Conversations with God

Hopefully more people read this than the Crackerjacks article.  I rather think it's brilliant.

I agree. Too bad all the brilliance on this site is buried under massive piles of . . .

[geek] bantha poodu.

[/geek]

/me hides in the corner

This is great! Kudos Ock, you really hit the nail on the coffin with this.

No, it's not! The true prize is sitting around on the clouds, singing mindlessly for eternity! It's the fellowship!

Judas Priest, get it right!

I concur utterly and totally.

~Zoo

Yeah, spring semester is winding down. A little under three weeks for me...and exams in great abundance. ...:( blech.

~Zoo

This is great. I think you've got God bang on here - why should it be all, "hur hur, I smite you, hur hur kneel hur hur don't have fun hur hur"

Ah yes...the fun time is nice. The plowing...not so much. At least I don't have research and a thesis...I can empathize with your pain, though. I hate doing meticulous things...and writing a huge thesis would suck in so many ways.

I've got two exams this week, one final next week, and 4 finals the week after that...so 6 exams to get through. (:(

~Zoo

I have never seen Crackerjacks (Australia doesn't have them and by the sounds it, we're not missing out on much either). But this piece is far from crackers and, as you so rightly noted, 'rather... brilliant'.

With all your talk about having a brain, you'd think that's all that God gave you. It's like trying to pump blood with your lungs.

"If I hadn't wanted you pump blood, I woudn't have given you lungs!"

Makes no sense. Using your brain to figure out God is the same. The wisdom of God does not come from a human brain. That's why it's foolishness to men. You have something else you're supposed to use, your spirit. And God would then say, "I gave you a spirit so you'd know me, why didn't you use it?" And you'd have to say, "Well, I thought..." "Exactly."

Now, God's creation is, of course, important. You can find God through His creation, and it's there to meet our needs. And look pretty. But is He going to care what you know about pine trees, or what you learned about God by knowing about pinetrees? And since He left you a message that tells you more about Him, in plain English/Hebrew/Greek/etc., than any tree will, why wouldn't you go to that instead?

Ah...but a tree is a powerful metaphor. Jesus used a mustard seed, a tree is much bigger...therefore the metaphorical applications are exponentially greater.

[aside]
Actually a tree can contribute to that stupid micro/macroevolution debate. Saying microevolution is possible but macroevolution is not is like saying a sapling will grow into a small tree, but not into a larger one just because you can't see it during your lifetime. Like the mighty redwoods that are hundreds, even thousands of years old. We look at the seeds they produce and the trees they are and can pretty much figure out that they grow from that tiny seed. (sorry for the tangent) [/aside]



Besides, without investigation of nature and the things around us, we miss out a lot on the true essence of life. The "magic" of it all, so to speak.

~Zoo

The magic of it all is in the relationships with other people (and God)

So when you study trees and animals, be sure to bring a friend!

I'm not saying it's wrong to study trees and animals, mind you, just that it's a really slippery slope. If I have to know about pine trees, I have to know about all trees. And if I have to know about bunnies, I have to know about all animals. I have to know about this while also knowing about music, architecture, medicine, etc. etc. God created an awful lot of things. There's no way you can know about them all.

I think maybe you misunderstand my point.

 

I can appreciate a tree aesthetically, and let that be the end of it.  But because I know so much more about the intricacies of how that tree functions, my appreciation for a possible creator grows. 

 

Suppose you're a real fan of computers.  And you have a friend that has never owned one or used one (rare these days, but follow me.)  You decide that for his birthday, you're going to give this friend a computer.  You know all the very cool stuff they can do, and you want him to share that.

 

When you give it to him, he says "Awesome...look at this screensaver" and proceeds to watch the screensaver often.  That's all he does with the computer.  No e-mail, no chess.com, no JU (which might be a good decision), no video games, no wordprocessor, no Excel spreadsheets, no surfing the Net for information, no databases.  He just watches the screensaver.  He tells you he loves his new computer, but he doesn't understand the depth of the gift he's been given.  I assume you'd be slightly disappointed by that.  You could have just given him a cheap DVD player with a DVD of a screensaver and he'd be just as happy.

