularists and atheists "cracked the secret code" where the institutional religions are preaching all that behavior in the sermons, driving the otherwise enlightened people out to such depravity *sarcasm.* It's not a coincidence that atheists and other religion detractors have to keep quoting the same dreary "examples" (the Inquisition, Islamic extremism, etc) yet ignore that puzzlingly, the worst blights of society are the very things that the faithful, to say nothing of God, frown upon.
I can of course cite from the Bible, in addition to the Qur'an, this insight into God's prevalent form of punishment, which is to step aside and let humans do what they "really want to do," but no where is it as pithy and prescient as in this passage from the Qur'an.
I hope that you have found this helpful.
Homework assignment: So, goodness gracious, if God punishes by letting people do the wicked things they want to do, until they bring suffering onto their own heads, what does God do to bring mercy to humans? What could it possibly be? Maybe, send his Son to point the way? Maybe send the Holy Spirit to not only enlighten, but stir the guilty conscience? Maybe set some boundaries, and teach self containment, as any good parent would? You know, boundaries, those things that humans ignored and thus brought upon themselves the very things they oh so very much "wanted?" Should not be too difficult to figure out, but it's always good to discuss it together, as we will next time in this series.
A quote from the Qur'an is the most pithy in explaining the by far the most common way that God punishes. Here is the passage from the Qur'an:
Surah 22:1-2
O people! guard against (the punishment from) your Lord; surely the violence of the hour is a grievous thing.
On the day when you shall see it, every woman giving suck shall quit in confusion what she suckled, and every pregnant woman shall lay down her burden, and you shall see men intoxicated, and they shall not be intoxicated but the chastisement of Allah will be severe.
In this passage you observe two examples of God's punishment yet, how are people to interpret this, since they are examples of bad human behavior? In the first example women no longer nurse their babies and in fact, they lay down the entire burden of having children, abandoning it. And the men are not working, or protesting their women no longer caring about their children, but instead are lolling around drunk and "under the influence." So how is this punishment by God, to say nothing of being "violence" of punishment, its most severe?
It is simply this. When God seeks to punish he just steps out of the way, and grows silent, and lets humans "do what they want." The Holy Spirit stirs less and less (though never totally abandoning humans) and humans are left free to architect their own downfall. Nothing God could "think of doing" to "cause suffering" is worse than what humans come up with on their own, in their grave woundedness and hubris. And is this not exactly what we have seen in society today? Has not God let you all have "just what you wanted?" Birth control so that families are totally abandoned, abortion, pornography, sexual violence, sexual exploitation of children, violent entertainment, depressive goth and vampire "culture," use of occult tools, idolatry, alcohol and drug addiction? These are all things that have stemmed from humans deciding that they know best about being "liberated" and "sensual beings." And so millions of women have laid down and denied the joys and the responsibilities of having and caring for children, and two generations of men have been drunks and drug pushers and users. Whenever you open up a news story on any given day you can read what "joy" and "liberation" such a "free will" society has become, whether it is a child gunned down in her bed because drug gangs have a shoot out in the street, or crack or meth head parents letting their infants die of neglect, often horribly abused in addition to the lack of care. And so many women just want to be "sex in the city single" with no child and no bulges to their figure from pregnancy that there are times when I worked in Manhattan that I could go weeks without seeing a child. A generation has been skipped, and now when women (often too young) do have children, they grew up with parents who didn't have a clue how to properly and lovingly raise a child. And so you have babies born to mothers who beat them to death, or who let their boyfriends do it for them.
How can anyone not see this freak show society as punishment? I feel punished every day just watching all of you who think that you have achieved "liberation."
