Invoking god

Lotta folks invoke god and god's plan. Or as some call it, divine providence - god's intervention in the universe. 

Ah yes, intervention. To intervene. 

Now, athletes can be especially guilty of this invoking business. Two that come to mind are Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes. I find it interesting (and so did George Carlin) that this invoking is always after success. Mahomes winning the super bowl and Mayfield landing a contract of "life-changing money." 

Here's Mayfield via kpvi: 

God had a plan for me, saw it through, and the group we had made it so special last year, I big reason I wanted to come back here.

 And here is some Mahomes via the christian post:

I give God the glory. He challenged us to make us better. I am proud of my guys. They did awesome. Legendary.

Now, does god's plan also hold for Regina King? Does god's plan also hold for her son Ian, who committed suicide? Is depression part of god's plan? Why didn't god intervene for Ian? Did Regina King not pray as hard or as well or as correctly as Mayfield and Mahomes? 

God only knows. 

But this is not the worst part of adhering to beliefs like this. 

The worst part is the paradigm constructed to answer the cognitive dissonance of suffering, best known and portrayed by Leibniz' answer to the problem: 

 Leibniz's best of all possible worlds philosophy argues that the existence of evil in the world created by God made it possible to achieve a greater good. However, Leibniz posits that humans do not always understand this greater good because they are less perfect creatures than God.

You don't always understand the greater good of suicide, but that is your ignorance. Take any so-called evil: plague, murder, torture, rape, cancer...all part of god's plan for the best of all possible worlds. God is benevolent and omnipotent and can only create the best of all possible worlds. 

I just want Mayfield and Mahomes to explain this to the grieving, the parents in the cancer wards, and the starving, and those suffering.

The Image of god

What does it mean to say that humans are image-bearers of god?

What does it mean to say humans bear god’s image?

What does it mean when Alabama court chief justice Tom Parker says, “...all human beings have the image of god.”

Let us at least provide the definition of image. 

im·age

/ˈimij/

noun

noun: image; plural noun: images

• 1.

• a representation of the external form of a person or thing in art.
  "her work juxtaposed images from serious and popular art"

• 
  

• a visible impression obtained by a camera, telescope, microscope, or other device, or displayed on a computer or video screen.
  "Voyager 2 sent back images of the planet Neptune"

• 
  

• optical representation

• reproduction

• an optical appearance or counterpart produced by light or other radiation from an object reflected in a mirror or refracted through a lens.

• 
  

• MATHEMATICS
  a point or set formed by mapping from another point or set.

• COMPUTING
  an exact copy of a computer's hard disk, made for backing up data or setting up new machines.

• a mental representation or idea.
  "he had an image of Uncle Walter throwing his crutches away"

• 
  

• a person or thing that closely resembles another.
  "he's the image of his father"

• 
  

• semblance or likeness.
  "we are made in the image of God"

• (in biblical use) an idol.

• 
  

• 2.

• the general impression that a person, organization, or product presents to the public.
  "she strives to project an image of youth"

• 
  

• 3.

• a simile or metaphor.
  "he uses the image of a hole to describe emotional emptiness"

So we can, via google, claim that it means semblance or likeness. 

How do humans resemble god? 

Which god do we resemble?

Is it the creator (of the universe) god or the anthropomorphic god of the old testament? 

We resemble the (sic) god that created matter and time?

How? How do we resemble an uncaused cause? How do we resemble the thing that breaks the infinite regress? How? 

If we resemble the anthropomorphic god of the old testament, isn’t that insulting to god? Don’t we really mean to say, and at the same time meanly say it, is that it's the other way round, and god resembles us?

To which Nietzsche might say, “Human, all too human.”

Teenage humans that supposedly bear god’s image are dying after being beaten and bullied in Oklahoma schools. 

But Ryan Walters comforts us, when he says, “There’s not multiple genders. There’s two. That’s how god created us.” Comforting to know that Mr. Walters believes that neither nonbinary nor transgender people exist. 

Still more comforting to know that Mr. Walters says that “You always treat individuals with dignity and respect, because they’re made in god’s image.”

I’m just not so sure being beaten and bullied in Oklahoma is treating people with respect. 

I wonder if Mr. Walters thinks that Ardi bears god’s image.

god’s image is a red herring. It is meaningless to say humans bear god’s image. This is meant to drag you away from christian machinations and the fear of secular progress and the ebb of absolutism. 

It’s a public health issue. If you don’t believe me, ask Nex Benedict. 

I wonder if Mr. Walters and Mr. Parker know that Benedict means blessed.

