5/19/2008

I have come across several revelations in the past couple of days, particularly dealing with God, and the nature of God. First and foremost is the personification of God by the vast majority of Christians and the Bible. This is not to criticize either the Bible or Christians, however personally I raise several unsettling questions:

1. If God is omnipotent and omniscient, all powerful and all knowing, and as most Christians would agree, has an overall plan for Earth, life, humans, everything, then why pray? If we are simply on a teleological track headed towards a predestined finale, I cannot help but wonder what difference prayer makes. What particularly bothers me about this is concepts such as PUSH (Pray Until Something Happens). I fail to believe this is how it works. Instead, I believe prayer should be used more in the Buddhist sense, to refocus, examine our lives, and internally find peace in the face of external problems. Prayer in the Christian faith has lost its initial meaning.

2. Pulling from such fantastic philosophers as Paul Tillich, I am convinced God does not exist. Follow me here. If God is infinite, which most would agree on, then this implies that God cannot have a beginning or an end, otherwise God would not fit the criteria for infinity. Therefore, it is impossible for God to "exist," at least as we know existence. Tillich believes that God is pure and absolute "being," and that we "exist" within God, we are simply players in a magnificent overall role that we could never even begin to comprehend.

3. My most intriguing revelation so far has been the realization of a certain overall force that transcends the past, present, and future. I feel that this is God, and continuing with the infinite notion of God, it would be impossible for God to simply exist(?) be(?) in one single notion of time, even though time is a man-made idea, self constructed. This force is strong and moving, it transcends everything. The attunement is like gears, its a mechanized constant flowing, not necessarily mechanical in structure but in function. However, it does not seem to be moving towards a telos, rather simply moving out of purpose.

4. The concept of time is incredibly interesting. I cannot help but wonder the outcome of a child born into a world where it is completely shielded from any notion of time. What would happen? Is there an inherent understanding naturally ingrained in our minds from birth? Would this child age at the same rate, or potentially age at all due to the lack of mental stress? If someone was never introduced to the idea of time, then their understanding of change would be very different.

More to come soon.