A Disappointed Mother
I appreciate the fact that you call it "Intelligent Design." However, the argument is pointless. Why do you worry so much about where you came from when you seem to struggle so much with what to do with where you are now? Some of you believe in your various creation stories. Some of you believe in evolution. Amongst the latter group some of you believe I did it on purpose, some of you believe it just happened. What difference does it make? Ultimately, if you trace it back far enough, your origins begin with an unexplainable event, no matter what you believe.
The next time you want to complain at someone for being unable to explain the original event, try explaining me. Does it not occur to you that there is only a minor difference between whether the universe just suddenly exploded into being or whether I crafted it? It only adds a single step. For if I am the source, where is mine? If there was none before me to engineer my existence, does it not then follow that I was an accident? That I just happened?
Again I tell you, though, that you shouldn't concern yourself with this. What you should concern yourself with is what I see happening in the world all around you. I don't like a lot of what I see here.
It has been said by some among you that I am dead. I am not. Some among you have written stories of worlds abandoned by the Gods. I have not abandoned you. Yet within this concept is a hint about what you should be considering. You should consider it because many of you would have done so if you were me. Many of you have in fact abandoned your fellow man.
Some of you look at horrific stories in the news and wonder where I have gone. What makes you think I wasn't there? Who do you think it is that cries while you change the channel to something less depressing? Before you point any fingers, though, you must remember that I am not the one who pulled the trigger. I am not the one who built the bombs. It is my children who are killing my children. Not me.
Some of you accuse me of engineering disasters that kill thousands. You even give reasons for why I would have done so. Did I kill those people in the gulf coast? Did I kill those people in Asia? I will tell you that you do not have the right to ask me that question. I will also tell you why.
The weather systems of this planet act just like all of the other systems. I created rules. I created how these things worked. You could have chosen over the thousands of years you have had to pursue the technology necessary to protect you from these disasters. You could have found ways to try and tame the planet. You chose instead to focus on things that entertain you and on things that kill other people. Many of your best minds decided to figure out how to obliterate a city rather than determine how to feed it. You kill each other by the thousands every day and you would question me if I actually tried to get your attention back to the things that matter in such a way. I will not tell you if it was a test. I will tell you that it would be better if it wasn't, because as a whole, you would have failed.
I gave you this world. I gave you the ability to subdue it. I gave you the ability to moderate or subjugate. I gave you the ability to help or destroy. You have made your decisions. I gave you the free will to do so. Why? Because you are supposed to be the caretakers of this world, and because you are supposed to evolve. You aren't doing either.
I didn't give you free will so that you could choose me freely, or love me freely. If you truly love me, I appreciate it. Yet if given the option, I would prefer you worked together without consideration of me than working against each other while spouting off my names.
Those names. Will you stop arguing with each other over what my name is? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because no matter how many times you declare it, it won't change whether you live as I would have you live or you don't. I don't care what you call me. I don't even care if you believe in me. I have known a number of atheists who have lived lives better than those of you who call to me every night.
Bear in mind the fact that the unicorn doesn't care if you believe in him any more than you care if he believes in you.
I am a little different in that if I believe in you I can offer you something. Still, I know you exist, and if I needed them to know I did, I would stop by. Many of those atheists are living better lives than the rest of you folks who pray to me in all of my names. They do so because they realize they are responsible for each other. If it takes a lack of belief in me to make you care for each other, or if belief in me means you just expect me to handle it, then I have something to tell you. It's very important: I don't exist.
I didn't create this world so that you could murder each other over items of clothing. I didn't create this world so that young children could compare notes on shootings that happened in their own houses. I didn't create you to abuse, torture and kill one another for your own personal gain. Those were all your ideas. Now you do what you need to do, but if you want me to return, if you want me to stop in and say, 'You're doing a good job, now let me help with some of the more complicated issues' then you have your work ahead of you. You have some cleaning up to do. Your house is a mess, and I am not walking in there.
You imagine a utopia where I return and walk amongst you and we all live in harmony. You have the wrong idea. You assume this means that one day I will clean house, fix everything up, and the trial will be over. There is no trial. This is the real thing. The "heaven" that you predict is not to be built by me. It is to be built by you. Build it, and I will come to you. In the mean time, if you want to trash every gift I gave you, then so be it. I will leave you to it. I will wait. I will watch. On occasion I will even interfere. I predict for the most part, however, what I will do is cry.
The next time you want to complain at someone for being unable to explain the original event, try explaining me. Does it not occur to you that there is only a minor difference between whether the universe just suddenly exploded into being or whether I crafted it? It only adds a single step. For if I am the source, where is mine? If there was none before me to engineer my existence, does it not then follow that I was an accident? That I just happened?
Again I tell you, though, that you shouldn't concern yourself with this. What you should concern yourself with is what I see happening in the world all around you. I don't like a lot of what I see here.
It has been said by some among you that I am dead. I am not. Some among you have written stories of worlds abandoned by the Gods. I have not abandoned you. Yet within this concept is a hint about what you should be considering. You should consider it because many of you would have done so if you were me. Many of you have in fact abandoned your fellow man.
Some of you look at horrific stories in the news and wonder where I have gone. What makes you think I wasn't there? Who do you think it is that cries while you change the channel to something less depressing? Before you point any fingers, though, you must remember that I am not the one who pulled the trigger. I am not the one who built the bombs. It is my children who are killing my children. Not me.
Some of you accuse me of engineering disasters that kill thousands. You even give reasons for why I would have done so. Did I kill those people in the gulf coast? Did I kill those people in Asia? I will tell you that you do not have the right to ask me that question. I will also tell you why.
The weather systems of this planet act just like all of the other systems. I created rules. I created how these things worked. You could have chosen over the thousands of years you have had to pursue the technology necessary to protect you from these disasters. You could have found ways to try and tame the planet. You chose instead to focus on things that entertain you and on things that kill other people. Many of your best minds decided to figure out how to obliterate a city rather than determine how to feed it. You kill each other by the thousands every day and you would question me if I actually tried to get your attention back to the things that matter in such a way. I will not tell you if it was a test. I will tell you that it would be better if it wasn't, because as a whole, you would have failed.
I gave you this world. I gave you the ability to subdue it. I gave you the ability to moderate or subjugate. I gave you the ability to help or destroy. You have made your decisions. I gave you the free will to do so. Why? Because you are supposed to be the caretakers of this world, and because you are supposed to evolve. You aren't doing either.
I didn't give you free will so that you could choose me freely, or love me freely. If you truly love me, I appreciate it. Yet if given the option, I would prefer you worked together without consideration of me than working against each other while spouting off my names.
Those names. Will you stop arguing with each other over what my name is? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because no matter how many times you declare it, it won't change whether you live as I would have you live or you don't. I don't care what you call me. I don't even care if you believe in me. I have known a number of atheists who have lived lives better than those of you who call to me every night.
Bear in mind the fact that the unicorn doesn't care if you believe in him any more than you care if he believes in you.
I am a little different in that if I believe in you I can offer you something. Still, I know you exist, and if I needed them to know I did, I would stop by. Many of those atheists are living better lives than the rest of you folks who pray to me in all of my names. They do so because they realize they are responsible for each other. If it takes a lack of belief in me to make you care for each other, or if belief in me means you just expect me to handle it, then I have something to tell you. It's very important: I don't exist.
I didn't create this world so that you could murder each other over items of clothing. I didn't create this world so that young children could compare notes on shootings that happened in their own houses. I didn't create you to abuse, torture and kill one another for your own personal gain. Those were all your ideas. Now you do what you need to do, but if you want me to return, if you want me to stop in and say, 'You're doing a good job, now let me help with some of the more complicated issues' then you have your work ahead of you. You have some cleaning up to do. Your house is a mess, and I am not walking in there.
You imagine a utopia where I return and walk amongst you and we all live in harmony. You have the wrong idea. You assume this means that one day I will clean house, fix everything up, and the trial will be over. There is no trial. This is the real thing. The "heaven" that you predict is not to be built by me. It is to be built by you. Build it, and I will come to you. In the mean time, if you want to trash every gift I gave you, then so be it. I will leave you to it. I will wait. I will watch. On occasion I will even interfere. I predict for the most part, however, what I will do is cry.
Labels: "Mother Post"
posted by Wanderer at 4:28 PM
24 Comments:
Why do you speak for her?
Somebody has to.
I speak for all the characters I made up too.
From the "Saw it just after pressing 'Enter'" Department:
What I MEANT was, if someone is telling a story, there's only one way for the characters to say anything, and that would be the author saying it for them.
Why doesn't she speak for herself?
She does. Often enough people aren't really listening. I pose my thoughts out here often enough, and even relay what I have learned through conversing with her. At other times, though, I sit back and take to heart what she says and try to put it out there as best I can.
How do you know it's her voice that you're hearing?
The same way you think it's Jesus's voice you hear.
The simple answer is you're both wrong, stupid, and crazy. The complex answer is that all faiths operate from the same construct, so the hows and whys you ask to him have the same answers as if he asked those to you. He's just in absurd D&D land while you're in blind believe-what-I'm-told land which is two towns over, but within the same county.
MC, I'm afraid you don't know me nearly as well as you think if you claim I live in "believe what I'm told land". Pretty sure Wanderer doesn't live there either.
And, the basis of my question was that I do also listen for God. There are writings that I deem to be true representations of Him and His ways. When I think I've heard from Him, I compare what I've heard to those writings to decide if it's consistent and therefore something I can accept as coming from Him. I was wondering if Wanderer has a similar method of verification.