So when God punishes, he doesn't "zap" someone, or have a temper tantrum like humans do (for example, a Swedish rapper just drove over a California musician pedestrian, killing him, in a "crosswalk" "road rage" situation). When God has tried and tried and tried to get humans to use their free will in a healthy and loving way, and all else fails, and he must punish, he steps aside. God simply steps aside and lets all of you "do your own thing." And a woeful thing it is that you do. I love how modern atheists like to blame organized religion for everything. Gosh, yep, those bad religions, going out and making people be addicted to porn, booze, drugs, guns, forming violent street gangs, popping off children, convincing crack and meth head parents to beat them to death (maybe after first filming them being sexually abused)... yep, you sure got us there. I'm surprised that secularists and atheists "cracked the secret code" where the institutional religions are preaching all that behavior in the sermons, driving the otherwise enlightened people out to such depravity *sarcasm.* It's not a coincidence that atheists and other religion detractors have to keep quoting the same dreary "examples" (the Inquisition, Islamic extremism, etc) yet ignore that puzzlingly, the worst blights of society are the very things that the faithful, to say nothing of God, frown upon.
I can of course cite from the Bible, in addition to the Qur'an, this insight into God's prevalent form of punishment, which is to step aside and let humans do what they "really want to do," but no where is it as pithy and prescient as in this passage from the Qur'an.
I hope that you have found this helpful.
Homework assignment: So, goodness gracious, if God punishes by letting people do the wicked things they want to do, until they bring suffering onto their own heads, what does God do to bring mercy to humans? What could it possibly be? Maybe, send his Son to point the way? Maybe send the Holy Spirit to not only enlighten, but stir the guilty conscience? Maybe set some boundaries, and teach self containment, as any good parent would? You know, boundaries, those things that humans ignored and thus brought upon themselves the very things they oh so very much "wanted?" Should not be too difficult to figure out, but it's always good to discuss it together, as we will next time in this series.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Understanding God's will & plan for each of you
An awful lot has been written on this subject in the popular press, some good and some not too good. But one of humans' biggest challenges is to self edit to realize when you've made some assumptions about God that presume human-like limitations on him. Trying to understand God's will for humanity and his individual plan for each person is one of those areas where human brain structure keeps introducing inadvertent assumptions about God that are misleading. So I thought of, yes, an analogy, to help with what I think is the biggest problem with understanding God regarding the question of his will for humanity and his plan for each person.
Suppose you get up in the morning and go to work. Do you have a plan? You may think that you have a plan, but it is probably a "to do" list. I mean, when you get up in the morning and go to work, you are thinking about the things you need to do that day, but you are not constantly reviewing all your plans. What are "all" your plans you may ask? Well, you have a plan to be safe and healthy. You have a plan to provide for your family. You have a plan for your love and intimate life. You have a plan for education, for military service, for retirement. Unspoken but constant in your mind are plans and they all overlap because their common point is "you." But when you apply the brakes in your car at a stop light you are not thinking, "OK, I did that safely so part of safety plan is OK. I am making the correct turn at the light so yep, five years from now I will make a similar turn that takes me to graduate school. Hmm, this traffic light lasted a full minute, so my bank savings deposit has now gained another one minute of interest rate toward my retirement."
You see what I am getting at? As a normal sane human being you have a "to do list" for each day, but it is within the context of your greater conscious and unconscious plans. And most important, not every traffic stop that you make is a check mark against your plans.
Likewise God has layers of "will" and "plans" for humans that are broad based, overlapping, and allow for many small decisions that have absolutely no impact upon the "bigger picture" or the "greater plan." To think otherwise is to be mildly neurotic, which could lead to severe neurosis, and worse to magical thinking and occult behavior.
So when people of good intention write a book or talk with friends about "God's plan for you," they have the erroneous but understandable mental image of God having one single plan of sequential events, one leading to the next, from beginning to end. That is not entirely correct. It is correct that God knows what will happen, since obviously he is all knowing. That is different from it being "his plan" for you.
