Last Edit:10/13/01, 1:30 AM
The following are my life philosophies, always developing.
I began the organization of these thoughts into tangible concepts in
the mid 1990’s. They have taken many many hours to develop;
developed from a life of continuous self evaluation, from joys beyond capture,
from a journey into the depths of despair, from a daily commitment to work
at improvement. I have written them
for the benefit of myself and as a gift to anyone that gains insight from
reading them. There is a general order
of topics from top to bottom since some earlier topics are referenced later. Some may seem short, but those are intentionally
kept simple to allow for your interpretation.
Life can be so long and so short,.I wish you well on your journey.
There have been so many that have influenced this, although I’m sure they
would not seek acknowledgement, I feel obliged to acknowledge a few:
An overall thought
As with every law of nature ever known, the simpler it is, the more correct it is (assuming it is correct). I put this into every philosophy I have. However, just because it is simple does not make it easy to comprehend or easy to fulfill. One example would be the “meaning of life” (below) – very simple but, very difficult to figure out and very difficult to carry out.
I can say it no better than M. Scott Peck in The Road Less Traveled….Life is difficult and life is work and “after you accept that fact, it becomes easier”
To serve God, by living out God’s Will. So what is God’s will? Good question. That will take more than my entire life to answer, but I can give a few pointers.
While some people see ones life as a long time, I see it as a very short existence. There is so much I want to accomplish, so much that I believe God wants me to do. I believe everyone is given gifts, natural talents. The key is to discover these gifts and use them to ones full potential. I have found many and I am continuously seeking more. I live every day like it is my last, because it may be my last. I sacrifice blocks of my life for benefits down the road, however always weighing the costs & benefits of my decisions. I always remind myself that I am where I am in life, because that’s where I have chosen to be. If I do not like the work I am doing, that is my own fault and it is up to me to just deal with it or to change my situation. I am constantly trying to figure out what God calls me to do. I see no separation between my volunteer work and my paid work (except for the pay of course). My paid work is as much a quest as my volunteer work. My work is never finished and I always go to sleep feeling that I have not fulfilled my full potential. However, I know my general limits, I know I am not perfect, I know that God knows this, and I most often go to sleep happy with who and where I am. I am well aware that when I die, it is only I being judged by God and everyone else that I have relied on for support is out of the picture. For this reason, I live in fear, but not a fear that most people would associate with paranoia or fear of punishment, for the God I believe in is a loving God. The fear I have, is a fear that after I live my short existence in this universe, I would say to myself, “I could have done more” or that I did not know God or live out Gods will to the fullest. It is a fear, that when combined with God’s love, becomes pure motivation.
Why do we exist as physical entities on this planet or anywhere else in the universe? Why did God create us as humans to live out our short existence in this universe? I do not know. I don’t think anyone does. (Let me know though if you’ve figured out this question!)
God (in general)
I have a basic principal about God; I believe that God is very concrete. However, not concrete in a physical sense, more in a cerebral sense. Although God is most probably beyond our comprehension in many ways, I still believe that God is a concrete entity. In addition, I believe God has a definite “will” for us. Do we totally understand this will? We most probably do not. However, I believe there is a perfect way to live ones life, although we will never obtain that because we are not perfect, or fully understand what that is because we do not/can not fully understand God’s will.
So why do I believe in the existence of a God? Well, this brings up a very fundamental question that cannot be proven and which is only derived by each individual. The following are most of the major reasons for my belief:
- The way life is ordered, the way nature and people fit together, the universe, the so many intricacies of life….it does not seem logical for all of this to happen by random. It seems logical that something must be orchestrating this masterpiece.
- Humans appear to be the only animal on this planet capable of understanding religion, praying and believing in a God; it is a huge gap between us and all other living plants and animals. This ability seems like it is on purpose
- The stories of Jesus, the stories told in the Bible seem too perfect, to intricate, too incredible for humans to create by themselves.
- I have a feeling that there is a God. On this, I cannot expand.
There is a concept of “religious family tradition”. The belief that I was raised religion “XYZ”,
so I will continue religion “XYZ”. Well,
there are a bunch of religions in this world, and chances are that your religion
is not the best one out there. Because
of this, I have the statement that “religious family tradition” is DANGEROUS.
If we take the extreme, that you were raised in a cult that believed
in a god that was not God, and you continued this family religious tradition
because its what everyone else is, you are perpetuating a bad thing.
For this reason, I challenge everyone, including myself, to find their
religion, not just continue their family’s.
Just look at the probabilities, you’re whole family religion is probably
not the best one to follow.
Although I believe Christianity is the way to go, I admit that I could be
wrong. There is no way to prove I am totally right. This is a significant
reason that I express my religion & live my life by example, and not by
intrusive evangelism. For example, let's say I am wrong and I force my Christian
views on others or lets sam I am right, but I live my life in a non-Christian
way. I will consequently be causing harm to their spiritual growth. It is
this harm that I see as the essence of sin. It is this harm that I see as
the gravest of errors.
