The Meaning of Life (part 3 of 3) ...

So then, if God is love, as we deduced / theorized in our last post why is evil permitted to exist?  To answer this, one must truly explore a critical aspect of what constitutes 'love'.  An example most people are familiar with of love, is the romantic love two people begin to feel for each other.  This largely chemical reaction can result in spending time together, getting to know each other, affection, and perhaps at last intimacy.  But there is a critical component without which this process cannot occur - 'freedom to choose it'.  Think of it this way, if you were magically granted the power to literally control how someone else felt about you; you could in effect 'make' them love you; would you really be happy using this power?  Oh sure, in the short term, and on supermodels, this would seem like an ideal superpower to have.  Think of it, unconditional slave-like love and devotion to you.  But over time, you realize the object under your power, may not really have ever loved you if given the choice.  It is only your ability to control them that has led to this form of robotic devotion to you.  Can you really even call this love?  Sounds more like emotional slavery to me.  In order for it to be true, love MUST be voluntary.

God being the author of love knows this.  As He created, or rather is the origin of love, he also understands that any other intelligent life form would have to have the ability to choose love, and/or the ability to walk away from it, in order for it to be real.  Thus God must allow the freedom to choose to hate, if love is also to be real.  This takes us back to our question, why are we where we are with respect to the existence of evil?  At this point we face a dilemma.  Do we embrace the concept of 'pure' science and simply attribute the origin of emotions, and morality (i.e. good and evil), to the existential netherworld of yet more unanswered questions; or do we begin to choose to embrace the concept of an all powerful and benevolent God who actually has an answer to our query?

Christianity, Judaism, and Islam (the big 3) all trace back the answer to this question to the same source.  Buddhists, Hindu, and various other schools of thought I am sure have their own take on the subject as well.  We will discuss the commonality of these ideas in a future section.  But for now, it appears that crazy book 'the Bible' seems to have the clearest answer to our question.  In a nutshell, we are told that God existed as we deduced logically, before our understanding of time, space, and matter.  God was and is Love.  And beyond that He is a creator.  Not just of the 'spark of life' that living things seem to exhibit, but He seems to be origin of the entire periodic table of elements, the rules of physics, the science of mathematics, and the more nebulous things like the source of emotion, author of our senses, and of course our freedom to choose.  And arrogant as we sometimes are, this book also tells us we were NOT the first forms of life He created.  In fact there were other forms of life considered on His scale to be 'higher' in nature than ourselves.  No telling how many other planets, with eco-systems, and other life forms He created over the eons, before He got around to humans.  But at least one very important other creation he made were Angels, that predate us.  Why include them in the Bible, because they are central to our story of existence.

Turns out, an Angel, in fact the number three Angel in all of creation at that point in time (time of course hardly being relevant, but we'll skip the meta-physics for now), exercising his own free will, asked a simple question and began to explore it's answer - i.e. What about me?  This very exalted being thought highly of himself, and turned his service for others around to begin to serve himself.  He essentially stopped giving and started taking.  What's more having started down this path towards self, he started identifying rules that no-one knew ever existed before. 

In perfection, all created beings simply chose the same things God did, it was the familiar, they were happy, they had no reason not to.  No-one before this #3 exalted angel had ever thought to choose something different from God.  And of course no-one had any idea what that might lead to.  It was unknown.  It essentially was new.  His thinking might have gone something like this … “It has some merit after all, why do all these created beings keep worshipping God?  Do they have to?  What happens if they choose not to?  Why don't they worship me, considering I am beautiful, smart, and the number 3 guy in existence?  I want to be 'like' the Most High.”

There was no 'evil' in understanding the difference between Love and Hate.  The knowledge of good and of evil was something only God had been familiar with up to that point in time/existence.  God knew the extent to which choices away from good would eventually lead.  Lucifer, as this #3 angel was called then, simply stumbled across it by centering his focus on himself.  I am certain initially he had no idea where this would lead.  And given the benevolence of God, I am sure God tried to reason with him, to help him see the wisdom of making 'right' or better choices. 

We are left with little knowledge about the particulars that occurred in heaven before our creation other than as evil has always done, it fed on itself, it grew, and there came a point where the first WAR was fought.  Between God who still held 2/3 of the numbers of angels, and Lucifer and his now fully 1/3 of the remaining angels.  Lucifer predictably lost.  I cannot even imagine what that must have been to witness.  But at the end of the day, the beings that chose something other than God were cast out of perfection (i.e. heaven) and sent out to the Universe at large. 

