Online Graduate Level Discussion

[Mr S]

I take online graduate classes and I thought it might be interesting to post a sample of one of the discussion topic questions that I have to answer. Taking these classes help a bit with keeping my intellect intact in a sea of ignorance here in the Philippines...

Here are a few thoughts for your continued reflection. In antiquity when polytheism was the major religious construct, evil was easily explained: Zeus was sleeping off a drunk, or Neptune seeking vengeance against a troublesome mortal. However, with monotheism came one stop shopping—the spiritual responsibility for everything pointed to God. Well this is a real problematic for believers. I think it was the 18th century philosopher Dennis Diderot who said that “the death of one child negates the existence of God.� Diderot was a key personage in the “Enlightenment� a movement that prized human rationality above received authority. His argument was designed to show the inconsistency of an all-knowing, all-powerful, providential (Christian) God. For if God is the author of everything, then how did evil get into the world? And if evil is a product of man, then why does God tolerate it? And if God allows “evil� as an instrumentality of some larger good, why have millions of innocent children been allowed to die horribly? These questions are hard to reconcile with the Christian idea of God. And even believers in the Judaic tradition are pressed for meaningful answers—I once listen to a Holocaust survivor describe how God died in her mind when she witnessed a SS guard smash a child’s head against the side of a transport truck. If evil is a teaching point, then it is a rather brutal one. What parent would allow his child to die in order to instruct the child—or anyone else for that matter? St Augustine argued that “evil� was not a thing, but the absence of a “thing�—like a hole in a shirt. Maybe so, but it seems a rather dubious argument. No matter, monotheism still claims a powerful hold over the human imagination.

[Mr S]

This was my answer:

What I am going to say is controversial to the conventional human mind frame. I’ve struggled with understanding this sort of question myself and the answer I’ve deciphered is a construct of my own personal experiences, what I’ve read of others and the philosophical and theological musings of others. My understanding about this topic is fluid and open to constant reinterpretation based on my own process of proceeding through life and its experiences.

Here it goes. This question implies that the reality we currently live in is ‘real’ and finite. Meaning that whatever happens on our plane of existence has eternal repercussions on the Earth and thus, what we know as existence. Depending on ones perspective of things, this is a true fact. However, what if what we know as life is not really life and is just an illusion? What if our lives were comparable to a dream? While we dream we sense and feel we are really partaking of it. What if our life on Earth was something similar to a dream? I’m not implying this existence is a dream but just making a comparison. What if our lives are only meant for experience sake and do not have any long-term repercussions on our true existence? I am implying that our true essence does not reside on the Earth plane and our true selves only use the physical side of reality to experience existence on a physical level.

How can one appreciate the light of one has not experienced the dark? Why would an all-powerful God of love let his children experience evil? As I stated I believe this is all just one big classroom for souls of varying development levels. The Earth and everything else within our physical universe is not the real existence. Our real existence is on a higher vibration level. We incarnate on the Earth plane (or other planets) to experience existing on this particular vibration so that we can understand what true love really is or what God really is. If our true existence is in the light it’s difficult to learn and grow to truly, personally understand love and all of its sub categories; also to understand what the absence of love is all about and its repercussions on existence.

Every one of us is part of God (or we are one and the same depending on viewpoint) and it takes time to realize this, typically many lifetimes. The reason why the Earth is real is because our collective conscious makes it so. The collective consciousness of humanity tends to write the rules of reality as is commonly perceived and that justifies most people’s daily lives. I believe with enough people who have full consciousness thought and belief about something in particular, than reality can be changed to reflect that new viewpoint. I think many prophets and wise men in the past and present understood this paradigm and they were or are able to break away from the confines of what we perceive as normal reality and are able to perform feats of what some would consider strange phenomenon or perhaps even miracles. Once we have overcome whole-heartedly and with complete conviction, mastering the physical side of our senses while being connected fully with our higher selves, only then can we move beyond the physical ego derived self of the mind and body. Thus enabling one to access the true potential of oneself and seeing through the illusion of the Earth plane.

So yes, to most people a death would be seen as a permanent loss, whether it was a natural death or violent one. However I myself have been wrestling with my feeling on this matter for some time now and I really do not fear death anymore than I fear waking up everyday and living life. I just know it’s another transition of existence and I have personally experienced events in my life that cannot be explained by conventional scientific means to back it up. I don’t think science has all the answers to life, it seems the more they discover the more questions are raised which scientists can’t answer. I think science has its place, but it’s not the end all to explaining the reality of life in my opinion. I believe the phenomenon of ghosts, spirits and negative entities are true to some extent and are representations of beings that once inhabited Earth or are attached to the physical plane for various reasons. Since our existence is all about free will and time is an illusion, beings, whether they are of the light, dark or neutral, have free choice to do what they will within the confines of god’s laws (which are probably inconceivable to the human mind). So what we perceive as evil entities or humans may have a grander purpose in the greater scheme of existence. Sometimes out of the darkest acts eventually come the greatest form of light and love.

Anyways, I could go on and on and write a whole book on the subject and many have. It just gets more confusing to the average person and I won’t dwell on the matter further. But I would like to state that I believe every individual has a right to believe what they feel is their own reality and if they are meant to explore the mysteries of life such as the question asked here, then they will be led to the correct answers they need for their particular life path. I understand my thinking and looking at the question at hand is not conventional but I’m an unconventional type of guy. Most people would find me offensive if I did not sympathize with a death in the family or a horrendous act of malice or disastrous accident. But I look at it with another perspective, instead of feeding the negative energy with additional sadness or anger I’d rather have a neutral or positive frame of outlook in some way. I know most people would be offended but I’ve come to different realizations in life that are too much to overcome now with whatever traditional society is wanting people to accept and do. I haven’t totally eliminated feeling instinctual human type emotions, and it’s not really my true goal. But I am attempting to know how to use them in a fashion that will provide personal power vs. weakness to outside forces or influences.

[Winston]

Those are arguments that Christians can't refute. Their theology requires too many absolutes to be perfect. Their last resort is to say either "God allows evil to test your faith" or "God gave mankind a choice, and man chose evil, in the Garden of Eden, so it was our fault" or "Who are you to question God?"

Harold Kushner addresses these questions in his book "When Bad Things Happen to Good People". In the end, he says you have to forgive God and accept that he may not be "all powerful" after all.

During my deconversion, I also had similar thoughts, which I elaborated on here:

http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/Debunk ... Page23.htm