I see the general solution to world peace as simple, everyone needs to admit that they might be wrong and then realize the consequence of imposing their potentially wrong beliefs on others.
Roman Catholic, Protestant (Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, etc.), Orthodox … so many divisions of Christianity. Is one better or worse? Is one more correct or not? To this I would say probably, but in the end the differences are minor when compared to other religions. So why are so many people hung up on stuff like “I was raised Roman Catholic and I’m going to carry that tradition on?” To this I say again, it is just another example of carrying on “religious family tradition”, a practice with no spiritual benefit to the individual. To all this classification of people into “you are Orthodox, you are Presbyterian, you are Roman Catholic”, I say QUIT IT and you are missing the point! All these people are Christian… the END! I do not see these denominations as something to claim, but as a way to learn. I am not a Presbyterian; I am a Christian that practices the principals of Christianity in a Presbyterian way. So you may call me a Presbyterian, but I see this labeling as only leading to misunderstandings and divisions among people, where what we need is unity! I see the purpose of all these denominations as different ways of learning, practicing ones faith, and perhaps giving slightly different interpretations of the Bible and God’s will. Each denomination satisfies needs for different individuals, each denomination tied together with the common thread of Christianity. I was raised in a Roman Catholic Church, but it was not my style of learning. It was too rigid, so I investigated other denominations and found the Presbyterian one was more my style of learning and living out God’s will. For someone that attends a Roman Catholic Church to kill someone that believes in a Protestant way of living out God’s will is absurd! It is a Christian killing a Christian for no good reason! For that matter, anyone offensively killing anyone seems absurd to me. Think “UNITED”, not “divided”!
There are many factors that should be there for a marriage to be successful. There is one deciding factor that I would put as a cornerstone: I must be able to serve God better together than I can apart. “Serving God” is one of those simple, but complex terms. It could be many things (praying, working with homeless people, taking a hike and learning about God’s creation, participating in church, etc.). Having a relationship with an atheist may not directly cause harm, but it would take up one’s time that could have been spent serving God. Hence, being alone would be more productive than being with that person in terms of serving God.
There is a basic principal that God is inherently good and does not consist of anything bad. A fundamental belief is that God created all things in the universe. If one can accept both of these concepts, then it can be deduced that there could be nothing that would be negative or anti-God as in a separate character such as “the devil”. However, it is obvious that everyone is not God, so there must be a continuum of sorts. This incapability of God creating something negative put the concept of a scale ranging from zero to infinity. Zero being a complete absence of God and infinity being God. This puts evil, not in the negative, but as a tendency to be without God, a pulling away from God, something I call laziness. I will also make the connection that complete laziness is equal to maximum evil and subsequent zero on the scale.
The presence of heaven is generally an excepted truth from the Bible. The presence of hell is a debatable topic because many biblical scholars believe that this concept was added after the writings of the original biblical text. It is believed that this concept was added because people would be scared of it and would want to work towards going to heaven more. Growing up, I have been scared of such a place. In every instance, hell has been described as a place of negatives including, pain, fire, the devil, etc. However, the presence of a negative place is incongruent with my previous rational that there is only a zero or absence of God. With that in mind, Hell could only be at worst, a place of no God. So is there a Hell? Is there need for a Hell? I would say, “Yes”. If there was no Hell and everyone went to Heaven, there would be no substantial incentive to live out God’s will, which is a lot of work and pain. The only main benefits, without any worries of not making it to Heaven, would be stuff like God’s ability to give aid in times of need (i.e. sickness, relationship problems, death of loved ones, etc.).
So I see Hell as an incentive tool. To figure out Hell, I look at Heaven as a reference. From the Bible and some logic, I see Heaven as a place where one:
1) is with God
2) is with other humans (however, not in human form)
3) has no concept of time
I would like to stress the third point, “no concept of time”, because if one had a concept of time, I think that would be a burden, although one is with God which is still pretty darn good.
So if I go to zero God, taking into account my concept of Heaven, I come of with the following definition of Hell. One:
1) is at zero, with a total absence of God
2) is possibly with other humans (however, not in human form) – This is probably not a crucial point though
3) has a concept of time
Again, I would like to stress the third point, “has a concept of time”. I see time as something neither good nor not good by itself. It is also one of the main concepts that we are very aware of, but have very little understanding of. I see the incorporation of time into Hell as a cunning thing for God to do, giving Hell a very different aspect. Not only would one be without God, but one would be aware of that fact for eternity (through the concept of time), thus making this place really suck, making it Hellish, making it a place I definitely don’t want to end up in.
