The other day I was talking philosophy with a friend and the question of God came up. Where does God fit in my vision of how things are? In my typically flip way I said that God was irrelevant. The conversation stopped right there. I'd like to explain what I meant, and I hope my friend will read this and that we can continue talking.
My point is this...
If God created the universe then he/she created it to function according to laws and those laws apply to all of creation. We are not exempt. We should not use God or religion as a justification for trying to live in ways which are contrary to those laws. Religion, at it's core is about how to live with other people. It has been used to justify all kinds of terrible behavior. I haven't found anything in religion that exempts me from the laws of creation.
If God didn't create the universe then it is a self correcting system that tends toward balance. The laws work because they keep the system balanced. Actions that violate the laws tend to be eliminated as the system corrects it's self and returns to a state of balance. Our violating the laws of the system will result in our being eliminated from the system.
Neither one of these options require any intervention from the outside. God may have set up the system or it may have come into existence by random chance, but it is the system we live in, and we must learn to live by its rules.
My quest is to understand those rules and find ways to live in harmony with them. On this quest Gods role, or lack there of, is irrelevant.
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2 comments:
Aloha Alan,
I just discovered your blogs via searching Bioneers' site and am inspired by your story, commitment, and honesty. I'm putting your link up on my new and hardly read-by-anyone-else blog, and I'll be checking in on you from time-to-time. You and your family are making theory real and I appreciate your frustration in actualizing the ideals we can all talk about but struggle to live out.
In the past 50 years, Hawaii has gone from being a 95% local economy to 95% imported. There are some folks, including some in government, who are, like you, working to reverse this. The best way I've found to get at this is growing some food (but in the first years, that meant mail ordering seeds from the mainland) and buying from local growers. There are no local commercial chicken farms anymore and only one local dairy. I've got my own hens but haven't been able to convince my husband (who, yes, has the day job) to get a dairy cow...yet.
Sharing your efforts and results will continue to be helpful as more people willing to change old behaviors find each other, in our local, web-based and possibly etheric communities.
Hello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting, congratulations :-). I will add in my blogroll =). If possible gives a last there on my site, it is about the CresceNet, I hope you enjoy. The address is http://www.provedorcrescenet.com . A hug.
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