My views on god are different than most. I’m not a theist and I’m not an atheist. I’m agnostic as far as I can tell. I don’t see any absolute facts either for or against the existence of a god that created the world and all that we know. I don’t see as truth old books written by writers I didn’t know and edited & influenced by rulers and societies I didn’t know or experience.
I don’t see any proof here in the present that proves or disproves a god. In my mind there is a possibility that there is or was a god, but whether or not a god is acting in response to anything happening here is without a doubt, a resounding…
NOPE.
There is nothing I’d like better than to have a very strong faith in some god that I can’t see. I’d like nothing better than to be able to ignore statistical probability and instead blame someone for things that go wrong. There’s nothing I’d like better than to be judged on what I’ve done – and given the opportunity to redeem myself in case I slip up. An eye for an eye sounds reasonable to me. I could live my life according to that. I could even follow the 10 commandments with relative ease, though it’s taken me until I was 39 years old to say such a thing.
Reality tells me there’s nothing like this going on. If there is a god that made the world he-she-it is not available for conversation, debate, blame, or changing what’s going on here. A god could be watching this whole show – waiting to intervene when the level of horrorshow reaches some climax in the future. I could go for that. I can’t imagine what a god like that could possibly be waiting for though. The world seems like a big scab that gets peeled and re-scabbed over and over to me. At what point would it be enough?
I could also go for the idea that there never was a god that made the world and that this world has very little significance in the big picture. I could be fine with the idea that this world is only important to those of us in it. Life seems important to most of us for some reason.
My idea is… I don’t see life as important. I see it as something I’m not thrilled about having to go through – to tell you the truth. I’d love to blame some idiot god for screwing up the game. I’d love to have a god I could talk to and ask for explanations about why the world is so profoundly twisted. I don’t ‘get it’. Often times I can’t get beyond the simple idea that life is some god’s twisted idea of a joke or having fun.
If the world is god’s idea of fun then he must be having a blast. Why stop it? Just keep cranking up the horror volume and see what people do in response. Surely there can’t be many clicks left on god’s volume control knob.
Could there be?
So, though I don’t see life as important – in it’s self… I’m very aware of the pain and pleasure dichotomy of life that defines all we do. Or, appears to.
There are people in extraordinary pain – physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually… There are people suffering thousands of times more than I ever have in my life. I consider my life to have been quite easy in comparison. I’ve experienced little pain compared to what I could have. I’ve escaped the horrors of war during my childhood and adulthood. I’ve had a mental, physical, and spiritual health that’s been going quite smoothly over my lifetime. There have been bad times but I’ve experienced much on the positive (pleasure) side and overall I can’t say I’ve missed anything I should have experienced in life.
Life could end today and that would be fine. Life could end next week and it’s not necessarily better that it takes any longer than it could. I’m quite apathetic about life – and yet, when I have fun I really can have fun. When I laugh – which is everyday, many times a day – I really enjoy the moment.
When it’s time for this silly self to go away – then it’s time. I’m not looking to prolong anything except the avoidance of pain. Technological advancement to prolong the number of years we live here on earth is just about the biggest waste of time I could imagine.
Instead of trying to heal all that ails us, I think putting all those billions of dollars into creating new and innovative, non-addictive pain meds might be the best focus of our energies.
If everyone with a fatal illness could pass away without pain – what a cool thing that would be? If everyone could realize – time’s up – time to go, it’s been fun – not real fun, but it’s time to go now… and have that sort of nonchalance about dying I think that would be the coolest thing ever.
Of course that’s my own private logic.
Why is life viewed as so important to other people?
How can you think that this life has any profound meaning to it when it’s basically a free-for-all? It’s completely unfair. You might be born to a crack smoking mom and a pedophilic sadomasochistic father and the baby born next in time and space was born to Mahatmar Ghandi and Mother Teresa.
Who we’re born to sets the stage for life… and there’s no rhyme or reason to it that anyone can prove. So, it’s unfair to a sickening level. It’s atrocious – criminal even. If we just start with this one premise – it’s tough to get past it.
How could a good God explain this one?
I’m at a loss. No reason could ever get me over this simple fact… Life is unfair from day 1.
So, while I’m Aiming for Awesome I’m well aware that the world is in a profound state of suck. Life for each of us is a mix of suck and fun that repeats itself over and over. Some of us are on the left side of the bell curve of life… they’re experiencing heaps more suck than fun. Some of us are in the middle of the curve and experiencing some of each. In fact, most of us are here – that’s what a bell curve is… the majority of people fall well within a couple standard deviations around the mean. Some of us at the far right side of the curve have apples growing out of their nether-regions and experience much more fun than suck – and will for all their days on the earth. That’s reality.