There is no doubt, that this is the number one question for many humans. I will take the Meaning of Life – “To serve God” and narrow this down to say that one obtains a presence in Heaven by “Having a personal relationship with God”. OK, that is still fairly broad. However, I would argue, that it is also in its simplest form. So where do I get this from. Mainly from meanings I have collected from the Bible, but also from talking with others and again, logical reasoning. First, I will state that this is in no way easy, but life isn’t easy. Second, I see no way to definitively know if you have achieved that relationship, thus causing one to continuously strive for a goal they may or may not have reached.
I was fascinated one day when I read in the Bible that obtaining a presence in Heaven is independent of doing good deeds. I was floored that so many of the teachings, so many of the 10 commandments, etc. are about doing good deeds, but that don’t cut it! I was left with the, “well then what?” question and the “if they don’t get you to Heaven, then why worry about going through all that trouble?” question. In reference to that question, I will say that the act alone of doing good things means nothing, however the side effects/side benefits of that act may be very significant in obtaining that “personal relationship with God”. Before I expand on this, I would like to state some main areas I see as avenues to obtaining that “relationship”. Through:
· Prayer
· Bible
· Nature
· Interactions with people
Along with this, I see all these areas as important in understanding God. Only reading the Bible would not give a complete picture as would only going for a hike in the woods.
Why do I believe that doing good deeds alone doesn’t matter? First, that is just too easy and God is too deep to have such a shallow criteria. Second, doing good deeds only for just checking off your brownie points list will not help your spiritual growth. It is what I get out of doing these good deeds that makes the difference, that lets me understand God. I can do this by the fact that by doing good things for people or for nature, I am understanding God’s creation better.
- When I work in a food kitchen serving homeless people, I may learn about a homeless person’s way of living their life, their philosophies, their values, their way of interacting with others. Now does all of this represent what God is? No, if it did, their name would probably be Jesus. However, if you believe that God created everyone and everything in God’s image, then their will be some part of that homeless person that reflects what God is. For example, I may see how God wants us to live our lives simply without attachments to material items.
- When I look at bacteria under a microscope, instead of incinerating it, I see God’s creation on a very basic level. I see how God can be so simple and complex at the same time.
- When I give money to preserve a piece of land, and then visit that land that was protected against destruction from urban sprawl, I look at the trees and animals and I get a glimpse of how God created nature and consequentially learn about the mind of God. I may see the pure beauty of God in a spectacular sunset. I may see the caring aspect of God in a doe mothering her fawn.
So what is wrong, or not as good about doing nothing or doing negative acts? If we take the opposite case of instead of feeding the homeless person, I shoot them in the head and kill them, have I learned anything? No. In addition, have I negatively affected their spiritual growth? Yes, permanently. A double whammy! If I have sex out of marriage, produce a child, and the child grows up with only one parent because the relationship didn’t work out, have I negatively affected that child’s spiritual growth? You bet. I have applied this concept to all the essential principals of Christianity (10 commandments, etc.) and have came up with the same results. The results of why something is good and not good and why doing something good in the name of God with the intention of spiritual growth leads to just that – spiritual growth and a strengthening of that personal relationship with God.
I see the presence of Jesus and the death of Jesus as two main things:
1) I believe that Jesus is the human incarnation of God. I see that God existing as a human, as Jesus, is important because people, especially myself, would learn much better if God talked to us in our language and told us about what God is and what God’s will is. The alternative would be praying to God asking for guidance, something I believe to be important, but far less efficient and much more prone to human error.
2) Humans most often learn best by example. I see the death of Jesus as such an example. It is not the death on a cross alone, because many humans have suffered much more horrible deaths in the name of God. It is the voluntary death of Jesus who was sinless and therefore had absolutely no reason to die. It is a pure example of how God wants us to sacrifice ourselves for others, not necessarily die for others, but the many other forms of sacrifice. It is an example that we can never obtain, because we are not sinless, but we can at least strive to obtain it. In addition, Jesus changed the way people’s sins are forgiven in the Bible. A change from people performing sacrifices to people simply confessing their sins and asking for forgiveness.
Some religions believe Jesus was the Son of God and others believe that he was just a prophet. A common thread is that most major religions believe he existed and was a man of great wisdom. So what’s the big deal? I see the “big deal” as three components. First, the changing of how people’s sins are forgiven in the Bible would not have happened if he was not the Son of God. Second, if Jesus is the Son of God, we would know that all his teachings that we are following, minus human error, is the word of God and not just some wise suggestions. Third, it makes his death for our sins a perfect sacrifice and not just a pretty good one.
