{"id":128,"date":"2010-02-13T23:28:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-13T23:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/2010\/02\/13\/128\/"},"modified":"2010-04-17T15:27:38","modified_gmt":"2010-04-17T20:27:38","slug":"128","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=128","title":{"rendered":"Simplistic Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m engaging in some theology tonight. Simplistic theology, however, since over dinner I had a chocolate imperial stout that weighs in at 11% ABV (Southern Tier Choklat<\/a>). <\/p>\n

OK, so the question is God. And there is no answer; it’s pretty clear that there will never be one in this life. So why isn’t there an answer, why can’t there be one? Maybe because, if there was an answer, we would take God for granted. And for God to be God, we could NOT take God for granted. But if we were sure that God existed, surely we would; that’s just the way we are. So, if we could know for sure that there was a God, there couldn’t be a God. Simple as that! (At least after a bottle of imperial stout! But then again, Ben Franklin said that beer is proof that God wants us to be happy . . . ). <\/p>\n

There are two, maybe three problems that we commonly have about God. One, of course, is the problem of pain. I.e., if God is all loving and merciful, then why is there so much pain in this world, much of it not caused by humans (although much of it IS). Then there is a related question, i.e. why is there so much injustice with regard to pain; some people have a lot more pain in their lives than others, no matter how good or bad they are. <\/p>\n

Obviously, I can’t give a full answer to this, an answer that would satisfy someone who lost a friend on 9-11, someone who lost their home and spouse in Haiti, someone who is suffering from cancer, or someone watching a child die of starvation in Sudan. There is a theoretical answer, one that relates to free will, self identity and the after-life. I.e., that we couldn’t be free individuals with unique selves who can participate in a life, a consciousness beyond the temporal and temporary one we know here on earth, without having experienced injustice and death. We have to know death, for real, in order to live beyond death. Without that, we couldn’t play in the ontological big leagues. That’s the theory, anyway.<\/p>\n

This can lead to another objection, even if you buy into the notion that God puts us thru hell and emptiness so that we will be \u201cbig enough\u201d to keep him or her company in her or his timeless realm. And that is, why can’t God let us know nonetheless that he or she exists, even if we have to face pain and death and injustice. Some of us will take the higher road, and others will decide to maximize their pleasure in this life at risk of losing any chance for continued “being” in a realm beyond earthly death. <\/p>\n

But maybe God doesn’t want us to have that choice. Maybe God in fact does love all of us, and thus has after-life plans for all of us. God doesn’t announce her or his presence with any certainty, as that would give us the option to \u201copt out\u201d. Maybe we’re all on the road to some kind of \u201cbigger existence\u201d beyond the life we know, like it or not. The great uncertainty about the existence of God is just a part of it all. <\/p>\n

As to how it all could work, and whether it might involve several tries (as the Hindus and Buddhists say regarding reincarnation) . . . and just how could we transfer anything of our past selves from one earthly life to a following one (the Buddhists say that only karma is passed on, i.e. whether you should suffer more or less based on how good you were in the previous life . . . but they don’t say just who or what passes on that karmic memory either) . . . well, that’s where my mind bogs down. That’s where I’m left alone with the detritus of daily life, the random draw of goods and bads. <\/p>\n

But tonight, thank goodness, it isn’t too bad. I’ve got a recipe to try for apple-walnut oatmeal cookies, and the memory of that imperial stout from earlier this evening. As Tom Waits said, \u201cI’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m engaging in some theology tonight. Simplistic theology, however, since over dinner I had a chocolate imperial stout that weighs in at 11% ABV (Southern Tier Choklat). OK, so the question is God. And there is no answer; it’s pretty clear that there will never be one in this life. So why isn’t there an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1378,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions\/1378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}