Quote:I'm not saying there is no darker aspect, but is it something of substance, or simply an absence of light?
I think I see what you're getting at.
Instead of starting at zero and going in both directions, say good and evil, you start at zero and only go in one direction, with zero being the total absence of light which would be 'evil' as I know it?
(2017-08-28, 04:52 PM)Stan Woolley Wrote: [ -> ]I think I see what you're getting at.
Instead of starting at zero and going in both directions, say good and evil, you start at zero and only go in one direction, with zero being the total absence of light which would be 'evil' as I know it?
Well yes, but I'd hate to be so specific as to use the language of mathematics to describe these things. That starts to sound too much like a scientific hypothesis, whereas I'm thinking more in terms which might be metaphorical.
(2017-08-27, 08:19 PM)Jim_Smith Wrote: [ -> ]Despite all the nasty things that happen, isn't the almost infinite capacity people have to love amazing? And also the many different ways and things we can love. We can love romantically. We can love our parents, children, siblings, other relatives and people. We can love animals, pets, and wild animals and nature. Etc. Maybe we are here not just to learn to love but to savor the different nuances of different kinds of love? Does that exist in the non physical realm? Maybe it is best learned in the physical?
I would agree with this but I don't know if this physical world is really best described as a school. Admittedly we're retreating old ground here,
will see if I can dig up some stuff out of the Skeptiko Gnosticism Thread that's more specific but if people want to run through the whole old convo....
I think the question of responsibility on God's part depends on God's ability to intervene or whether this entity really has all the requisites we associate with the Deity traditionally. A Prime Mover may not even be a conscious entity, a "God of Movement" rather than a "God of Meaning". Brahman isn't really "God" in the sense that Vishnu is a God, and IIRC Plotinus said The One wasn't a being you'd worship as it was the Wholeness one seeks to return to. Two Gods, one of Good & one of Evil, of course shifts things further though I think the idea of God refers to the Ground of Being of which, in Highlander speak, There Can Only Be One.
The great challenge of apologia is reconciling God's Power with God's Love. I personally am skeptical this is reconcilable though I appreciated Chokti's posts on the matter relating to theism in general as well as his own Christian perspective.
(2017-08-27, 03:50 PM)Stan Woolley Wrote: [ -> ]I notice that there seems to be a seething anger about the nasty things that happen in the Universe, among a significant number of people, which God often bears the brunt of. Is this justified?
Depends.
Are you a pure reflection of 'God'? In the image of the Creator? One with All That Is? Then yes.
If "No" to the above, then you may have an interesting journey through your life if you wish to front load it with the experience of "God shoves life down my throat".
(2017-08-28, 09:52 PM)Pssst Wrote: [ -> ]Depends.
Are you a pure reflection of 'God'? In the image of the Creator? One with All That Is? Then yes.
If "No" to the above, then you may have an interesting journey through your life if you wish to front load it with the experience of "God shoves life down my throat".
Can you explain/expand on what you mean here please? I don't get it.
I'm in the uk and it's late, so I might not be able to reply for some time.
(2017-08-28, 10:01 PM)Stan Woolley Wrote: [ -> ]Can you explain/expand on what you mean here please? I don't get it.
Life either happens TO you or THROUGH you, if you are of the former POV, then you can certainly say that God uses evil as a tool.
If your POV is that you are responsible for creating your physical reality, then, well...
My only complaint about God is that he-she seems to have burdened me with enough mysteries for ten life times. Why just trying to comprehend the subtleties of reincarnation.....
(2017-08-28, 06:45 PM)Sciborg_S_Patel Wrote: [ -> ]"I would agree with this but I don't know if this physical world is really best described as a school. Admittedly we're retreating old ground here, will see if I can dig up some stuff out of the Skeptiko Gnosticism Thread that's more specific but if people want to run through the whole old convo....
I think the question of responsibility on God's part depends on God's ability to intervene or whether this entity really has all the requisites we associate with the Deity traditionally. A Prime Mover may not even be a conscious entity, a "God of Movement" rather than a "God of Meaning". Brahman isn't really "God" in the sense that Vishnu is a God, and IIRC Plotinus said The One wasn't a being you'd worship as it was the Wholeness one seeks to return to. Two Gods, one of Good & one of Evil, of course shifts things further though I think the idea of God refers to the Ground of Being of which, in Highlander speak, There Can Only Be One.
The great challenge of apologia is reconciling God's Power with God's Love. I personally am skeptical this is reconcilable though I appreciated Chokti's posts on the matter relating to theism in general as well as his own Christian perspective."
GREAT post Sci, this pretty much sums up my working theory, but you expressed it so well that I'm going to put it in a frame :-) (though I wouldn't personally seek to return to a Wholeness if it includes Evil, too, as it appears to do: I would rather seek extinction - but that's just the way I feel about it)
Reincarnation is real. It is also a fairer and less problematic philosophy than some alternatives.
(2017-09-12, 10:57 AM)Typoz Wrote: [ -> ]Reincarnation is real. It is also a fairer and less problematic philosophy than some alternatives.
Agreed.
I think the question one next uncovers is what to do with those lifetimes,,
By which I mean, is karma a real thing?
Not that we can even know this, but much of my reading of channeled and other mediumship works in the last several years has suggested that no, you don't suffer to atone for bad or visa versa.