Friday, September 18, 2009

Blind Faith....Literally

I've been reflecting on the purpose of ideas lately. Thanks to "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" , which is taking me an unusually long time to read, but that's OK because its like savoring a rich piece of flour less chocolate cake. Sorry, diets will usually cause food analogies.

Anyways, to jump tracks for a second (I'll connect them in a second) I was playing some music for my kids today as they jumped on the bed; a favorite past time of ours. I put on the song "Can't find my way home" by Blind Faith; a brilliant Eric Clapton collaborative album that I was addicted to when I was about 15. Although I've listened to this song hundreds of times one of the lines finally clicked.

"I just thank God for time". How is our actual existence even decided. Is it an organic, chaotic chance occurrence or by design? Who do or what do we thank for being sentient beings? Is it God? That would be an easy answer.

A Romantic answer to this dilemma is simply yes, in God's great design we exist because he/she/it has deemed it so. But where is the evidence but in scripture and long ago iffy witness accounts?

A Classic answer to the dilemma is that it is an organic chaotic chance existence. The simple evidence that I see is the creation of life by humans from flora and fauna creations to cloned beasts of burden.

This Classic/Romantic discord comes from "Motorcycle Maintenance." Its the difference between what is and what if, basically.

So we burst into our own individual existence for a limited period of time to survive, procreate, and die, right? Then why are we given the ability to perceive logic, appreciate art, feel pain, live love, indulge in emotion and contemplate concepts beyond our current realm of reasoning?

"Zen and the Art" talks about expanding our realm of reasoning to assist us in being able to answer some of the more difficult problems that confront us in our modern society where a good number of us don't have to worry about the basic rules of survival anymore. This makes sense to me, but how do we expand the realm? Which way do we go? Laterally? Horizontally?

If anyone can contribute to this conversation, please, its time to move it forward, or in a different direction.

3 comments:

Woman in a Window said...

Not a lot to say as I'm in the muddle myself but this is where I'm going: I heard an interview with journalist Robert Wright on Canadian public radio last weekend. He looks at the evolution of god from a socio-economical and cultural viewpoint. Totally fascinating. The Evolution of God. You might enjoy it. Will at least be a great source of debate, if not a launching point for some sort of understanding.

Anonymous said...

I do not know if there is a God or not, but I look at our children and think....this can not be by chance, the miracle of who they are is much too divine. An can love just be an act of evolution? Well, if it is....then evolution must be much more spiritual then we ever believed it to be.

Ramblings of a Madman said...

I like the idea of the evolution of God, that is an interesting comment that I haven't heard before, but sounds interesting. I also agree that there are some things in life that are unexpainable and its easy to fill in the unexplainable with the divine, which might be true and might be evidenceof the same.