You're doing it wrong!

[sobrique]

So how do you tell the religions of the world that they've got it all wrong?

Here is the problem - a religion is a structure built by men. It's using 'access to divinity' as a basis for assertion of power. The clergy are no more holy than you are. Or anyone else for that matter. They have no special insight in to the mind of God.

Perhaps they're better educated than average - less the case now, but certainly in the past this was so - and thus worth listing to for the sake of their knowledge and wisdom. But the whole thing built on the false pretence that God cares about your individual destiny.

We have this conceit, humankind, that God loves us. That the world is ordered, and layed out with a plan, and God orchestrates it all. And conceit it is - there is nothing in the way of proof that this is the case.

It's based on this assumption of control. That the universe itself is controlled and orchestrated. This I believe, is grounded in the fact that we're all ... well, a bit unprepared for the concept that there might be nothing else. That this might be our only shot at existance, and there really is no one holding our hand.

But it's not. The Universe is more a work of art, than a planned mechanism. Complicated and intricate, with much beauty at all scales, from the intergalactic, down to the fantasically fascinating interactions at the subatomic scale. This work of art unfolds, evolves and shifts. Maybe it's for a reason, but ... art has no need for a purposes - that it exists is enough.

So for all your prayers, remember this. A prayer doesn't change anything. There is no one listening, no one caring about how sad you are. A prayer is meditation. It's focussing _your_ mind on the things at hand - what is important, what is not. And that's good. Just don't go thinking there's any intervention coming, because there isn't.

There is something that set the Universe in motion. There's something that gives us all the ability to think for ourselves. There's something that set in motion the seeds of life itself. Now stop being sheep, and use that gift. Choose to be yourself, not part of the flock.

Comments

[fearmeforiampink]

As has been said, people look at all the possibilities.

And then they find lots of evidence that supports evolution, and none that supports creation by YHWH, or 'intelligent deign' by whoever, or the touch of the FSM's noodley appendage.

And so, I tend to go for the explanation with evidence.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Active intervention? No, I don't buy that at all. Even if we assume there is something to intervene, then ... well, just look at the mess that having a messiah made. It's therefore entirely rational to assume a hands off approach.

Or to assume that ... actually personal fate means little - yes, some people have really bad lives. Why? That's not even remotely fair. They probably have a reason to curse God, for their lot in life.

But ... might it not be that that flaw in the pattern, that is a person suffering, is what gives strength, hope and courage to all those around? To see someone stand up and deal with a really bad hand, and prove to the world that it can be done?

Why should God intervene? A population where you nurture one element, and not others disintegrates rapidly once you stop doing so - you start feeding one rat more than the others, he'll take over and be in charge, but as soon as you stop the whole biological chain unravels, and everything ends up in a worse state.

But still, I would hold onto the idea, that there was a reason why the universe started - event one, might just have been someone saying 'let there be light'.

Physics itself, has some really quite simple and elegant formulae underlying it - all the 'key' equations are actually pretty short and simple, and the speed of light shows up in all sorts of unlikely places.

Which is, to my mind, just the way it would be if someone _did_ definte _this particular_ set of equations of universal behaviour.

We take the mandelbrot set, and start with a very simple equation x n+1 = xn^2 + c

And from there, we have fascinating, massively complicated patterns emerging. Let's call the universe a fractal. Lets assume that 'something' set the equation, started the renderer going, and is now watching the layers of detail.

Let's call that something God, and let's also assume that everything that unfolds from that equation is ok, so we might as well get on with life as if God _isn't_ going to interfere.

[fearmeforiampink]

Or, not.

I can instead say "I can't see anything that makes me believe in god, that includes the mandelbrot set". I don't need to belive that some cogniscent force started it up.

Yes, a non-interfering god could arguably make some sense. That doesn't mean that, in the absence of evidence, I should believe in such.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

The universe itself is fractal in nature. so is the M set. Both stem from a little thing - an equation that governs it, and brings emergent properties into view. In either case there is an elegant beauty to it, and it makes functionally no difference whether you think it has a purpose or not.