Life Could be Simple

Oh and why can’t we always just type, and play with different fonts and love who we want to love and they’ll just love us back? Why can’t I sit with my back against an old oak tree, bare toes in the grass, and be poetic with someone’s head in my lap and draw birdsongs on a clean white piece of paper with a fine-point black Sharpie pen? So many questions, but it’s mostly because I don’t want to learn about Clara Schumann and Mendelssohn and the Cult of Virtuosity. Don’t worship others, worship yourself.

thoughts on God as a freshman in college

If you find contradictions between religion and science, you are simplifying them too much. There is no contradiction. They ultimately work together. It is entirely possible for people to believe in both.

I think I gave the name “God” to forces I cannot yet explain or comprehend. It’s like a placeholder. Someday I will know more; one day I may eventually replace “God” with my own words and conclusions.

Derek was talking about the “God of the gaps.” That scientist that could see the trend in where science was going and could predict it enough to do away with the concept of God because he knew science would eventually explain it.

Derek's comment, in a nutshell (and I believe this too): "I attribute God, not to an entity, but to “what matters most” (phrase courtesy of Denny Clark). My beliefs are vague expressions of my faith. My faith is WMM: my family, caring about people, the ones I love, relationships, learning, etc. My beliefs are expressions of this faith. When my dad was sick and he miraculously recovered, the doctor said “If you believe in a God, he just graced your family today” or something like that. I don’t believe that God has the power to do these things, necessarily. God didn’t interact and switch some red blood cells around for my dad to live; he can’t just choose to interfere like that. But “he” was there. Since God is my faith, and my faith was there, he was there."

I get defensive when people start talking about God as the conventional God that I’ve grown up with, as the bearded old man in the sky. I know, and have finally reconciled, that God is actually just my concept of faith (well, everyone’s concept of faith.) I think I’ve known that for a long time (see “Mortalis Idem”), but Derek just said it again tonight and hearing it again gave it new solidity for me. It’s easier for me to talk about religion. It needn’t be as controversial as it is, or taboo. Just like sex is as simple as procreation, etc. and is taken to new taboos in our society, and politics needn’t be personal, but it’s just about who gets what, and when and who has enough power to get the majority, religion is just a paradigm from which people think.

I wish I was more articulate. Especially when talking.

Mortalis Idem

[author's note: I wrote this a really long time ago, before blogs even existed, I think.  It's interesting to see how my 16-year-old brain organized things.]

I am not familiar with all organisms in this universe, but through constant observation and self-introspect, as well as applying critical thinking and life experience, I have come to some conclusions, however temporary, about the human being- the homo sapiens. The human being is the Self.

To live life well and be happy with your Self, three factors must be taken into consideration: the body, mind, and spirit of yourself. These three elements of a human are of equal importance, although it may not seem so at first glance. The Self cannot survive if they are missing any of the three elements.

The body is non-metaphorical in this circumstance, representing the physical anatomy. The human cannot survive without the body, because the body is a vehicle, instrument, shell, and manifestation of and for your thoughts and spirit. You would not be able to think, love, or live without your body. Your brain is part of your body and should be taken care of physically, but it encompasses the other two categories as well, since the brain is the centre of the mental and spiritual aspects of yourself.

The mind can be defined as the centre of learning, judgement, memory, logic, experience and emotions as well as giving instructions to the body. It houses both the conscious and subconscious Self.

The spirit is perhaps the most complicated of the three elements of the Self. The spirit is not located in any specific part of the Self, although we contact it using the mind. The spirit is the life-force and soul of the Self, but it is not tangible or physical in any way. It has been described as energy or light, even the will of a person. Religion is the most common effort to realize or strengthen the bond with the spiritual Self. People have manifested their knowledge of the Spirit into God, and have put him in heaven with angels. People believe there is one God who created us and watches over us all, when in actuality, our Spirit is inside each of us.

God- your spiritual self
Heaven- harmony with the three elements of your Self (essentially, you)
Angels- your conscience