Mojotronica
Expect Irony.
A friend of mine is angry at God because, he feels, if all good extends from God than so must all evil. He feels there is much evil in the world. If God exists God is a cruel SOB. Therefore he has chosen to abandon his faith in God and embrace atheism.
My POV: I think that God IS all. God was one, perfect, complete. But the "creation" was actually more of a splintering. God empowered individual souls -- splinters of God, that are still part of God -- to have free will. The free will is the source of misery, because we can't see the BIG picture, like God can. If we could see it, we would always make the right decisions, decisions that would lead to everyone's happiness, and by extension our own.
But we, each individual, perceives the world in terms of ourselves, so we make decisions that benefit only ourselves, without regard to the big picture. Because of circumstance or natural talent some are more capable of benefiting themselves than others. This is reason there is inequality in the world, and the inequalities are the source of misery.
Not God.
God suffers w/ us when we suffer (this is the meaning of the parable of Jesus who is representative of God as man,) and would like nothing more than to end suffering. But the gift of free will that God bestowed to us would have to be taken back for God to intervene.
And free will is what gives us our identities. You ARE your free will. It is your "soul." Without it you would cease to exist, so you definitely want it. The misery on Earth is worthwhile in exchange for the independence.
When we "sin," we are taking action that is self-aggrandizing (a FRACTION of God) at the expense of the collective (the WHOLE of God.) What specifically is a sin is what we debate about. Some have a scientific view of sin -- murder, environmental degradation, slavery etc... while others view the literal word of the Bible as defining sin -- homosexuality, consumption of pork etc... which seem arbitrary to those w/ a more scientific bent to their philosophy.
I favor a secular, scientific view of sin, and do not interpret the Bible literally. To a fundamentalist, strict adherence to the Bible is a safeguard against interpretation that undermines the purpose of the faith. By holding the literal word of the Bible as sacred, the theory goes, it minimizes the opportunity for corruption.
But I think it can be perilous because it functions as a short-cut to thinking for many of the faithful. It acts as a barrier to enlightenment, in the same way that someone who uses a cheat sheet to maximize one's score on a test rather than studying for the exam. True enlightenment cannot be taught or transcribed, because the soul has not interfaced with the wisdom scanned with the eyes until it is connected in the mind. An inorganic document like a Bible is simply scrawls on paper until the pulsating consciousness interprets it.
A literal interpretation will carry you through the motions of salvation, but it will not save you.
EDIT: Changed name of thread f/ "The source of evil" to "Statement of Faith" because there are too many "evil" oriented threads on CFC-OT.
My POV: I think that God IS all. God was one, perfect, complete. But the "creation" was actually more of a splintering. God empowered individual souls -- splinters of God, that are still part of God -- to have free will. The free will is the source of misery, because we can't see the BIG picture, like God can. If we could see it, we would always make the right decisions, decisions that would lead to everyone's happiness, and by extension our own.
But we, each individual, perceives the world in terms of ourselves, so we make decisions that benefit only ourselves, without regard to the big picture. Because of circumstance or natural talent some are more capable of benefiting themselves than others. This is reason there is inequality in the world, and the inequalities are the source of misery.
Not God.
God suffers w/ us when we suffer (this is the meaning of the parable of Jesus who is representative of God as man,) and would like nothing more than to end suffering. But the gift of free will that God bestowed to us would have to be taken back for God to intervene.
And free will is what gives us our identities. You ARE your free will. It is your "soul." Without it you would cease to exist, so you definitely want it. The misery on Earth is worthwhile in exchange for the independence.
When we "sin," we are taking action that is self-aggrandizing (a FRACTION of God) at the expense of the collective (the WHOLE of God.) What specifically is a sin is what we debate about. Some have a scientific view of sin -- murder, environmental degradation, slavery etc... while others view the literal word of the Bible as defining sin -- homosexuality, consumption of pork etc... which seem arbitrary to those w/ a more scientific bent to their philosophy.
I favor a secular, scientific view of sin, and do not interpret the Bible literally. To a fundamentalist, strict adherence to the Bible is a safeguard against interpretation that undermines the purpose of the faith. By holding the literal word of the Bible as sacred, the theory goes, it minimizes the opportunity for corruption.
But I think it can be perilous because it functions as a short-cut to thinking for many of the faithful. It acts as a barrier to enlightenment, in the same way that someone who uses a cheat sheet to maximize one's score on a test rather than studying for the exam. True enlightenment cannot be taught or transcribed, because the soul has not interfaced with the wisdom scanned with the eyes until it is connected in the mind. An inorganic document like a Bible is simply scrawls on paper until the pulsating consciousness interprets it.
A literal interpretation will carry you through the motions of salvation, but it will not save you.
EDIT: Changed name of thread f/ "The source of evil" to "Statement of Faith" because there are too many "evil" oriented threads on CFC-OT.
