Timeless Understandings I: Facets of the Same Gem [Origins: Mother = Secular Humanist; Dad = Mormon; Uncle = Fundamentalist Christian; Stepdad = Jewish; Aunt = Goddess; Grandmother = Mason; Me = Originally Atheist, then a Born-Again Agnostic, now a Militant Agnostic (I dont know and you dont either!) - I went searching for the origins of God and found the nurturing Earth. Often symbolized as Goddess, but not my symbol.] Timeless Understandings I: Facets of the Same Gem One of many possible meanings of life: to promote life™ In the beginning an event occurred that is beyond our understanding. Something came from nothing. There are two presiding theories. One is that one or more supernatural beings were or became existent and brought matter and form into existence. The other is that one or more instances of matter were or became existent and subsequently spread throughout the universe. Declaring that God could not exist is not possible. If the ‘so called’ “Big Bang” is correct, its’ infinitely dense matter became existent in a fashion that might have given rise to a supernatural consciousness. We CANNOT know. That being said, I am also unable to perceive any direct evidence for the existence of a supernatural being. Further, my studies of history have cast deep and wary suspicions on the institutional use of spiritual instincts. I think no religion has got the true complete picture. I think there are many paths equally accurate in their approach to the divine. They are all facets of the same gem. God seems to me the manifestation of our compassion in each denomination. I am a limited materialist who thinks attachment to material is misguided. All the material passes away…eventually, but that doesn’t make it unreal. I think we are each 1/7 billionth of the current manifestation of God/Karma/whatever. We can influence the sufferings or lessenings thereof in the current and future generations. A much greater portion of reality is the relationships between people (including at societal levels) and, for me, THAT is the eternal. I do not subscribe to any notion of an immaterial existence (IMHO, thought derives from material properties of brain matter.) Concepts such as an afterlife, a supernatural being, the absolute separation of mind and matter, are foreign to my cognizance and heart. They are POSSIBILITIES in my mind, but the EFFECT of anything on the material world is how I perceive it. I feel that spiritual connectedness might be a way to bring the intentions of humans into manifest goodness. Maybe a little less greed. I know I don’t know enough to stop others from searching for the divine nor interfering with or curtailing divinity revealed to them, that’s about it. Any discussion must be invitational. For the most part, I think life has elements “to promote life”, e.g., ‘memory/instinct, claws, armor, compassion(i.e, sharing of resources, skills, etc.), etc.’ as evolutionary traits. Humans additionally have reasoning to help guide choices, not always done so, but that’s another topic. Those added with truly human altruistic factors manifest a God ‘conglomeration.’ The actions of the conglomerate god are tangible. Hundreds of scientists over a few centuries allowed Jonas Salk to (finally) develop the polio vaccine. It can be ‘what we want it to be’, it can be ‘what power hungry people want it to be’, but we still have drives towards liberty, and non-interference with our lives, hopes for our children to prosper and be happy overall, etc. These elements guide our choices towards bettering life, not always successfully, but it seems a drive and aspiration. On a darker path, oppressions via violence by the power hungry and bigoted may necessitate some violence in self-defence. The following seems one of my more controversial propositions, but it does illustrate one of my personal precepts: I think arming women who CHOOSE to NOT wear a burqa or possess some other ‘threat to honor’ will result in less of them being stoned to death (and otherwise attacked, honor killed, etc.) and after a short time of likely escalation the number of deaths via any method of attack will be significantly less than the number previously being stoned to death/honor killed/etc. My trust ends when you strike at me or my companions. If you don’t attack, you’ll never see a gun. Ultimately I seek to find better approximations of the ACTUAL motives of the Global Powers and societies, because they (and hopefully ‘we’ via consumer/legislative choices) are the ones who control the environmental laws (so we HAVE a planet), the economics (so people can have a decent living) and the prejudice (so all races, creeds, genders, etc. may have TRUE opportunity for growth and prospering). DIVINITY INVITES US TO UNDERSTAND. Ignorance (esp. when institutionally restricted) is one of the more significant separations from the divine. Religion ‘is’, but so are other motivations, including those guised as religious, such as racism in religious guise, economic exploitation in religious guise, etc. giving religion an unfair bad name (in SOME cases). Further, along the depths of my suspicions, I perceive a historical repetitiveness in the sinister application of spiritual concepts (and hosts of other motivations) to mislead people into a complacency for the purposes of greed, power, petty intentions and legitimizing corrupt social orders. The positive inspirations of religion may be and sometimes have been genuine good, but to ignore it’s harmful elements is a lie. If that lie remains unaddressed, or worse, covered-up/denied, then that lie will forever taint the integrity of the truth until it’s acknowledged. To see the problem incorrectly is to never fix the problem. For me: A meaning of life: to promote life™ There are so many heavens and each will condemn you for aspiring towards any of the others. The dream of this 99.997% atheist is: go, search for God, feel free, good luck. but, STAY FAR AWAY FROM MY LEGISLATURE. Thank God for the Second Amendment! LOL! Reason bent towards justice is my most tangible God. The end, of this beginning… - – - “Life is like a box of chocolates. You should cut it open with a knife, so you can see what’s inside FIRST*. Don’t Wait for Fate.” – Amandeep Timeless *That way someone else might be able to enjoy BOTH halves
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 00:25:13 +0000
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