i feel like this could be part 2 of my free will rant.
http://donmilleris.com/2010/04/29/does-god-have-a-specific-plan-for-your-life-probably-not/
all his posts are great. he has a great way of intertwining the word with real life and things we all experience and think about.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
free will - proof... well, logical proof. ok, no proof, but logical, right?
i remember going to dinner at a friends' house a few years back with my roommate and over the course of the night, conversation changed from small talk to religion. i don't remember every detail of the conversation or how it really came about (how does it ever come about, really?) but i remember there was a debate on free will and whether or not we control our lives/destiny.
on the car ride home that night i really started racking my brain. really started talking out loud, you know? god gave us the ability to reason, to make logical decisions. that same god (unless you wanna get all polytheistic on me) gave us the ability to ignore reason, to ignore logic, and basically make decisions that are either flat out stupid or from the heart. i'm not implying reasons from the heart are stupid, i'm merely saying that they are not always logical. love being one of them.
if you believe in god, you most likely believe there is a reason for y/our existence. if you do not believe in god, then you probably don't and my argument is flawed so feel free to continue living meaninglessly. but for the theists, i'm sure you are constantly looking for meaning, understanding and fulfillment. you probably often wonder, "why am i here?", "why was i the fastest swimmer?", "what happens when my heart stops beating... for good?". well, i can't answer that nor will we probably all agree on what happens after we die, but what we can agree on is that it wasn't all for nothing. we have meaning, we have purpose, we have a reason. the next question is, who decides this purpose or reason?
god put us here for a reason. to reason. to mean. to make decisions. this "earth thing" HAS to be a test. this time we get to spend here enjoying all of god's creation - is a test. he's allowing US to choose what happens next. otherwise, everything is pre-determined and we're born, god watches us fuck up repeatedly throughout our lives, then we die and god forgets about us. doubtful. any god loving soul will agree THIS has to mean something. this has to be a test. this has to be US choosing what will happen next. and what happens after you take a test - you get graded. now, i don't want to speculate on god's grading system and if he grades on a bell curve or not (i cannot know that nor can i change it) but what i can change is how i take the test. how i answer the questions. now when you take a test in school you usually knew when you were going to take it, therefore some us studied. in life, you get to study and take the test all at once. it's like an open book exam (the best!). we're allowed to reason through our choices, learn from our mistakes, learn from other's mistakes and better ourselves throughout the course of our lives. really, the more i think about it, this is one of the easiest tests you'll take, but also the most difficult. i mean you have all these resources at your disposal - family, friends, teachers, literature, the interwebs, etc... all while you take this test - yet a lot of the time the questions we're being asked aren't multiple choice, or even true/false. most of the time it's an open ended essay that will eventually be subjectively judged by the ultimate teacher - god.
now, i don't mean to say that god doesn't play a role in our lives, in our interactions. i equate this to that of any sort of card game or board game really. there's always the setup, the preparation. you have to open the box, get the pieces out, distribute widgets, count stuff. in the test of life, god does these things for you. he puts people in your life for a reason, gives you a set of circumstances and sets the stage so to speak. but once the game is setup, YOU get to move those pieces on the board. YOU get to choose whether or not you'll buy or sell that property. YOU get to choose which card you'll choose next.
now i'm a logical person (if that's not obvious already). and i believe that god is logical too, but god also loves us (now i can't prove this, but i do feel this in my heart - and i'm sorry if you don't). now, love, which from the aforementioned and i think most would agree, is a pretty illogical feeling that we can't touch, hear, smell, explain nor prove. therefore i can say with some degree of confidence that god is capable of doing things that are illogical in our lives. this sort of relates to my first post where i mentioned that sometimes things happen in our lives that we can't explain. things that happen for which we know no reason. i can't say that these things are his illogical decisions coming into play in our lives, but i do firmly believe that everything happens for a reason and those reasons may not always be clear to us AND THAT'S OK. too many people are concerned/hung up on clear cut reasons WHY. i ask you this - once you know the reason something seemingly illogical happened to you - what will you do? how will that affect you and your next decisions? if you find out someone cheated on your because the other person was better looking or had a bigger chest - do you immediately run and get plastic surgery (either on your face or your chest)? no! unless you're a completely insecure idiot, you do not. most of the time we just end up saying "eh, their loss". oh crap, i've swayed too far off topic and wrote myself into what will probably be my next blog post...