That’s life.
To me, the unfairness of life – of the disparity between individuals living it – couldn’t possibly mean anything other than…
Our individual lives mean absolutely nothing in the big picture…
What do you think?
Best of Life!
Vern
If God lives here on earth… she’s in Hawaii.
Related posts:
Dam, that guy’s comment is longer than the post. Is that what Thailand does to people?
To me it’s simple. You believe God? Good, believe in God. You believe in Spaghetti? Great, believe in Spaghetti. You believe in Mum and Dad and trees and water? Good, believe in it. You believe in nothing? That’s just too lonely.
Hi Vern :-)
“I don’t see any absolute facts either for or against the existence of a god”
Maybe a redefinition is possible. ‘A god’ implies that there is one finite thing/being/entity that exists in isolation to everything else.
It is possible to consider that the predominant accepted definitions of God are limited and for the innocents. Buddhadasa Bhikku considers many aspects of organised religion as being suitable for children who want to be told and led, not for truth seekers.
God is merely everything that is. If that statement is substituted in the place of many of the claims made about God whilst avoiding the pitfalls of a Him who has human emotions and drives with specific external control over things that happen, then the definition fits perfectly. Everything is all-present – nothing can be more present than everything. Everything is all-powerful – nothing is more powerful than everything. Everything is all-merciful – there can be greater sum of mercy than the mercy that is present in everything. The examples go on…
“I don’t see any proof here in the present that proves or disproves a god.”
‘A god’. But you perceive a part of everything at all times, and so you are constantly in the presence of God.
“a god is acting in response to anything happening here is without a doubt, a resounding…
NOPE.”
‘A god’. And yet everything responds to everything else. Deaths, disasters and diseases have causes, and those causes have causes. Ad infinitum. ‘Acting in response’ can imply a conscious decision on the part of ‘a god’, but in a way, everything does act in response to every external factor that effects it. Or, nothing can act without some external factors influencing it. There’s something in physics along these lines – something about a bodyat rest…
“I could even follow the 10 commandments with relative ease, though it’s taken me until I was 39 years old to say such a thing.”
It can be said that moral standards are there to support people while they learn the level of wisdom that you have now attained. Unfortunately they have become rules and regulations which must be enforced, and not something that becomes inherent in living a life in which a certain level of awareness has been reached. People must make mistakes to grow and learn, and allowances must be made for that instead of insisting that someone who as acted in an ‘immoral’ way is damned.
“Reality tells me there’s nothing like this going on. If there is a god that made the world he-she-it is not available for conversation”
Given that everything influences everything else all of the time, God (defined as everything) is actually constantly trying to communicate with you and everyone else. The form that this communication takes just needs to be learned. Or more accurately, the ways we learn in our lives to ignore this communication need to be forgotten. I believe you are doing this personally in the process you are going through now.
“Instead of trying to heal all that ails us, I think putting all those billions of dollars into creating new and innovative, non-addictive pain meds might be the best focus of our energies.”
Or spending the time investigating and pactising those cost -free therapies that are reputed to dispense with all suffering.
“If everyone with a fatal illness could pass away without pain – what a cool thing that would be? If everyone could realize – time’s up – time to go, it’s been fun – not real fun, but it’s time to go now… and have that sort of nonchalance about dying I think that would be the coolest thing ever.”
Is that freedom from physical pain, or freedom from the pain of the fear of dying?
The latter appears to be something that you are saying you have achieved, and you didn’t do it with new wonderful pain relievers…
“Why is life viewed as so important to other people?”
Fear of the unknown. To not think about one automatically puts an emphasis on the other.
“How can you think that this life has any profound meaning to it when it’s basically a free-for-all?”
Or the complete reverse of course. That we are all in this together, that we all effect each other, and no one person can do anything in complete isolation to their environment. The ‘self’ allows the selfishess to grow within, and this makes people think they are not part of something bigger.
Of course, with the definition I said at the start, everybody is part of God, or essentially we are all God. Not gods. God.
“It’s completely unfair.”
A result of dualistic thinking. God (everything) does not care about these things. Things are as they are. We feel them as pain or pleasure or fair and unfair. It’s not God’s fault.
“How could a good God explain this one?”
Good? Another dualistic concept that is better overcome. But what needs to be explained? A undersea shelf moves 10km and hundreds of thousands of people die in a tsunami. It’s a human tradegy, but it is just the end result of a chain of events. (Ouch – I don’t like typing things like that – I’m far too human)
“I’m at a loss. No reason could ever get me over this simple fact… Life is unfair from day 1.”
