Sometimes it is dangerous to reflect on big ideas. They can lead you down a thought-hole that may have no end.
Jim Cathcart in thoughtful reflection during a cruise on the Yangtze River in China.
Today I posed a question to my ChatGPT assistant, Miss Moneypenny. Yes, her. And I also gave her a British accent and asked her to call me James. Why not have some fun with all this? I was reviewing what I believed to be true about our existence on Earth and how it came about. So I asked her, “Moneypenny, what is God?” That should keep her busy for awhile. Nope, she replied within a few seconds and I really like her answer. Read it here.
Click to link to read Moneypenny’s answer. Link: What_is_God_by_Moneypenny
More from me: To structure thoughts about God, one needs to follow a chain of conclusions and assure that they are compatible. If one of the foundational assumptions is wrong, then every conclusion built upon it will be flawed. For example: If you don’t believe in gravity (on Earth), you will still be bound by its force. Belief doesn’t equal Truth or Fact but it does reveal your way of looking at them.
Here are some of my recent thoughts.
Everyone has a “Religion” even Atheists. Faith is required in all religions, including the “religion” of science. (See #5 & 6.)
1. I acknowledge that the human mind (myself naturally included) is incapable of comprehending concepts without limits. We use time, space, substance, shape, distance and other measures to help us comprehend.
2. If something exists, it must have been created. Hence there would be a Creator. Not a “person” necessarily but an original source. And it would have a beginning. If the Big Bang was the beginning then where did it occur, what stimulated it and what was there before it? (Time & Space measures.)
3. If the Creator is the source of life and all that exists, then destruction (killing) would be in opposition to it and would not be “desirable” to it.
4. Since life thrives when nourished, then supporting healthy life and living is a desirable thing.
5. Faith: We believe that Love exists. That thoughts exist. That feelings and intuition exist. But we cannot see or touch any of them. We accept them on faith and attempt to measure them via the symptomatic behaviors that often accompany them. But we cannot prove them. We can only observe their symptoms.
We seek to encourage them and we have faith that they exist.
6. We also “know” that anger, hatred and fear exist by seeing their behavioral symptoms. But the product of these is undesirable and limits life.
7. Therefore, from a limited human perspective, existence had to have a beginning or source and was intentional, not random. If existence is intentional then there is an “Intendor” who gives purpose and meaning to life. (The full nature of the Intendor is beyond our ability to comprehend.) If life was not intentional, a random occurrence, then how do you explain the astounding perfection in nature? Could that many things be that perfect accidentally?
8. If purpose and meaning are present then Life needs an “operating system.” We call that system “Love.”
Love has a moral code through which one can discern good and bad (desirable or not) by studying the effects of Love vs its absence.
William Glasser once said, “The opposite of Love is not hatred. It is indifference.” That makes sense to me. You could also say, the opposite of caring is not caring. Hmmm.
Things to think about.
Once you “remove God” you also remove purpose, meaning and goodness. All that remains, without God, is a transactional and temporary world.
“Get yours while you can because this life is all that matters.” Survival of the fittest. Animal kingdom rulebook.
Without God there is no dignity, no compassion, no true forgiveness, no generosity (without expecting a payback), no love, no sacrifice. No inspiration.
Without God all that is left is transactions to get what you want. “I will be nice to you as long as you do as I wish.”
Without God, You become the reason for everything, the center of the universe. Everything else is something to be used or avoided.
My personal conclusion is that there is a God. One unimaginably vast and powerful Source from which all things came. I believe this entity to be operating by Love. My role therefore is to be as compatible with my Creator as I can. To be acting “in the image of God”, to be a creator of good. To be a problem solver for others.
To care about people when there’s nothing in it for me. This is a huge challenge but I accept it happily.
My life thus far has proven to me that this belief is probably true. So, I will live according to my belief system and, on the many things that I cannot explain, I, like others, will use Faith to fill that gap.