I'm certain a great political campaign was waged then with Lucifer trying to convince other intelligent beings that he was correct - his assertion - God was a tyrant, He demanded obedience, and He enforced it on pain of death (i.e. non-existence, which again was something totally NEW in concept at that point in time).  Nothing had ever died before then.  Nothing that was alive had ever ceased to exist before.  It was a completely foreign concept.  But it did leave God with an unfortunate dilemma, He must now allow the Universe to choose for itself whether to trust in Him, and continue to choose what He chooses, or to embrace now Satan's philosophy.  All of this is prologue to our existence.  All of this history is in place BEFORE we are created.  Satan works his political campaign throughout the Universe without a single taker, until he gets to Earth...

The question we posed was, why does evil exist?  It exists as an alternate choice to good, and before it can be extinguished, the entire Universe must come to choose its extinction.  Even humans must come to see the true nature of evil for themselves, and make a choice to embrace it no more.  We are the unfortunate grand Petri dish experiment of what happens when intelligent beings choose NOT to trust God, but to look to self for the answers. 

While God has permitted evil to exist for a time, He knows, as history has taught us, that it must be eventually eradicated in order for the continued survival of all that is good.  The cancer of evil must be cut from the body of existence and cannot be indefinitely permitted to go on lest the entire body perish over time.  We exist in this tension between freedom to choose, and the consequences of those choices.  But something that PROVEs the benevolence of God was at work, even before our entry into existence.  It is the single differentiator between the God I speak of, and the other candidates I have heard of.  We'll discuss this in a future section ...

The Meaning of Life (part 2 of 3) ...

So no matter what theory you believe in regarding our origins, science or religion, something must have always existed since before our understanding of time, space, and matter.  To the scientist, this is the Hydrogen atom, as discussed in our last post.  To the person who searches for more, the answer becomes some sort of deity.

But what god is God?  What is the nature of God?  What is its character and intentions?  To answer this in part, we are able to learn from our own history, dispositions, and human condition.  Every society, every ruler in history, every kingdom of power that we are able to document in our past has completely fallen apart.  Every tyranny has collapsed.  If we extrapolate our human condition to guess at the nature of God we could deduce that God must not be corrupt.  He must not exhibit any evil of any kind, as we know that evil tends to implode over time.  If God were evil in any way, the nature of evil would likely have already imploded into non-existence and this conversation would be moot.  Therefore if there is a God, it must be absent of any evil that would have corrupted and led to universal decay.  God therefore is good, pretty much exclusively good, nothing else could last.

There are a group of people who believe that God may well exist, but if He does, He may have simply originated life like a wind-up toy, and then let it go out on its own, to whatever end it finds.  This agnostic point of view claims that any God would be impossible to truly understand as God.   It would be infinite, and humans (due to our mortality) unable to grasp God in any context.  This rational accepts the universal power of a God, but denies its benevolence.  I believe it stems from a more substantive question, why do 'bad' things happen to 'good' people.  And how could a benevolent God permit evil to exist in any form?  We will address these questions in a future section, but for now I draw attention to the fact that an agnostic viewpoint essentially accepts the divinity of God as original creator of life, and then denies His benevolence as they are unable to reconcile it within their own experiences here.

It is said that 'good' cannot exist without 'evil'.  This is true in the sense that there are choices which confront us every day that seem to fall into the good versus evil category.  But that means 'good' is a choice.  It also means 'evil' is a choice.  It would appear God chose to be completely 'good', making the opposite of God = 'evil'.  God would appear to embody every good and noble trait thought, action, or intention that ever could exist, and evil is left with everything else.  It remains a choice both 'good' and 'evil' then.  But the premise remains that God continues to exist only because he is absent any of the characteristics that would have resulted in His own demise (i.e. evil).  Therefore 'good' has always existed and will always continue to exist.  The choice of 'evil' has also always existed, but seems to have a much more limited scope of manifestation.  And 'evil' has no part in God.

So the basics we understand about God include that He always existed, beyond our understanding of time, space, and matter.  He must be good; as if He were evil he would have self-destructed by now.  And that both good and evil are choices that we and God make.  It is reasonable then to proffer that God is the author of choice.  He becomes the author of 'free will'. 

And one other area we have yet to address in the existence of man.  Where do we derive emotions from if not from God?  Emotions seem to fall into 2 basic categories, those that enrich life, and those that diminish it.  Sound familiar.  Emotions seem to emulate our choice in that we can experience both 'good' and 'evil' emotion, with predictable results.  We choose to engage in an emotional response, or feeling.  We choose to limit for ourselves how much we allow this feeling to dominate our existence.  And sometimes we seem to lose control of our choices over feelings.  But if feelings come from God as well, then God becomes the author of Love.  Love has it's opposite then, as an alternative choice, which is Hate.  But God chooses not to embrace hatred, and only embrace Love, as again, the acceptance of anything evil would lead to His eventual self-destruction.

To embrace the concept that God is Love is not some fairy-tale superstitious notion that helps us sleep better at night; it is a rational, logical, conclusion we reach after studying the alternatives, and witnessing the results.  But to accept this premise requires a reconciliation of why we live in a world with so little of God's love around us?  Why do we seem to be dominated by the absence of God (i.e. evil)?  If Love is our origin, why are we here where we are today?