Life has the potential for unfairness at every single step. This leads to the debate on free will against determinism. Is there any value in trying to exercise free will if it might be nothing but a lot of unfairness? That life is mapped out in some way, or that you’re destined to hang you head against a wall until you realise that you need to turn and walk in another direction.
This is wisdom. Understanding when to turn away and when to persevere. Wisdom comes with life experience, and the development of wisdom could be said to be a pretty decent aim in life. Certainly, it seems to be more worthwhile than continuing the life of the immoral until one drops dead. Still damn difficult at times though.
“So, while I’m Aiming for Awesome I’m well aware that the world is in a profound state of suck.”
Are you adding to the suckiness, or are you adding to trying to prevent suckism? That could be part of your role – which side are you on? Of course this is playing on dualistic notions, but such things go out of the window in this sort of wordplay :-)
“Some of us at the far right side of the curve have apples growing out of their nether-regions and experience much more fun than suck – and will for all their days on the earth. That’s reality.”
And some people who are on the right help to screw up the pretty distribution and encourage people to move from the left side towards the middle, so they can learn that they can then move further to the right if they want to. Those people have been through the tough times in life and have learned, coming to the realisations of morality, wisdom and compassion for those less fortunate than themselves.
“Our individual lives mean absolutely nothing in the big picture…”
Every time you smile at someone, you change the world.
Just waiting for my PC to be mended, hence the long and rambling comment :-)
gotta say though . . . I LOVE your NYC pictures
I would be happy to share. I see this life as the only chance to be as happy as possible. Assuming there is no after-life and this isn’t going to happen again then this is the one chance I have to experience life. I don’t believe in a God, so I don’t believe in an after-life.
In other words, I think of this way. Comparing life to a visit to a foreign country, I might not like the country. It may be a pretty depressing country, but I am still visiting, so I might as well make the best out of it since I am not coming back. I can sit and focus on how it isn’t too fun but it merely wastes my time.
Tying that in with my other statement, there isn’t anything to look forward to if we don’t believe in an after-life. You aren’t getting another chance, so this is as good as it gets. I don’t know if it is possible to fully enjoy life, but it is possible to make your best attempt at it. You still might not enjoy it, but at least you are trying. I didn’t mean to ignore the present, actually that is what you should focus on. Trying to be happy now and through your life is the point.
One of things I got from your post was that life isn’t a completely enjoyable ride and at times it even sucks. One statement that stood out was the fact that you said life could end today and it would be fine. That is quite the deattachment, which might be good. I just thought that even if life isn’t great, you should still make the best out of it since you end up dead either way.
Hope that made it easier to understand rather than more confusing
Ok – yep, I get it now… I agree pretty much… do the best with what I can here. Help people get through it.
In contrast to what you believe, I think this is not as good as it gets… it might be as bad as it gets… but it probably doesn’t get worse than this. I see this as about the worst it could possibly be. The way we’re wired – we’re programmed for sadness and anger… we’re programmed for jealousy, hate, misunderstanding, not knowing the truth, being prone to making ourselves happy in spite of others… It takes a serious effort to know ourselves. It takes a serious effort to become wise about life – and figure things out for ourselves. Not everyone figures it out. Some (most?) go through considerable pain over the course of their entire lives trapped in the endless cycles of materialism… anger, sadness… living in the past and future instead of the present.
In my own life – wow, I’m doing quite OK.
To me that’s not seeing the big picture. The big picture is that most of us are doing much, much worse than I am. I am in the top 1% of the entire population of the world (a future post) and I’m living life at near optimal in so many areas. If 99% are worse off than I am… yikes, that’s not a good state of things.
That’s why I say – this can’t possibly be the best experience… I think it must be close to, or, the worst experience.
I like the views presented here. It would be interesting instead of arguing about a God, we could put that energy into making the world suck a little less. People could help others more.
I think life is important. I have grown quite fond of it. I would say the hard part is this may be the only chance you get. So, I want to try use it to the fullest potential. If I don’t fully enjoy life, then what do I have to look forward to.
Hi Philip –
You said something – a couple things that caught my eye… One was – this may be the only chance you get…
Chance for what?
The other was, “If I don’t fully enjoy life, then what do I have to look forward to?”
Is it possible to fully enjoy life? Is anyone that you ever knew fully enjoying life?
Why do you need something to look forward to? The present – reality is right here… does the promise of something better in the future make the present more bearable?
I’d just like to hear some more about what you mean because these are common statements people use everyday – and yet I don’t know what they mean for you… if you want to share – that’d be great. If not, no worries…