Son, you're my new favorite poster on this board. I LOVED Watcher in the Woods! Great icon!
And, wow, you guys posted until very late last night. I had to go to bed.
Windy City, on your list, there are only nine of the commandments. Your 1 and 2 are the first commandment. The 2nd is "do not make idols in the form of anything in heaven or on the earth". I think it's appropriate that it was the one that was accidentally left off, since the Christians themselves want to turn a statue of the Ten Commandments into an idol! HAH!
dgrant, to answer to your question from the wee hours of last night
, I find it very interesting that when you and I look around and see the order and elaborately constructed systems that govern the natural world, we come to different conclusions. In my mind, I find it indisputable that a higher power instigated the whole process. Do I believe in evolution? I believe in micro-evolution, as in adaptation, because evidence of that is all around me in nature. Not including my own ability to adapt. But in MACRO-evolution? As in, from monkeys? Frankly, I find that HARDER to believe. To me, a great energy or consciousness that permeates all life, connecting us to each other, and gives a will to discover, a desire to better ourselves, feelings of gratification when we help others that don't directly benefit us, gives us a feeling of emotional love that does not exist in other creatures, makes much more sense than a scientific "principle" taken from a source that is replete with contradictions, fallacies, and inaccuracies, and that routinely breaks its own rules, the rules of hypothetical science, simply to maintain that the "core principle" is correct.
Frankly, I don't think we'll ever know what started creation. Was it a Big Bang? I don't know. Like so many other things people argue about, I don't think that it matters. Its certainly something no one will ever be able to prove one way or the other. All I know is what exists right now. All around me I see evidence, that doesn't contradict itself or break its own rules, that convinces me of something greater than the almighty human race.
Is God a man or a woman? Neither. Who friggin cares. Which religion is right? Frankly, I don't think anyone has everything right. The people who thought they did, Jesus shot down from their pedestals pretty quick. Because, in my opinion, they were missing the real "core principle":
!!That we are not in control!!
That has been the greatest truth ever revealed in my life. EVERYTHING in life is about that. Singing, acting, relationships, work. It's all about doing your best and refining yourself TO A POINT. At which moment, you simply have to let go and allow whatever's going to happen to happen.
Faith was never set up to be a massive list of expectations or rules. Why would God, who knows what ridiculous fickle little creatures we are, construct such an impossible standard? That was the very thing Jesus reprimanded the Pharisees for: for turning the worship of God into a litany of criteria to judge others' faithfulness by.
I think the most important thing is simply an acknowledgment. A nod of the head that says, "there's something more to life than my own concerns. There is something greater than myself."
I don't think God wants us to worship him/it/her because he NEEDS it. That's ludicrous! I think he does it to make us less selfish. He knows, ultimately, that it will make us better people: If we are constantly deferring to a higher power, how can we become self-righteous, since we are constantly admitting that nothing is from ourselves?
Anyway, I've gone on for a long time. dgrant, I may be a straight, married man, but I'm in love with your mind.
When the bible refers to how God "made us in his own image", I believe that to be conscious thought, a searching mind, the ability to choose and differentiate between what's right and wrong, appropriate, or beneficial. Thus, to do so, whether you know it or not, is to do the will of God. It's also something to be admired, provided the motives are pure: a friend of mine always says, "People are more concerned with BEING right, than DOING right." He is absolutely right. Heh.
Word. Word, indeed.