punch line: life is a test. how will YOU be graded?
on the car ride home that night i really started racking my brain. really started talking out loud, you know? god gave us the ability to reason, to make logical decisions. that same god (unless you wanna get all polytheistic on me) gave us the ability to ignore reason, to ignore logic, and basically make decisions that are either flat out stupid or from the heart. i'm not implying reasons from the heart are stupid, i'm merely saying that they are not always logical. love being one of them.
if you believe in god, you most likely believe there is a reason for y/our existence. if you do not believe in god, then you probably don't and my argument is flawed so feel free to continue living meaninglessly. but for the theists, i'm sure you are constantly looking for meaning, understanding and fulfillment. you probably often wonder, "why am i here?", "why was i the fastest swimmer?", "what happens when my heart stops beating... for good?". well, i can't answer that nor will we probably all agree on what happens after we die, but what we can agree on is that it wasn't all for nothing. we have meaning, we have purpose, we have a reason. the next question is, who decides this purpose or reason?
god put us here for a reason. to reason. to mean. to make decisions. this "earth thing" HAS to be a test. this time we get to spend here enjoying all of god's creation - is a test. he's allowing US to choose what happens next. otherwise, everything is pre-determined and we're born, god watches us fuck up repeatedly throughout our lives, then we die and god forgets about us. doubtful. any god loving soul will agree THIS has to mean something. this has to be a test. this has to be US choosing what will happen next. and what happens after you take a test - you get graded. now, i don't want to speculate on god's grading system and if he grades on a bell curve or not (i cannot know that nor can i change it) but what i can change is how i take the test. how i answer the questions. now when you take a test in school you usually knew when you were going to take it, therefore some us studied. in life, you get to study and take the test all at once. it's like an open book exam (the best!). we're allowed to reason through our choices, learn from our mistakes, learn from other's mistakes and better ourselves throughout the course of our lives. really, the more i think about it, this is one of the easiest tests you'll take, but also the most difficult. i mean you have all these resources at your disposal - family, friends, teachers, literature, the interwebs, etc... all while you take this test - yet a lot of the time the questions we're being asked aren't multiple choice, or even true/false. most of the time it's an open ended essay that will eventually be subjectively judged by the ultimate teacher - god.
now, i don't mean to say that god doesn't play a role in our lives, in our interactions. i equate this to that of any sort of card game or board game really. there's always the setup, the preparation. you have to open the box, get the pieces out, distribute widgets, count stuff. in the test of life, god does these things for you. he puts people in your life for a reason, gives you a set of circumstances and sets the stage so to speak. but once the game is setup, YOU get to move those pieces on the board. YOU get to choose whether or not you'll buy or sell that property. YOU get to choose which card you'll choose next.
now i'm a logical person (if that's not obvious already). and i believe that god is logical too, but god also loves us (now i can't prove this, but i do feel this in my heart - and i'm sorry if you don't). now, love, which from the aforementioned and i think most would agree, is a pretty illogical feeling that we can't touch, hear, smell, explain nor prove. therefore i can say with some degree of confidence that god is capable of doing things that are illogical in our lives. this sort of relates to my first post where i mentioned that sometimes things happen in our lives that we can't explain. things that happen for which we know no reason. i can't say that these things are his illogical decisions coming into play in our lives, but i do firmly believe that everything happens for a reason and those reasons may not always be clear to us AND THAT'S OK. too many people are concerned/hung up on clear cut reasons WHY. i ask you this - once you know the reason something seemingly illogical happened to you - what will you do? how will that affect you and your next decisions? if you find out someone cheated on your because the other person was better looking or had a bigger chest - do you immediately run and get plastic surgery (either on your face or your chest)? no! unless you're a completely insecure idiot, you do not. most of the time we just end up saying "eh, their loss". oh crap, i've swayed too far off topic and wrote myself into what will probably be my next blog post...
punch line: life is a test. how will YOU be graded?
Thursday, April 15, 2010
time is wastin', time is walkin', you ain't no friend of mine
late going to bed last night/this morning. late getting up. late getting in the bathroom (before my room mate). going to be late getting to work. late late late. everyone's always trying so hard to be on time, meet this expectation, get to this place before that happens, etc. i'm just beating to the sound of my own drum lately. i guess as long as no one dies waiting for me... what's the harm?
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