The Imagination - Bigger Than Me

 Atheists, like myself, can run the risk of protesting too much. It gets very Freudian, almost like a defense mechanism:

"Why all the atheism? Huh huh? Why all the mistrust of religion? Huh huh? Who hurt you? Huh huh."

Still, I do think about this stuff...and have since my late teens and my first philosophy class, back in 1990 or so.

One theme with the theists is the ole something as opposed to nothing. I won't tackle this one head on but I will morph this theme into something I consider kin:  the something bigger than me theme.

I think a fear among theists is that if there is no sense of something bigger than me, then there will be no order:

Mass hysteria will rule unless we humans accept something bigger than us. 

An interesting context here is, Alcoholics Anonymous and step 2 of the 12 steps (or traditions if you prefer):

"2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."

So what is an atheist to do in the midst of such a, let us say, predicament/quagmire/conundrum? 

Maybe this atheist realizes something bigger than him, alone, in his closet studio every night. 

Stay with me.  

At night in my studio, I will play along to a rhythm track and solo. 

"Is this guy about to tell us he touches god with his stratocaster?"

Stay with me.

As I am playing I begin to hear things I want to play; sounds I want to realize and bring into the world, birth if you will.

"Is this guy about to have a guitar baby or some shit?"

Often times my technique will prevent the sounds from being realized - my fingers won't fly like I need them to, and the sound idea, parishes, if you will.

I tell you this because this sound idea, waiting to be born, is my imagination at work, and it is bigger than me.

This is the crux - my imagination is bigger than me - my imagination creates. From nothing - ex nihilo.

Let there be sound.

And here is the public health angle: I othered not a single person. I condemned not a single person to hell nor did I promise eternal salvation to like-minded folk. 

I simply found the head space to listen, and IMAGINE something not yet here and try to will/birth/create it. 

This is bigger than me. This is enough for me. The precludes mass hysteria and allows me to remain sane, whatever AA means by sane. 

"Is this guy actually going to try to save humanity with a pentatonic scale? Is this some bullshit fundraising in disguise for the National Endowment for the Arts?"

Of course not. I'm simply showing you that you can recognize something bigger than you without anthropomorphizing or indoctrinating or othering your fellow sapiens to hell. 

I like to think I'm offering you a public health opportunity. Because personal beliefs are a public health issue.

You're welcome. 

If you have some money burning a hole in your pocket, you can help others create something bigger than themselves.

 "I knew it, this motherfucker is after my money."

Employing Reason For Manual Labor

Plodding along with The Power of Myth when I came across two very striking sections:

How would today’s conservatives survive if they knew the founding fathers were deists?

How would today’s conservatives survive if they knew our nation did not trust in the god of the bible but the god of reason?

So of course today’s conservatives just don’t believe the founding fathers were deists and they don’t trust in the god of reason.

Fair enough.

I can’t get over this deists statement. Campbell makes the statement like it is no big deal.

The difference:

Theism – god created the universe and plays an active role in daily outcomes

Deism – god created the universe but plays no role in daily outcomes

I was educated such that deism considers god a cosmic watch winder; he wound up the universe and then just lets it go. Hands off.

That, my friends, will not sit too well with people who depend a whole lot on god’s interaction with our ku-ra-zee world. What with the prayers, the trusting, the blaming, the moral authority, the reason the Browns suck, etc.

But Campbell is saying these men, these founding fathers thought it was up to us. Soooooooooo much responsibility Mr. Jefferson. Are you sure we can handle it?

Answer: No

Reason why? See second striking section where Campbell references the Chief Seattle Letter.

Provenance aside, the content is the matter here:

Chief Seattle's Letter
to the President of the United States, 1852
(attributed to Chief Seattle, but unverified; this is one of several versions)

"The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? The land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you sell them? Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people.

We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadow, the body heat of a pony, and man, all belong to the same family.

The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each ghostly reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The waters murmur in the voice of my father's father. The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give to the river the kindness you would give any brother.

If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow Flowers.

Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our Mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.

This we know: The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

One thing we know: Our God is your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator. Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted by talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is it to say goodbye to the swift pony and the hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.

When the last red man has vanished with his wilderness and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left?

We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother's heartbeat. So if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children and love it, as God loves us all.

As we are a part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you. One thing we know: There is only one God. No man, be he Red Man or White Man, can be apart. We are all brothers."

-Chief Seattle

Ah but sure, you can say we are a nation of laws and we simply deemed land ownership a matter of law. Sure you can say that.

What about land stewardship? Is that a matter of law?