The Meaning of Life (part 1 of 3) ...

It all boils down to random-chance or intent.  Do you exist because of some completely random one-in-a-trillion-shot cosmic lottery, or are you unique and does your existence imply intent?   The two prevailing theories regarding existence come down to these basic questions. 

The science of evolution can trace our ancestry back (chiefly through carbon dating, mostly of rocks) for thousands, then millions of years.  There are many scientific theories regarding the origin of life on this planet.  I say 'theories' because it is impossible to scientifically 'prove' any of them, despite attributing them to 'science'.  Evolution, in the sense of evolving over time to meet changing demands of our environment, CAN be proven (i.e. Darwin's original theories), but this does not grant carte-blanche to the origin of any biological species that first appeared on our planet.

But to focus on our world in the context of evolution seems a bit arrogant, when talking about the meaning of existence.  Take the theories back further, all the way to the big bang; in fact, how about going back even further - prior to the big bang.  Best guess (note we have given up the idea of even theories here, we're down to guesses), the Hydrogen atom must have ALWAYS existed.  It's mass attracted other atoms through gravity, attracting still more atoms, that begin to morph over time into other elements, until we get up to the big bang.  But at its source SOMETHING must have always existed, past our understanding of space, time, and the laws that we understand about matter itself.

 

So in the world of science, the Hydrogen atom is god.  And the 'religion' of science requires 'faith' to cover the questions it cannot answer; such as how do in-animate atoms come together and spontaneously morph into 'living' ameba.  How do interdependent complex organisms form at precisely the same time through a process of evolving when neither could exist without the other?  Being a member of this church, leaves one with more troubling evolved questions such as; when did morality enter the conscience of man's existence, and why does it not seem to exist in other highly evolved species?  And of course, what is the meaning of life?  Why am I here?  What does it matter?

I respect the 'purest' thinking of scientific minds that completely reject the concept of a God.  But I point out, that to maintain the purity of scientific thinking requires 'faith' to cover the unanswered questions.  And at its core, this belief system tends to leave the individual void of any true meaning.  The natural conclusion to the randomness of your particular life leaves you empty inside.  Think of it.  Your life, within this thinking, is devoid of meaning.  You could die this second and mean nothing.  You could cure cancer, and be remembered for it, but once your particular existence has ceased, to you it means nothing.  And let's face it, we have FACTUAL evidence about what happens to us when we die.  We disintegrate.  We become dust, bones, nails, and maybe hair, but nothing more after death.  Within the scientific community there is NO afterlife, because the concept of a soul, implies more than science can explain.  As I said at the outset, it all comes down to random-chance, or existence that is unique and implies intent …

Foreward & Introduction

I began writing this book as an online WEB Blog to try to outline why some of the beliefs Christians have espoused cause non-believers to question the existence of God.  What has resulted instead is perhaps a deepening of my own understanding of the love God has shown for me, of His patience with me, and of His desire to save me – from me.  I only hope I have not interfered with His plans so much as to alter His desires for me.  My prayer is an echo of the publican in the corner, as I join him in crying out – “Oh Lord, have mercy on me, and save me, a sinner.” [Luke 18:13]

Hey I'm not perfect.  No-one is.  But it occurs to me that the nature of God, (and consequently the question of any deity's existence), is constantly hurled at us by media pundits, comedians, and politicians, in short almost anybody in front of a camera.  The talking-heads all have their own opinions, historical bias, and sometimes ulterior agenda (see Iraq war II, etc.).  But none of them would seem to me to qualify as "experts" in religion, or even meta-physics.  So why should theirs' be the only voices out there on these kinds of topics.  Seems to me that some common misconceptions about God color, if not outright shape, the messages we hear related to God (or the lack of one). 

So I was just thinking ... why not write a book or post a blog on what I think?  Why not challenge the conventional thinking of Christians who believe they have a corner on who God is and ignore dissenting opinion?  Why not challenge Atheists about the meaning of existence?  Why not challenge religious thinking people of all varieties about the core substance of their beliefs?  And finally, why not challenge Scientists with the entirety of what they know, how often it has been mistaken over the years (turns out we are human after all), and what this form of logic means to our existence.

My plan is to blog each week about controversial subjects related to our own existence, what meaning it has, what part God may have in it, and why it matters.  To separate the truth from the fiction: to put another voice out here in the ether-sphere and see if others may find value in it.  Like I said, I'm not perfect.  I try not to judge.  I'm no role model.  I'm just interested in this topic because it means something to me.  With luck, I'll create a dialog that enriches the lives of the folks who take an interest in reading and perhaps sharing some of their own thoughts and feelings over the Internet.