The Well Deepens! The Fire Is Being Quenched!

[ladytex2]

(Poster Response to another query in Religious Debates.)

Actually, I love the Psalms, they’re songs you know. Songs are often sad and depressing, but then, so is life! Why is it no one wants to discuss the all too obvious – Blanks? I have so many questions and literally no where to turn, except back to the same text that caused my unrest in the first place.

Most of my questions are for GOD, and they all begin with – Why? I ask myself that if I had created the universe/ the earth why would I knowing it would turn our so corrupt? Was GOD not happy in heaven? Is Heaven not perfect? Why does God need us/what us? What is the purpose for all this suffering? What is the purpose for trial and error, and choices – beyond the obvious?

Did God create us because He was lonely?

Who didn’t explain "The Tree of Life" well enough, God or Adam? And why, after Adam and Eve sinned didn’t God just destroy them right then and start all over - rather than letting them run-a-much in the Earth, creating people who couldn’t or wouldn’t control themselves? I mean, what’s it all for? I mean, if my creator told me that if I ate a certain fruit I would no longer be in his favor and I would suffer living hell from that day forward, I hope I would have sense enough not to eat that fruit. And if I didn’t understand the consequences of my actions – whose fault is that? What basis in fundamental information would I have been working from – kindergarten! So because they were innocent – we are damned to suffer? Well, that makes sense. But if God is all knowing, why didn’t He know things would turn out this way? And if He did know – then why bother? See, I’m right back to my first question – why?

Maybe all this is a just a big mistake. Maybe GOD wished HE could take it all back, but HE can’t. Maybe even GOD can’t stop something - once it’s set in motion – it just has to play out. Maybe that’s why HE gave us a way out – Jesus! And, maybe everything mankind has gone through, is going through and will go through – is just part of the play set in motion. And, maybe the reason GOD knows how it’s gonna end - is because HE’s all ready played it out (in HIS mind) HE sees it, saw it – whatever, and that’s how Revelation came to be? Man this is deep!

You know I’m beginning to feel somewhat better – realizing I’m (we’re) not just pawns, we’re in the middle of something Cosmic that’s just got to run it’s course, play out. God’s in the middle of it too! We’re all just playing the hands we were dealt!

You know I did read something in Genesis that touched on this very thing – that GOD realized (in essence) that HE’d made a mistake – that’s why HE sent the flood! So, OK, GOD isn’t perfect – who is? Jesus! But only after HE became flesh. WOW!

So, if GOD just IS – and HE is the beginning of all things – then HE wouldn’t have known how unworthy we were of HIS creation – HIS GIFT of life. Maybe HE thought that souls of HIS soul would be worthy, because HIS creation/satan was not? I’m beginning to feel really sorry for GOD! We, mankind, are every parent’s worst nightmare – only our parent is GOD! GEEEZZZZZ!

 

[Troublemane]

To quote Ken Wilber, there are three ways of referencing/relating to/conceptualizing the Divine. Third person, Second person and First person.
Now as third person you say "God" is an It, like the Force, the Tao, the Cosmos, the Matrix, ....an energy field, spacetime, something. Its impersonal, distant, remote, uncaring. God seems a brute, having no care for us people, God is simply a mechanistic and impersonal universe, but it can be related to rationally. This is the God of Science.
As second person, God goes from It to "Thou", and you start relating to the Cosmos as a person. Our ancient ancestors were not blessed with reason/rationality like we are. We evolved from beasts and ancient men were beasts..(I think of genesis as being just a myth, adam and eve were not literal people, the less you think they were the better off you will be). Primeval man first tried to relate to the cosmos thru magic, controlling the forces of nature thru ritual which became more formalized as he develloped culturally/morally/intellectually. The more humans developed the more they ascribed their own same properties onto "God". If humans had kings, God was the Big King. How do you make a king happy? You praise him, give him tribute, etc. Sharing the feast/harvest/hunt with the god turned into sacrificing animals as cities grew, and priestcraft became not just an art but a business. Relating to "THOU" became highly ritualized as people with nothing but hundreds of years of time on their hands talked about it, then wrote about it, codified it, made it a law to think only one way about the "thou" because if you did anything else you could be killed. Read your Bible, ancient Judaism was brutal about not working on the Sabbath. It was a tribal religion, much like modern primitive tribes are found to be full of superstition and taboo. We simply cannot project back on the past the enlightened view we have today.
Now, as the third way to look at the divine began to evolve, the first person perspective, that of God is in me, that I am God as you are God and God is everywhere within us and the universe and therefore no-one has a monopoly on the divine,...this did not go over well, as you can expect in a climate of "God is Thou" and priests only control the means of communication with the God (note subtle hanging on of third person). when Buddha, then Jesus and others began to appear with this message, depending on where they showed up, they were either ostracized or killed for their heresy.
What is ironic is Jesus who clearly preached a non-violent, God is your neighbor, God is you, do to the lesser of these as you do unto me, kind of religion attracted such a huge mass of zealous, anti-establishment agitators who seemed more interested in creating a new priestcraft with Jesus as the new "thou", that they totally screwed up the message and started killing/martyring others in his name once they got to power.

So,...to ask, why wouldnt God destroy humanity after the first sin and then start over? We were not humans before the first sin. We were ignorant beasts. It was only after humans began to understand good and evil that we were "cast out" of eden (ignorant bliss) and began to be like "God" with knowledge of Good and Evil (as God states in Genesis). Even today we are only starting to realize the full import of this, of being able to have free will. The rest of the Bible is historical mythologizing the development of man, until in the Christian Bible Christ comes to reveal to us we are all God. But we have to fully accept that, if we are God then so is everyone else. Hmmm thats just a bit hard for people used to thinking of themselves as a priveleged ":saved" class. But you can indeed find truth in the Bible if you choose to look for it. Just as in any revealed religion. Its not there literally though, because mythology isnt literal.
And please, if you look to the psalms for inspiration try to avoid the ones about bashing children against the rocks....remember they were the songs of a tribal culture. so if they depress you maybe try some Celine Dion instead?

 

[ladytex2]

Thank you for this eloquent - yet comfortable, rendering of your understanding. Enlightened understanding - most comforting and helpful!