God's will for humanity can best be described as the general intention to invite humans individually and as a whole to know, love and serve God, and to live worthy lives as best as one can, so that one will be invited to God's eternal garden and banquet table in heaven upon a person's death. Thus God's will is to allow humans freedom of activity, but to give them commandments and admonitions in order to provide the boundaries that allow humans to 1) live good and gracious lives and 2) to merit eternal life in paradise with him. So that is God's will. Therefore, when something great happens to humanity as a whole (let's say when antibiotics were discovered), that is "God's will." Likewise when humans are terrible to each other, let's say for example in genocides, it is "God's will," not because he has it on a "plan," but because it is God's will that humans have commandments and Prophets, but then choose whether to believe them or not. That is the difference between "God's will" and "God having a plan for a person."
Just to help you to refine your understanding of God's will a bit more before we go on to describe analogies for God's plans for people. God's will was to provide Eden for people and to love and take care of them, but as we read in the Bible, first man and first woman, Adam and Eve, blew it. So God's will was to lavish providing sustenance and love on the first humans, but they wanted more, because they fell for temptation and wanted the fruit of the tree of knowledge. So God's will was for humans to have his companionship, his love and provide for all their sustenance needs. Now, you can see that just because God's will is to care for humans in the Garden, that does not mean that God does not have foreknowledge of what they will do. So there is no contradiction between God's will and then what does actually happen. This is because, like the analogy where you on your way to work have a to do list but in your background also many long term plans, God has layers of "will" toward humans. God's will is to love them and have them love him in return. But God's will is also that he will not force or coerce love from humans. God's will is that he will tell humans what they must do to be saved, but God will not force them to do it. God's will is that he will tell humans how to behave in order to live good and healthy lives (and hopefully keep humanity going), but it's also God's will that he allows humans free choice and long periods of time to reap the consequences of what they themselves sow. So you can see that God's will is comprised of strands of the human experience, none of which are contradictory.
Let's give a real example. Suppose someone has a very serious illness, one that seems terminal. The pious person in the family will pray to God for their loved one to be cured, but will often say, especially if they are Muslim, "It is God's will." Suppose the ill person then dies. Was it God's will that the person die? Yes, but only in the context of God's will as I described above. Suppose that five years before the person became ill, pharmaceutical executives decided not to invest in a new drug that might have cured that illness because it was too rare or expensive. That was "God's will" in the sense that humans have free will to make decisions, and then to reap the consequences. God did not whisper in the executives' ears "Don't develop that drug because I have on my list that a person will die for lack of that drug in five years time." When that decision is made God knows the consequences, since he knows every thought, every deed, and every implication of every thought or action by human or animal and of course the implication of every atom of movement of every piece of matter or beam of energy in the universe. So God did not draw up a plan for the ill person to die at such and such a time and place. But it is God's will that humans are given the understanding they need about how to be good to each other, and how to obey God. So this is one example of how a sad death is "God's will" within the greater context of humanity, but not a check off item on his "plan" for the person.
And by the way, I'm not demonizing pharm executives in this example, far from it. I picked that as an example because humans need reminding that there is just so much that humanity as a whole can do. Humans cannot fund 100 percent treatment and research for every illness known to humans for every human that ever lived and is alive today. Humans insisted on free will and oh boy, they got it. Humans must make ethical decisions about how to maximize for the greater good what they can do, and hard choices must be made. So I used that example to help what is often the most common anguish that faithful have toward God, which is "Why was this person taken from us?" People try to reassure by saying, "It is God's will," but the full and correct answer would be, "It is God's will that humans need to do the best they can within the realities of life, and it is God's promise that no good life is ever in vain, wasted or unrewarded, no matter how dire or sad the circumstances." This is why Jesus pointed out that "the poor shall always be with you." Jesus was pointing out that humanity will never overcome and remediate all the challenges and realities of life. Jesus was not at all implying that God has some sort of pre-applied percentages of poor people that will always be around because that's "his plan." How do we know that? Well, one of the reasons that Jesus was persecuted and crucified was because he destroyed the cruel belief prevalent at the time that the poor and the sick were "sinners" and somehow "deserved" their station in life. Jesus was crucified in no small part because he seemed to "elevate" the sinful and the lowly to the high and mighty "enlightened" and "holy ones." It is one of my great horrors that the heretical beliefs of the haughty priesthood and upper classes has reinfected modern humans, even when Jesus most thoroughly with his life refuted the idea that God sorted human lives by the "deserving" and the "undeserving" based on imaginary individual or family sin. I totally cannot believe how like a foul illness that concept has arisen again in the "new age" dementia of western modern society.