If Jesus did not exist on this planet, would it matter? Would it cause all of us to go to hell? I would say “no”. I say this because I see God as far greater than this. I see God’s love and grace as infinite, transcending all events on the earth. God would forgive us if Jesus was on the earth or not, if we sacrificed a cattle or burnt down our house in God’s name. Did God change God’s mind when Jesus came and said “no more animal sacrifice is needed because I have died for your sins”… No Way. I don’t see God as a being that change’s one’s mind for if God is perfect, no change would ever be needed. However, if Jesus did not exist, we would surely have a much more difficult time in understanding God, God’s will and forgiveness for our faults.
I will go as far as saying that Jesus on earth changed nothing in terms of God. I see the presence of Jesus as a way that God changed our minds to what God’s true intentions are.
I have had a major problem in understanding some types of Christians. I see Christians as divided into two categories with some people in the middle ground. It saddens me that there is such a large division
1) One type believes that the Bible is written by God through human hands.
2) The other type believes that the Bible is written humans with inspiration from God.
These two categories may seem very close, but in fact they cause a fundamental difference when trying to relate to one another. It saddens me that there is yet another division amongst people of the same religion, as I am one for unity. Perhaps by recognizing such a difference, we can understand each other’s points of view and at least know why we are different. I fall into the second category and this realization has caused me to no longer attempt to discuss biblical concepts with people from the other group. The reason is that the basis for our theological beliefs comes from different foundations. We may have the same answer to a moral question, but how we derived that answer came from different paths. However, similar beliefs are usually not debated; it is the differences that cause the debate. It is my hope that at least the commonalities originate from God’s will.
To further elucidate on this I’ll briefly discuss these two ways of thinking. Method 1 allows for the writing of the bible in both straight literal text and in more abstract forms such as poetry. I challenge this as if God is writing the Bible through human hands, why make use of abstractions, why not just state the will of God? Why wouldn’t it be conveyed that the earth is 3.34257 billion years old, and the dying sun will destroy the earth in 102 million years so you’ll need to start looking elsewhere at some point? Why wouldn’t it be conveyed that there is or is not other human life in the universe, etc., etc.? I say to all of this, it is because humans wrote the Bible through inspiration from God, not with God telling you to put “the donkey walked for 40 days…” on the paper. If people wrote the Bible in such a manner, there is bound to be abstractions, misinterpretations, writing based on the time period, etc. Humans are inherently imperfect. However, I’m not saying the Bible is a mostly flawed piece of rubbish, because I believe there was divine inspiration involved, through authors that had a deep connection with God. I do not think that God would allow a Bible that just puts you on the totally wrong path. I see evidence of this influence from God in the stories and accounts that I do not believe humans could make up without God’s help. I see some concepts, often concepts that are repeated over and over, as being closer to God’s will than others. Such concepts can often be taken without significant interpretation, however, I would never say without thorough questioning at some point in time. Seeing the inspiration from God in the Bible was not a short process for me, but something that took many years of listening to and reading scripture.
I am often amused by those that fall into the second category that ask me how I can believe in the Bible if it is not God’s direct word. I say, because I have faith, because I can see the will of God shining through the words of the authors. My belief is the hard way out. It requires the realization that all you believe in may be wrong. It requires faith that through continuous work at interpretation and prayerful consideration of the text you are reading, that God’s will will be revealed.
The ability for us to kill someone justly or unjustly comes from God giving us free will. The events of September 11th, 2001 in NY, PA and Washington D.C. and the countless other atrocities in history show very vividly that we have free will in killing others. I do not see these events as God’s wrath, but as peoples ability to tend toward evil ways and away from God’s will.
The big question is when is killing someone justified or murder? I believe that God wants us to kill other humans under certain circumstances. I see killing as justified when your own life is threatened and all means of loving the other have been reasonably exhausted. The extreme extent of killing justly is waging war. I’ll take the September 11th events as an example. I see war as justified when those responsible are still a threat and do not change their ways (killing others unjustifiably) by acts of love on our part. Acts such as prayers, political pressure, economic sanctions, etc. I see economic sanctions under the right circumstances, etc. as an act of love because we decide not to just kill them, but care about their lives and have hope that they will change to what we see as God’s will.
Capital punishment is an example of killing in the form of murder, because that person in prison under pertinent restraint is no longer a threat to our life. Yes I agree it’s a darn good deterrent and you bet I don’t want to foot the bill for that person to be in jail the rest of their life. However, these are not biblical reasons, these are practical reasons which I do not see relevant in this moral issue.
- break up with my fiance Laura and many months of writing this and thinking
- meeting with my Stan Adamson, a genuine minister of God's will
- 2001 Sept 11th, 2001 terroist attacks
- 2004 evening and late night conversation with Scott Archer a friend of depth
- 2004 a 2 hour documentary Frontline presentation on NPR
on John Kerry and George Bush on their development from Vietnam to the presidential
race... and my sadness about the damage Bush has done to our country, misrepresentation
of Christianity as I believe God wants it to be, and