Existential Ennui

~ Searching for Meaning Amid the Chaos

Existential Ennui

Daily Archives: May 21, 2010

What of God?

21 Friday May 2010

Posted by Sherry in Bible, God, Inspirational, Philosophy, religion, theology, Uncategorized

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

God, philosophy, theology

My limited understanding of philosophy, as it pertains to God any way, suggests that in general believing in God can be a rational choice. Indeed, it is a choice, as some of us  quite obviously chose not to believe.

Each of us, has our reasons, logical or otherwise, yet it is not whether our reasons are logical (and often they aren’t) but whether rational reasons exist. And most philosophers tend to say yes.

Beyond this, they often say nothing more. What can be said of  God is an entirely different thing. Most, I think, argue that very little of anything can be said of God. This is for a variety of reasons, and I won’t go into them here, since they are developed in the link to this post.

The Contrarian intuitively grasped this concept long ago. He studied the various faith systems, and concluded that God existed, but that very little if anything more could be “known.” And he let it be, content that his responsibilities are to do the best he can here and now. I can both understand and accept this, if indeed I don’t agree.

Well, I agree perhaps mostly in principle, but, not in the shrugging off the pursuit. I don’t mean this in some, I don’t know, superior stance or anything. Rather, I mean that for me, the idea of God, the attributes of God, the desire to know God and how it all is, are compelling. I am drawn to try as best I can with my mind, to understand that which I believe IN.

I am eager to grasp others opinions and lay them alongside my own. I discover of course, that my own machinations are no way original, but have been written about by others, sometimes eons ago. This in some ways is comforting, for I feel that I’m on some right track, all the while realizing that there may be hundreds of right tracks, and that is okay too.

My basic premise has  been for many years that God is bigger, better and more awesome that anything I can create in my mind, but he is at minimum at least that–what I can create. That is why the God portrayed in the Hebrew Bible never worked much for me, for I saw that God as all too human and thus flawed. My God is not flawed. At the same time, I find the bible filled to overflowing with metaphoric truth about life and God too. It’s a paradox in some sense I guess.

I ran across this article today, and thought it one of the most fascinating I’d ever come across. It simply talks about what we can know about God, from a dozen different prospectives. It is one of those rare articles that should be printed and safely kept in your notebook–should you have one that is, of things to go back to and revisit periodically.

I have notebooks of all kinds of things, like quotes and inspirational things, and notes on various books of the bible, and theological positions. The narrow margins of the bible are far too small to contain all the notations I wish to make and the directions to see, this or that for fuller explanation. My desire to know drives this, and of course is never ending.

If you don’t subscribe to Science and Religion Today, in your reader, you should. Only of course if you are interested in such matters. I haven’t yet got it on the blogroll, but will shortly. I’ve already in a week or so been rewarded with a number of good reads. This is simply one of the best. If you believe, want to, used to, or don’t at all–well, read  on. It may not change you mind one whit, but then again, you may find your foundation. Who knows.

Just a tidbit from the post:

there is an atheist at the heart of every believer and there’s a believer at the heart of every atheist

That alone is worth a look. There are a number of links embedded, and the article is somewhat long, so do bookmark to return and follow some of the links that interest you if you don’t have time to run through them all today.

Blessings.

** this writer of this conversation is one Robert Lawrence Kuhn, who has a PBS show called Closer to Truth. It may be broadcast on a subchannel of the regular PBS called, PBSWorld. This was a transcript of Episode 16. I’d make a DVR search of the title to see if your cable or satellite service picks it up. Looks like a superb series.

Bookmark and Share

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Who We Are

Thinking non-stop since April 15, 1950. We search for meaning amid the chaos.

Giggles

Laugh as Long as You Can

Subscribe

Subscribe in a reader

Donations Joyfully Accepted

Calendar

May 2010
M T W T F S S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31  
« Apr   Jun »

Follow Me!

Follow afeatheradrift on Twitter

Facebook

Sherry Peyton
Sherry Peyton
Create Your Badge

Words of Wisdom

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die. ~~Sen. Edward M. Kennedy~~

Recent Posts

  • We moved to Blogger
  • Moving to Blogger
  • Christianist Doublespeak
  • Next Week I’m Gonna Start Biting People
  • Time to Report for Retirement
  • The Best Little Whorehouse in Boulder? Or How I Loved to Learn Republicanese Gangsta Style
  • The Power of the Post
  • The Exceptionalism of the United States of America
  • Can We Stop With the Illegals Shit?
  • I Laughed, I Cried, I Spat Epithets, I Chewed the Rug
  • *Temporarily Asphyxiated With Stupid
  • Are You Having Trouble Hearing? Or is That Gum in Your Ear?
  • Collecting Dust Bunnies Among the Stars
  • Millennial Falcon Returning From Hyperbole
  • Opening a Box of Spiders

A Second Blog

  • Extraordinary Words
  • What's on the Stove?

History Sources

  • Encyclopedia Romana

The Subjects of My Interest

Drop the I Word

We Support OWS

Archives

The Hobo Jesus

Jesushobo With much thanks to Tim
Site Meter

Integrity

Twitter Updates

Tweets by afeatheradrift

World Visitors

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Existential Ennui
    • Join 2,453 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Existential Ennui
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: