The Journey I'm On
I'm giving in to this mental pull and really going to spend time exploring it. What is my/our purpose? Some philosophers have spent their entire lives trying to figure that out, and I have no intention of doing that, but I do want to make a serious effort. In that vein, I just started reading this:
I don't remember who recommended it to me, but it sounded good and I snagged it off Amazon. After reading Chapter 1 I realize it's a 40 day chapter/journey. A bit like Resisting Happiness. I also know that it's very God centric. I know that because the first chapter is titled "It All Starts With God". Do you like my awesome powers of deductive reasoning there? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, because at this point I've realized there is a large set of people who find their ultimate purpose along God's path and there is no swaying them. Not that I want to, but I am a scientist at heart and so things are hard for me to wholeheartedly accept without really vetting them through my brain. I can't really just hit the "I BELIEVE" button on big ticket items. So vetting is what I'm doing now. Or maybe, data collection is what I'm doing now. I want to explore philosophies of people who have found their purpose and see which one fits me.
So anyway, the first chapter of this book is "It All Starts With God". And I can almost get onboard with that. He uses a really great analogy of someone handing you a gadget you've never seen before. You can't figure out what it's for, and the gadget can't tell you what it's for - only the creator can really explain it to you. I like it. Good mental picture. But here's where my heart has a hard time. If God really has a divine purpose, and I look back at the history of this world, it's hard for me to feel like there has been a divine plan moving us toward a better place. That could be naïveté. It's hard for my brain to connect to barbaric or feudal societies. Does the evolution of the creature comforts we now enjoy reflect God's will? Is Democracy God's will? I know we're better off than under dictatorship, but the state of things now sure seems like a crummy version of "perfection". And after 4.5 Billion Years, why hasn't God's plan for this world become more perfect? Why is there still so much crap? I also get that 4.5 Billion Years seems like a long time to me, but to God, time is meaningless.
Then when I think about 4.5 BILLION YEARS I have to think - I'm a really insignificant speck. I mean, REALLY insignificant speck. Why even bother considering my purpose as it relates to God? Instead I'm left with realizing that while I can do the best I can to be a good part of His plan in the overall scheme of things, I'm such a tiny cog that I really have to figure out internally what gives me purpose. So I'm back where I started. "It All Starts With God" is just not going to solve this dilemma. At least, not yet.
I don't remember who recommended it to me, but it sounded good and I snagged it off Amazon. After reading Chapter 1 I realize it's a 40 day chapter/journey. A bit like Resisting Happiness. I also know that it's very God centric. I know that because the first chapter is titled "It All Starts With God". Do you like my awesome powers of deductive reasoning there? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, because at this point I've realized there is a large set of people who find their ultimate purpose along God's path and there is no swaying them. Not that I want to, but I am a scientist at heart and so things are hard for me to wholeheartedly accept without really vetting them through my brain. I can't really just hit the "I BELIEVE" button on big ticket items. So vetting is what I'm doing now. Or maybe, data collection is what I'm doing now. I want to explore philosophies of people who have found their purpose and see which one fits me.
So anyway, the first chapter of this book is "It All Starts With God". And I can almost get onboard with that. He uses a really great analogy of someone handing you a gadget you've never seen before. You can't figure out what it's for, and the gadget can't tell you what it's for - only the creator can really explain it to you. I like it. Good mental picture. But here's where my heart has a hard time. If God really has a divine purpose, and I look back at the history of this world, it's hard for me to feel like there has been a divine plan moving us toward a better place. That could be naïveté. It's hard for my brain to connect to barbaric or feudal societies. Does the evolution of the creature comforts we now enjoy reflect God's will? Is Democracy God's will? I know we're better off than under dictatorship, but the state of things now sure seems like a crummy version of "perfection". And after 4.5 Billion Years, why hasn't God's plan for this world become more perfect? Why is there still so much crap? I also get that 4.5 Billion Years seems like a long time to me, but to God, time is meaningless.
Then when I think about 4.5 BILLION YEARS I have to think - I'm a really insignificant speck. I mean, REALLY insignificant speck. Why even bother considering my purpose as it relates to God? Instead I'm left with realizing that while I can do the best I can to be a good part of His plan in the overall scheme of things, I'm such a tiny cog that I really have to figure out internally what gives me purpose. So I'm back where I started. "It All Starts With God" is just not going to solve this dilemma. At least, not yet.
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