And that brutal, cutting, honesty-sucks-just-like-reality line: The end of living and the beginning of survival.

Roll that up and smoke it.

 

So what if it is up to us to steward our living and our environment? What if god can’t help us? What if the founding fathers were desists and what if they were right about the fall of man?

What if reason is the god you should be praying to – no wait, instead of praying to reason, what if we had to use it? What if reason was the god you chose to employ?

mind=blown

In The Static

He had about 4 hours and 30 minutes. He, like Jack London, was going to use his time. What else did a man have…but time? Christians have it backwards he thought: salvation isn’t the afterlife, salvation is life. He imagined god looking out over eons and eons of unborn pondering whom to birth and throw into the world –to save…from never experiencing. This birth, he thought, this is salvation.  He was getting off track: 4 hours and 30 minutes. He thought about saying it in seconds, 16200 for more force but then thought better of it. If time is so precious, how it is relayed or conveyed, be it months hours or seconds should be beyond the point. Wouldn’t other people recognize that their time was finite and then act accordingly? Who seriously makes plans for the afterlife? One can’t even set goals in the afterlife because they would be attained the moment you thought of them because isn’t that what heaven is, immediate wish fulfillment? Hankering for hot and sour soup? Done. Hole in one? Gotcha. Famous movie actor? Yep. Absurd he thought. Again, getting off track. 4 hours now and going to use it, and in a profound way. Gonna help humanity, or at least watch some good tv. No, no tv he thought. Gonna die someday and here I am with a good chunk of time to myself and I’m thinking about Game of Thrones re-runs. Christ, I’ve already seen them; at least start a new series…House of Cards? No! No tv! Ok, here we go…profound…deep…maybe back to that Christian bit? Where the hell was his niche? If the Coen brothers can write about Jeff Lebowski fitting in, why couldn’t he, he thought? Fit in…somewhere…in some way. Was it fame he was after? Is it fame that verifies your quality? Sure seems that way. You don’t get on the 6 o’clock news by just picking up your kids from daycare. He’d read Maslow, hell, he’d read Buscaglia but self actualization was becoming more and more a pipe dream that began floating away in his early twenties. His early twenties, he thought: I was after it, working hard, putting in the hours, feeling the satisfaction that comes with hard work…and he wanted that feeling again…that feeling of being pulled…as if unwilling…as if…there was no choice. Seemed strange to think of those times in his life that, ex post facto, while rewarding, were the times when he seemed to lack autonomy. Was it like the poets that Plato referred to and how Clapton described Stevie Ray Vaughan as an open channel, just a vehicle through which the gods communicate? If this was the case, he just needed tuned, like a radio, past all the static, till the needle finds the station, flush. But shit, he thought, what if this is life, for most of us, trying to find the station but never hitting it flush and always being in the static?

To Everything Turn Turn Turn

ACT I

You are seated alone in a dark room. The chair is simple wood. In front of you are two screens, behind you two projectors. You have died.

The projectors sound to life, a sound from old movies, of movies being shown as a wheel turn. The movie is of your life. The same picture shows on both screens. Identical.

God’s voice (or is it Leibnitz’s voice?) says:

On the left screen is your life movie where you made all the choices, where you have free will. On the right screen is your life movie from the moment I created everything. Though I saw everything you would do before you ever existed, you were free to choose.

ACT II

You watch your life movie. Your chair swivels to the right and a light pervades a previous darkness. Two new  screens appear. On one screen is your life movie from your eyes out. On the other screen is your life movie eyes on you.

God’s voice (or is it Leibnitz’s voice?) says:

On the left side is your monad, prefect in actuality, without passivity. On the right are the monads of those that knew you, their monads prefect in actuality, without passivity. The two never interact. To interact requires passivity. I cannot create a perfect thing that is passive; you contained the interactions with other monads from the moment I created everything and they contained your monad from the moment of creation.

ACT III

Your chair swivels further again to the right and a light pervades another darkness. In front of you is only one screen. You watch your life movie. You are murdered.

God’s voice (or is it Leibnitz’s voice?) says:

Your murder was the best of all possible worlds. I cannot create a non-perfect world. From the moment I created everything you would be murdered and it would be the best of all possible worlds. Though you winced at your murder, this too was the best of all possible worlds. Your perspective, perfect from the moment of creation, because of not in spite of its ignorance and desire, perfect from the moment of creation, cannot see perfection, though this is perfection. Your murder is for the best.

ACT IV

You are sad and it is perfect. Your chair swivels to the right again, back to where it began, and a darkness pervades a light. And it is perfect.