So now we can look with more confidence and understanding at how God has "a plan for each of you."
God's plan starts with the creating of a soul for you that no matter where you are in life, you are equally valued, treasured and loved by God. In token of this God also sends a guardian angel with the soul. The soul is NOT "preprogrammed" to have "plan based experiences." This is one of the great heresies and occult or at best neurotic magical thinking viral modern society problems that people face today. Both the confused faithful AND the unfaithful seem to actually share this imbalanced belief that a soul is inscribed with some sort of check list of "experiences" that is part of the soul's "destiny." This is absolutely not true. Remember, the Bible instructs that the body is the temple of the soul. It is therefore what happens in the body in life that shapes the ultimate cleanliness and goodness of the soul. The body and the environment are the drivers; the soul is along for the ride and is shaped by what each human does and what they experience.
We know this because every soul is equal and loved in God's eyes. To believe otherwise is to be contrary to the teachings of the Bible and the Qur'an, plus it ascribes to God the assigning of preferential love and even a caste system to souls. That is so outrageous. I mean, if you have grown up in a belief system where reincarnation is part of your faith, that cannot be helped and I have no disrespect, as I've said before. However, it is contrary to the faith and to the truth for any monotheistic "book of faith" believing person to ascribe preferential or detrimental "plans" or treatment to any soul by God. That is a very severe error and will be judged accordingly by God.
continued in next posting
Suppose you get up in the morning and go to work. Do you have a plan? You may think that you have a plan, but it is probably a "to do" list. I mean, when you get up in the morning and go to work, you are thinking about the things you need to do that day, but you are not constantly reviewing all your plans. What are "all" your plans you may ask? Well, you have a plan to be safe and healthy. You have a plan to provide for your family. You have a plan for your love and intimate life. You have a plan for education, for military service, for retirement. Unspoken but constant in your mind are plans and they all overlap because their common point is "you." But when you apply the brakes in your car at a stop light you are not thinking, "OK, I did that safely so part of safety plan is OK. I am making the correct turn at the light so yep, five years from now I will make a similar turn that takes me to graduate school. Hmm, this traffic light lasted a full minute, so my bank savings deposit has now gained another one minute of interest rate toward my retirement."
You see what I am getting at? As a normal sane human being you have a "to do list" for each day, but it is within the context of your greater conscious and unconscious plans. And most important, not every traffic stop that you make is a check mark against your plans.
Likewise God has layers of "will" and "plans" for humans that are broad based, overlapping, and allow for many small decisions that have absolutely no impact upon the "bigger picture" or the "greater plan." To think otherwise is to be mildly neurotic, which could lead to severe neurosis, and worse to magical thinking and occult behavior.
So when people of good intention write a book or talk with friends about "God's plan for you," they have the erroneous but understandable mental image of God having one single plan of sequential events, one leading to the next, from beginning to end. That is not entirely correct. It is correct that God knows what will happen, since obviously he is all knowing. That is different from it being "his plan" for you.
God's will for humanity can best be described as the general intention to invite humans individually and as a whole to know, love and serve God, and to live worthy lives as best as one can, so that one will be invited to God's eternal garden and banquet table in heaven upon a person's death. Thus God's will is to allow humans freedom of activity, but to give them commandments and admonitions in order to provide the boundaries that allow humans to 1) live good and gracious lives and 2) to merit eternal life in paradise with him. So that is God's will. Therefore, when something great happens to humanity as a whole (let's say when antibiotics were discovered), that is "God's will." Likewise when humans are terrible to each other, let's say for example in genocides, it is "God's will," not because he has it on a "plan," but because it is God's will that humans have commandments and Prophets, but then choose whether to believe them or not. That is the difference between "God's will" and "God having a plan for a person."