 

You have another friend exactly the same in terms of computer knowledge, and you give him a computer.  He dives into every aspect of it, becomes very proficient in its use.  He shows you tricks you never knew about it.  It enriches his life in ways you never planned on.  I assume you'd be happy about that.

 

Now put the two side by side.  One staring at a screensaver all day, the other digging in to the gift and making the most of it - trying his best to understand it, to use it to its fullest.  Who are you happier you gave the computer to?  If you say it's equal, I say you're a liar.

Now, the guy could either learn everything about the computer all by himself, or he could read a book about it, talk to people about it, learn from you about it... The end result is the same, but the book way will probably go faster.

All I'm trying to say is, it's the long way around. And that your brain isn't the only thing God gave you. Those are my two main points.

Actually, people learn a great deal more by doing rather than reading or talking about it. I mean, you can read about how to drive a car...but you really don't know a damn thing until you try it yourself.

~Zoo

 

It's the only thing I have that is proven to exist, and it's the only thing I have that is proven to perceive.

And to add a bit of sexiness to that:



~Zoo

Zoo, you broke my blog.  It works fine under that heinous IE POS, but under Firefox...not so good :/

 

Ah well, screw it.  Let the JU folks deal with it.

Chant with me now...

"Who broke it?"

"Zoo broke it!"

Oh...sorry. Damn videos and their ability to break things...at least in Firefox.

I tend to prefer the IE POS as my brower.

~Zoo

It is.

You got to have faith.

This is an excerpt from my all-time favorite novel (if you can call it that), Niebla, by Miguel de Unamuno. I'll put the original first, and then translate it myself. (If I was at home, I know my little sister has a translation of it I gave her, but wrong continent, people. So you get to deal with my crappy interpretation of the text.) I think it's especially pertinent to your OP, Ock.

It's a conversation (well, hell, the whole book is either dialogue or monologue) between the main character, Augusto Pérez and his best friend, Víctor Goti. They've been talking about Augusto's doubts about women and their psychology, but it truly reflects Unamunian thinking as a whole. (V for Víctor, A for Augusto, all that jazz.) You'll see why I think this applies, especially in what Victor says.

V--¿No está claro?

A--No; está oscurísimo, muy oscuro.

V--Pues porque está tan oscuro, cásate.

A--Sí, pero... ¡me asaltan tantas dudas!

V--Mejor, pequeño Hamlet, mejor. ¿Dudas?, luego piensas; ¿piensas?, luego eres.

A--Sí, dudar es pensar.

V--Y pensar es dudar y nada más que dudar. Se cree, se sabe, se imagina sin dudar; ni la fe, ni el conocimiento, ni la imaginación suponen duda y hasta la duda los destruye, pero no se piensa sin dudar. Y es la duda lo que de la fe y del conocimiento, que son algo estático, quieto, muerto, hace pensamiento, que es dinámico, inquieto, vivo.

-- Now, to suckily translate:

V: "Isn't it clear?"

A: "No, it's completely darkened, very confused."

V: "Well if it's so dark, just get married already."

A: "Yes, but . . . So many doubts assail me!"

V: "Even better, little Hamlet, even better. You doubt? Then you think. You think? Then you are.

A: "Yes, to doubt is to think."

V: "And thinking is doubting and nothing else. One believes, one knows, one imagines without doubt; but neither faith, nor knowledge, nor imagination have anything to do with doubt, and doubt even destroys them - but you cannot think without doubt. And it is from faith and knowledge, which are static, lifeless, dead, that doubt creates thought, which is dynamic, restless, and alive.



That sums it all up. Faith and knowledge are but tools which, along with doubt, create true thought.

To doubt, to truly doubt, it to begin to truly think.

Actually, it's translated pretty well...or so I think anyway. I mean, that's how I would've worded it.


It's pretty damned insightful too. With doubt comes thought. Ask questions and think about it. To accept without asking, without doubting means you're a gullible and blind fool.


~Zoo