On 11/28/10 11:37 PM November 28, 2010, Deepa Mohan wrote:
Who are the ones who believe in God, on this list? The atheists? The
agnostics?
I believe it's a category error to talk about belief or lack of belief
in God. The question should raise a "CONCRETE OPERATOR INVALID ON
ABSTRACT OBJECT" exception.
To my way of thinking, God is an abstract concept created by human
beings. As such, it has no real existence outside of the human mind.
When we apply the concept of God in the religious mode, however, we can
get interesting and useful results.
This is much like other abstract concepts: number, liberty, truth,
justice, beauty, peace, equality, love, and so forth. We need not
personify these concepts in order to discuss them, but sometimes it is
useful to play with personifications of these concepts so that we can
understand them better.
One place where I find God useful is in accepting my human limitations
in the immensity of the universe. I really have only the tiniest bit of
understanding of what's going on around me. God only knows what else is
out there. God therefore is a shorthand for all the workings of the
cosmos that are mysterious or beyond my perception or understanding.
Another place where I find God is useful is in having some kind of back
up. It's useful to leave the things I cannot control to God (or whoever
else happens to be on duty tonight). Psychologically, I feel better when
I can pass the buck and God is the ultimate buck-passing target.
I also finds that prayer works, in that it helps me center and focus. It
gives me strength in time of trouble. It lets me lay out my troubles at
God's feet and have at least the illusion of being freed of my burdens.
The opposite of prayer, which you might call meditation, also works, in
the opposite direction. Instead of laying my burdens at God's feet, I
pick up on any subconscious wisdom that I might have been overlooking.
I think that God is a very old, very important concept, to human beings.
God has deep psychological hooks as well as deep hooks in our language,
that our invention of Gods is essential to who we are as thinking
beings. So much of human thought throughout the ages was expressed in
religious terms. There is a huge amount of wisdom and knowledge that is
expressed in terms of God. If we don't have some conception of God with
which to make sense of that thought, we lose access to a rich treasure
trove.
I read a song at a Hawaiian heiau once that said that there were an
infinity of Gods, and not just an infinity of Gods, but an *uncountable*
infinity of Gods. I thought "Whoa, the set of Gods has the same
cardinality as the real numbers." Quite a thought for people who, at the
time they composed the song, had no written language.
It's worth keeping Gods around just for that one moment.
And y'know, you don't have to take the whole God thing seriously. You
can create a God any time you need one, or borrow one that someone else
uses, whatever.
One of the Gods that we have appropriated is Hypatia, who somehow got
transmuted into a goddess of transportation somewhere along the way.
Very useful if you need to catch a bus or train, and I often catch
myself chanting "Hail Hypatia, full of grace, help me find a parking place."
--
Heather Madrone ([email protected]) http://www.madrone.com
http://www.sunsplinter.blogspot.com
I'd love to change the world, but they won't give me access to the source code.