Just to help you to refine your understanding of God's will a bit more before we go on to describe analogies for God's plans for people. God's will was to provide Eden for people and to love and take care of them, but as we read in the Bible, first man and first woman, Adam and Eve, blew it. So God's will was to lavish providing sustenance and love on the first humans, but they wanted more, because they fell for temptation and wanted the fruit of the tree of knowledge. So God's will was for humans to have his companionship, his love and provide for all their sustenance needs. Now, you can see that just because God's will is to care for humans in the Garden, that does not mean that God does not have foreknowledge of what they will do. So there is no contradiction between God's will and then what does actually happen. This is because, like the analogy where you on your way to work have a to do list but in your background also many long term plans, God has layers of "will" toward humans. God's will is to love them and have them love him in return. But God's will is also that he will not force or coerce love from humans. God's will is that he will tell humans what they must do to be saved, but God will not force them to do it. God's will is that he will tell humans how to behave in order to live good and healthy lives (and hopefully keep humanity going), but it's also God's will that he allows humans free choice and long periods of time to reap the consequences of what they themselves sow. So you can see that God's will is comprised of strands of the human experience, none of which are contradictory.
Let's give a real example. Suppose someone has a very serious illness, one that seems terminal. The pious person in the family will pray to God for their loved one to be cured, but will often say, especially if they are Muslim, "It is God's will." Suppose the ill person then dies. Was it God's will that the person die? Yes, but only in the context of God's will as I described above. Suppose that five years before the person became ill, pharmaceutical executives decided not to invest in a new drug that might have cured that illness because it was too rare or expensive. That was "God's will" in the sense that humans have free will to make decisions, and then to reap the consequences. God did not whisper in the executives' ears "Don't develop that drug because I have on my list that a person will die for lack of that drug in five years time." When that decision is made God knows the consequences, since he knows every thought, every deed, and every implication of every thought or action by human or animal and of course the implication of every atom of movement of every piece of matter or beam of energy in the universe. So God did not draw up a plan for the ill person to die at such and such a time and place. But it is God's will that humans are given the understanding they need about how to be good to each other, and how to obey God. So this is one example of how a sad death is "God's will" within the greater context of humanity, but not a check off item on his "plan" for the person.
And by the way, I'm not demonizing pharm executives in this example, far from it. I picked that as an example because humans need reminding that there is just so much that humanity as a whole can do. Humans cannot fund 100 percent treatment and research for every illness known to humans for every human that ever lived and is alive today. Humans insisted on free will and oh boy, they got it. Humans must make ethical decisions about how to maximize for the greater good what they can do, and hard choices must be made. So I used that example to help what is often the most common anguish that faithful have toward God, which is "Why was this person taken from us?" People try to reassure by saying, "It is God's will," but the full and correct answer would be, "It is God's will that humans need to do the best they can within the realities of life, and it is God's promise that no good life is ever in vain, wasted or unrewarded, no matter how dire or sad the circumstances." This is why Jesus pointed out that "the poor shall always be with you." Jesus was pointing out that humanity will never overcome and remediate all the challenges and realities of life. Jesus was not at all implying that God has some sort of pre-applied percentages of poor people that will always be around because that's "his plan." How do we know that? Well, one of the reasons that Jesus was persecuted and crucified was because he destroyed the cruel belief prevalent at the time that the poor and the sick were "sinners" and somehow "deserved" their station in life. Jesus was crucified in no small part because he seemed to "elevate" the sinful and the lowly to the high and mighty "enlightened" and "holy ones." It is one of my great horrors that the heretical beliefs of the haughty priesthood and upper classes has reinfected modern humans, even when Jesus most thoroughly with his life refuted the idea that God sorted human lives by the "deserving" and the "undeserving" based on imaginary individual or family sin. I totally cannot believe how like a foul illness that concept has arisen again in the "new age" dementia of western modern society.