MC - I have no problem with you saying that you think I am stupid or crazy for what I believe. I have no problem with you indicating you think others are crazy for what they believe. You know I am not stupid. You don't know these other folks. Let's extend, then, the basic courtesy of not insulting the intelligence of my friends?
BTW - On a completely unrelated note, I need you to give me a call at the house or turn on your im this evening if you see this. Tomorrow I will be at work all day, so you can call my pager. Just have to talk to you for a minute.
The answer, Cindy, is that I compare it to the world, and to my experience. I also compare it to various inspired texts, including the one that you refer to. In the end, though, I have to rely on the fact that my heart tells me I am right. This isn't exactly without precedent. It is the same thing that Paul did. The same thing that every other writer of the bible did.
I suspect when you think God is talking to you, referencing the Bible is only backup. You know.
I have been wondering about some of the very things she explained. Nature is nature; therefore, it follows the laws of nature-- whether thats a seed sprouting or a tornado destroying everything in its path. Nature doesn't feel, nature isn't good or evil, nature just lives by the laws of nature.
And she's part of nature, but that doesn't mean she has control over it. And we have free will, we do what we are going to do, whether it is good or bad. She can give us guidance. But in the end, its up to us what we choose to do. We create the good or evil.
I read it, I'm still thinking about it.
Turtleheart- You are right that nature follows the laws of nature, and even correct in the fact that she is confined by that which is possible within her, even if that level seems limitless. However, I would have to disagree about her lack of ability (willingness aside) to influence it. A creator, the maker of the rules, can influence the game as she wishes. Perhaps this would be where we differ? Is she creator or part of that which is created? How much is she in fact limited? I am truly curious as to your take on this, as it may very well lead in the same direction as my writings and a portion of her comments are leading. Or we may be in disagreement.
I haven't gotten to the point where I plan on posting on the nature of her yet, but we can get into the preliminaries here if you wish.
MaryEllen - I am truly curious as to what your take is, so when you have considered it some, let me know what you come up with.
do you call her by any name other than goddess?
I was wondering, your profile says you are a Pagan, a Minister, and a Father. Could you explain more about the Minister aspect? (for example, of what, to whom, etc)
Inheritor - I have, and will undoubtedly do so again in the course of the present series of postings. I won't go into it right now because the short version is what is in my profile. The longer version is very long, but I am going to get to it again eventually. The ordination is a piece of paper that allows me to perform weddings, and acts as one of the necessary steps to being a chaplain in various institutions. My ministerial calling has little to do with that piece of paper.
Cindy - Several names. It depends on why I am calling to her. Actual names are rarely used outside of ritual, as they frequently refer to a specific aspect therein. I most often think of Her in our daily conversations as the Mother or the Goddess. The aspects that I have found myself to particularly attach ritual address with have been Freya, Hecate, Isis and Astarte, in that order. (MaryEllen, does it surprise you that Hecate comes second?)
Wanderer- You said, "A creator, the maker of the rules, can influence the game as she wishes. Perhaps this would be where we differ? Is she creator or part of that which is created? How much is she in fact limited?"
Where do I stand on this? I am not sure, but I think She is Creator AND part of that which is created. If She is a creator, then I would have to agree that She can somehow influence the "game"; but as part of the created/creation this perhaps limits Her by the laws of nature? I am still muddling around as to what I believe is true. As you can see, this is where I am stuck.
Excellent discussion. Looking forward to more.
There will be more, in fact I was planning on putting the next installment in today, but the baby has a cold and wouldn't lay down. Now that she is sleeping I will do the same.
As to your supposition that she is creator and created, this ties into two of my posts. The one in which she points out the accidental nature of her own origin, and my Omnipotence and Omniscience post here: Omniscience
I was too busy testing to see if the link worked to finish the thought in the former comment. The concept presented is that there may in fact be limitations to the Goddess, the only assumption to make being that if any can do, then she can. As for the laws of nature, is she confined by them? Perhaps not. Then again, why wouldn't she play by the rules she set? Does it make sense that she would make rules she didn't agree with? If not then why would she suddenly do something other than that which was her desire and intention?
The next time you want to complain at someone for being unable to explain the original event, try explaining me. Does it not occur to you that there is only a minor difference between whether the universe just suddenly exploded into being or whether I crafted it? It only adds a single step. For if I am the source, where is mine? If there was none before me to engineer my existence, does it not then follow that I was an accident? That I just happened?
Hey man. I don't see that she is saying she didn't always exist, but asking those zen like questions of hers....
LYB
Seraphim
Perhaps so. Equally importantly, she indicates that we waste our time trying to explain it. Perhaps not a waste to consider what the answer is, but definitely to attempt to claim an answer.
Post a Comment
<< Home