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Gomedome
Yours are good questions, too, and I guess there's no way I can definitively answer them. In fact, I guess none of us can point the finger at the final word and say, "This is it, folks, I've found the answer." The best we can do is speculate. We're all speculating, regardless of whether we assert that there is, isn't, or may be a God. What I find interesting, though, is the fact that whatever our stance, he certainly has our attention. In answer to your question, I don't know why God won't manifest himself to us and settle it once and for all. Once again, I'm forced to speculate. Perhaps we're required to evolve further before we can reach a point of comprehension. Perhaps instant gratification is a bad thing. Maybe there's a reason for gradual progression. For instance, a child needs to begin school in grade 1. It would be fruitless and unfair to place a six-year-old in Grade 12 and hit him with algebra and physics. I guess it's possible that the human race is still in the equivalent of grade 3. Perhaps in another million years we will have progressed enough so that we will be competent to tackle "algebra," i.e., God's manifestation. Then again, I could be full of shit. One thing I do know for certain, though: I enjoy thinking about it all.
posted by
Lensman
on July 3, 2006 at 10:54 PM
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Lensman - you sign off with a good question
Why in fact would this omnipotent creator being create humans to be so limited as to not understand him? ....and other questions along these same lines; why would he leave the distribution of his word entirely in the hands of humans and why does he not manifest himself once and for all to clear up any confusion of who and what he is?
It seems that answers to these questions are all contrived.
posted by
gomedome
on July 3, 2006 at 6:16 AM
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Hi Gomedome
Thanks for another post that's got me mulling and thinking. For the most part, my thoughts follow the trajectory of yours. I'm a Catholic-raised former altar boy, blah-blah....
Like you, as I entered adulthood, I had to disabuse myself of certain teachings. For example, I remember when the nuns would wag their fingers at me and warn of dire consequences if I should eat meat on Fridays. Then, decades later, the Church decreed that "Friday meat" was now okay. That's when I began to entertain the suspicion that perhaps all this dogma was just man-created and man-manipulated. I mean, either it's a hanging offence to eat meat on a certain day of the week or it isn't. All those people who went to hell for eating meat...what about them? Are they now being retroactively pardoned and flown (or rising fuzzily) first-class to heaven? And that's just one example of many.
But can God's word all be written off as just "Man's word"? Being agnostic, I love playing the devil's (oops) advocate, and, on this one small point about the six-day creation, I can think of a possible explanation. The Bible, for instance, thrives on allegory, metaphor and parables. It teaches by illustration, not only by instruction. On days when I'm not canning the whole show, and depending on my mood, I sometimes like to entertain the possibility that there may indeed be some humungous, omnipotent, creative intelligence of a nature that is incomprehensible to our limited human intelligence. In that respect, I compare us to the lab rat who may think he's figured out his entire universe when he finally gets through the maze and finds his cheese. That's about the limit of his comprehension. Yet, as we know, there's a vast world beyond his maze which he would never be able to wrap his rat-brain around. How do you explain the Internet or a Boeing 747 to a rat? Or, for that matter, how do you explain a simple pineapple to a rat? I imagine anyone brave enough to attempt such a task would need to do it in the broadest and most abstract manner. Symbols would abound and you would need the utmost patience.
I saw a cartoon once, depicting a man on a street corner, shouting at God and saying, "God, I understand that to you a million years is but a second." God's voice replied, "Very true, my son." The man continued, "I also understand that to you a million dollars is but a penny." God replied, "Indeed, my son." The man then asked, "Can I have a penny?" God replied, "Sure, hold on a second."
In that vein, I'm thinking that those six days of creation referred to in the Bible could represent untold millenia. Each "day" could stand for a billion years, in which case (and I know I'm not the first to suggest this) creation could incorporate evolution. This is why I'm an agnostic and not an atheist. As unflattering as it sounds, I could be that lab rat.
On the other hand, why would a God create a creature who couldn't understand him? Over to you, Gomedome. I'm all tuckered out.
posted by
Lensman
on July 3, 2006 at 12:04 AM
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Sunnybeach7 - you would think that true omnipotence would make
creation instantaneous.
It sounds a lot like God was not only created in man's image but had to stick to the same calendar as man did as well.
posted by
gomedome
on July 2, 2006 at 11:06 PM
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The biggest mystery may be
Why did it take him 6 days? And why did he have to rest after that?
And what has he done every week since?
posted by
Afzal_Sunny7
on July 2, 2006 at 11:01 PM
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