So now we can look with more confidence and understanding at how God has "a plan for each of you."
God's plan starts with the creating of a soul for you that no matter where you are in life, you are equally valued, treasured and loved by God. In token of this God also sends a guardian angel with the soul. The soul is NOT "preprogrammed" to have "plan based experiences." This is one of the great heresies and occult or at best neurotic magical thinking viral modern society problems that people face today. Both the confused faithful AND the unfaithful seem to actually share this imbalanced belief that a soul is inscribed with some sort of check list of "experiences" that is part of the soul's "destiny." This is absolutely not true. Remember, the Bible instructs that the body is the temple of the soul. It is therefore what happens in the body in life that shapes the ultimate cleanliness and goodness of the soul. The body and the environment are the drivers; the soul is along for the ride and is shaped by what each human does and what they experience.
We know this because every soul is equal and loved in God's eyes. To believe otherwise is to be contrary to the teachings of the Bible and the Qur'an, plus it ascribes to God the assigning of preferential love and even a caste system to souls. That is so outrageous. I mean, if you have grown up in a belief system where reincarnation is part of your faith, that cannot be helped and I have no disrespect, as I've said before. However, it is contrary to the faith and to the truth for any monotheistic "book of faith" believing person to ascribe preferential or detrimental "plans" or treatment to any soul by God. That is a very severe error and will be judged accordingly by God.
continued in next posting
Monday, July 21, 2008
Understanding irony, and a current event example
Irony is a form of humor, popular (and I guess originating) in England. The British claim, rightly, that Americans tend not to understand irony. I've explained (and will continue to cultivate one's appreciation of) subversive humor. I'm not fond of irony but I think it is important to understand, especially when an incredibly ironic event happens, as did in the past twenty four hours. Understanding irony is often a healthy barrier against "magical thinking." These past two generations are infected with occult, New Age, "alien" and "magical" interpretations of everyday events. They especially tend not to understand cause-effect, and mistake-consequences. They live in a very strange imaginary world that as the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has described, it is a spiritual desert, one that has made much of the world very painful to live in.
OK, so "irony" is a form of humor where something is said and done that looks good or funny at first, but on further thought it has a "bad ending." Here's an example.
I was in England on business some years ago and decided to go to Canterbury and see the cathedral. So I took the train. When I got there I noticed a billboard, advertising something, I forget what, but some food or something that could be purchased at a grocery store. And on the advert there was drawn a huge coupon, with the statement basically saying, "And here's a coupon for you to use, giving you a discount on purchase of this item!" So there is a drawing of a coupon and it being "offered" to you, but it's like 30 feet up and a fake coupon, just part of the billboard.
That is classic "irony." The ad looks all cute and funny at first, but then you realize with a sag that the author of the "irony" is lifting your expectations, just to disappoint. So irony is a joke, or natural events, that at first look funny or like a good idea, but has a "bad outcome." If it is a joke then the let down is deliberate. If it is an event the events unfold the way they do, but the "bad outcome" is more of a natural outcome of an attempt to be humorous or agenda driven.
So that is irony. The next post will show you today's dreadful example.
OK, so "irony" is a form of humor where something is said and done that looks good or funny at first, but on further thought it has a "bad ending." Here's an example.
I was in England on business some years ago and decided to go to Canterbury and see the cathedral. So I took the train. When I got there I noticed a billboard, advertising something, I forget what, but some food or something that could be purchased at a grocery store. And on the advert there was drawn a huge coupon, with the statement basically saying, "And here's a coupon for you to use, giving you a discount on purchase of this item!" So there is a drawing of a coupon and it being "offered" to you, but it's like 30 feet up and a fake coupon, just part of the billboard.
