Love and sweetness

I’m reading Leo Tolstoy’s, Anna Karenina for the first time, and what struck me in a description of the young Kitty was her “sweetness.” It occurred to me that that characteristic and demonstration of love is extremely and particularly special. Sort of like the song, “What The World Needs Now Is Love Sweet Love,” I wish that sweetness toward all living things was more ubiquitous. It is certainly not non-existent and is abundant in some parts of the world, but I wish it were commonplace throughout the world. Would that it were, maybe war and terrorism would not even be in our vocabulary, behavior, or psyche.

Concept and interpretation of God

In my humble opinion, God is a humanly personified metaphor for the entirety of the universe/cosmos. Because the universe is so incredibly vast, humans have consistently attempted to understand the universe by ascribing it human-like qualities in an effort to make the universe more accessible and less daunting. This is where the humorous phrase parodying the Bible “Man created God” comes from. Instead of God creating man, man has created God, and a singular, monotheistic god, for the same reason that the Greeks and other ancient cultures created multiple “gods”: an attempt to explain the forces and laws of nature that are beyond human control and to which humans are vitally vulnerable. Seen in this way, God is neither an entity nor a being separate from the cosmos and responsible for its creation, rather simply the term or title humans have ascribed to an imaginary "Creator" of the cosmos. As intelligent and accomplished as we have become, human thinking is still too limited to the physical effort and work we have to do to create anything. Since we have to create objects/tools of our own necessities, it would seem (at first) that something as profoundly vast, beautiful, tumultuous, and complex as the universe would need to be created by a being too, similar to us, but far more powerful; hence "Man created God." We are not comfortable with the idea that the univere/nature might not have or need a creator (other than itself), and therefore independent of a force or power outside of the laws of nature. My point of view is that nature and the universe have evolved through their own natural law from an unknown source and time (the Big Bang is closer but still inexact), and that “God” is simply a term we have derived from mythology to encapsulate the universe in human terms. 

The purpose of life and humanity

I was thinking recently about what our purpose in life is as human beings. An answer came to me. The answer in my view to the reason for the existence of humanity is twofold:

First, through our intelligence, to come to understand, appreciate, and know the universe to the best of our ability. 

And second, to love all of our fellow human beings freely and without prejudice.

These two principles alone could guide our daily lives, and every issue that we face could fall into one or both of these two categories. My hope is that humanity can grow to achieving these regardless of our differences.

Pat Robertson

 

  

It is astounding to me that Pat Robertson actually believes (much less said) that the people of Haiti brought the devastating earthquake on themselves becase of a pact with the devil to get rid of the French. That an adult can seriously say this is beyond me. I would even be astounded if this kind of comment came from a child, but certainly not from a grown-up. I also find it carelessly and arrogantly insensitive and laughable. I hope that most people chalk it up to the ramblings of an ignorant man who happens to have a strong personality but little common sense and empathy. I defend his right under the U.S. Constitution to say it, but his insensitivity and ignorance are, to me, without question.