That is classic "irony." The ad looks all cute and funny at first, but then you realize with a sag that the author of the "irony" is lifting your expectations, just to disappoint. So irony is a joke, or natural events, that at first look funny or like a good idea, but has a "bad outcome." If it is a joke then the let down is deliberate. If it is an event the events unfold the way they do, but the "bad outcome" is more of a natural outcome of an attempt to be humorous or agenda driven.
So that is irony. The next post will show you today's dreadful example.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Very emotional article, losing mom to hit and run
Read this article about a family who is carrying on without their loving mom, who was struck and killed while walking with her daughter. The driver of the car ran but has been identified and charged, with the case slowly working its way through court. But this article is so special because it so very well captures the unbelievably sad hole that is left when a wife and mother is lost in such a pointless way. It is a reminder to everyone not to take a good husband or wife, mother or father for granted. I know that when my father died, though of an illness, not a crime like this, when I was only eight, nothing can ever really take his place. I was blessed with a stepfather who was a very good man, although he came along just before I was ready to leave the house for college.
Anyway, do read the article about this wonderful family.
http://www.projo.com/news/content/AGUIAR_07-06-08_N8AKL97_v58.3a396ed.html
***
I have to comment about the uneasiness with those who "comfort" people by saying that God "took" their loved one. This is a modern expression and characterization that while well meant has lost its previously proper basis in theology and faith.
God certainly did not send some drunk to mow this woman down because "it was her time" and "God needed another angel in heaven." Where this has crept into the comfort and condolence language, even among pastors, is that it is a distortion of accepting "God's will." It's God's will that people run around and manage their own lives, and that includes things like discovering technology like the automobile, and manufacturing beverages including liquor. So God's will is that human have been given the Commandments, the holy books, the Savior and many authentic prophets in the past to direct how humans should handle their "free will" God given capability.
Pastors of several hundred years ago would NEVER have said "God took her" or "God needed another angel" and impugn that this was therefore a deliberate act by God himself. Pastors and the faithful understood that it is God's will (that humans exist and therefore sorrow exists in the world) and that God has taken her to heaven (because that's where good and pious people go). Everyone in the Christian faiths well understood the difference between God's will and the outcomes of actions versus God sending someone to zap an innocent person just because some clock has run out or because "God's lonely." Sheesh.
So the family is well within their rights to be disconcerted by such ham handed and theologically incorrect condolence, however well meant that it may be. Pastors have a responsibility not to go along with societal sloppy thinking that results in such inaccurate canards.
I really feel for this family and offer prayers and blessings that they can carry on and glorify their remaining family in her honor.
Anyway, do read the article about this wonderful family.
http://www.projo.com/news/content/AGUIAR_07-06-08_N8AKL97_v58.3a396ed.html
***
I have to comment about the uneasiness with those who "comfort" people by saying that God "took" their loved one. This is a modern expression and characterization that while well meant has lost its previously proper basis in theology and faith.
God certainly did not send some drunk to mow this woman down because "it was her time" and "God needed another angel in heaven." Where this has crept into the comfort and condolence language, even among pastors, is that it is a distortion of accepting "God's will." It's God's will that people run around and manage their own lives, and that includes things like discovering technology like the automobile, and manufacturing beverages including liquor. So God's will is that human have been given the Commandments, the holy books, the Savior and many authentic prophets in the past to direct how humans should handle their "free will" God given capability.
Pastors of several hundred years ago would NEVER have said "God took her" or "God needed another angel" and impugn that this was therefore a deliberate act by God himself. Pastors and the faithful understood that it is God's will (that humans exist and therefore sorrow exists in the world) and that God has taken her to heaven (because that's where good and pious people go). Everyone in the Christian faiths well understood the difference between God's will and the outcomes of actions versus God sending someone to zap an innocent person just because some clock has run out or because "God's lonely." Sheesh.
So the family is well within their rights to be disconcerted by such ham handed and theologically incorrect condolence, however well meant that it may be. Pastors have a responsibility not to go along with societal sloppy thinking that results in such inaccurate canards.
I really feel for this family and offer prayers and blessings that they can carry on and glorify their remaining family in her honor.
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