I did not sleep all that well last night. It may have been the Chai Latte. I'm not sure how much caffeine that drink has in it. I may cut back tonight and experiment. I may get some Sleepy Time tea while we're in Independence this morning.
We will leave at 8:20 to take the cakes to Independence and then go on to my hair appointment at 9:00. After that, we will go out to their Walmart which is a Superstore. Then we will stop at Goody's again just to look around. Finally, after 11:00 we will go to Great China and eat lunch.
When we get back home, I want to go to Bingo at the senior center at 1:00. I don't think Bob will go. He takes a nap in the afternoon.
On another subject...Here is a concept of God that I can accept....
I think that the questions that are often asked are based on a specific
concept of God. It is a concept developed over four thousand years ago
among people who if we were transported to their civilization would
consider very primitive. Their concepts were come by quite honestly and
with the best science of their times so we cannot fault them. However,
we live in a very different world with a much different understanding of
the universe and to accept and defend their concepts of God is
problematic for me.
To summarize with a broad brush, they saw
their world as finished and complete. They recognized the patterns of
day and night and lived through the seasons. Thus for them God was the
creator and the methods he used were beyond their comprehension thus
they stated that the world was created by God's word or fiat. With this
basic assumption and some 'common sense' observations they developed
stories of creation that led to both an explanation of why things were
the way they were, and also a description of the nature of the God they
understood.
From this background the stories of creation make
sense. Human beings are obviously the dominant species and thus they
were the primary object of God's creation and the world was provided for
their benefit. Obviously all creatures produced their own kind and thus
must have been created in their presently observable form. This
included human beings and they were created in the very image of God.
This was an important concept since the reverse was therefore true. God
was envisioned as the ultimate human male with magical powers to control
the creation as he willed. Thus as we list all the attributes of God we
find each of them the superlative of human attributes.
Early in
the Israelite tribes, they developed the concept of a God who had
chosen them as his special people and with this selection there came a
list of requirements to maintain this favored status. One important one
was that God could brook no rivals. This explained many of the worship
rituals and social laws and the relationship to other tribes.
One
of the easily observed characteristics of humans in general is that
they were not perfect. Since one cannot accept an ultimate God who
created imperfect humans, then the creation story has a 'fall from
perfection' to explain the human condition. The next obvious step is
that if there was a fall then there must be some plan for a restoration
to perfection. This easily developed into God having a plan and that
plan including some method of redemption.
Since it had been
observed that blood was the essence of life then it became an object of
veneration. Animal sacrifice of perfect animals, to present the life
blood to God was honed to an art and even human sacrifice was included
in early development of worship among their neighbors. Eventually the
concept of the mechanism for redemption of mankind from the 'fall'
included the idea of a human sacrifice of a perfect human to atone for
mankind's sins. While the original Israelites never got to this stage of
their religion, the early Christian followers did. In an attempt to
explain the crucifixion of Jesus they developed an elaborate scheme
where Jesus was the pre-ordained perfect man who was to be sacrificed to
atone for the original sin of Adam and to act as a propitiation for the
current sins of present generations.
We sit today, after two
thousand years with this chain of Jesus redemptive reasoning has led to
the orthodox Christian theology. For me, the mystery is that few
Christians look at this historical perspective and pause to consider the
possibility that with our current understand of the universe that these
ancient concept do not fit our reality.
First, we are aware of
the events which led to Jesus being crucified. It was the Roman response
to someone who proclaimed an alternate social order from Roman rule.
Thus we no longer need to explain it in terms of a blood sacrifice.
Second
we are aware that the earth is but a speck of dust when compared to the
universe and the billions of galaxies, many far larger than our own.
This gives us pause when considering our importance in the scheme of
things.
Third, we are aware of the creative process, not only of
the earth itself, but even of the element of which it along with we are
made.
Fourth , we are aware that humankind was not the first or
primary life form and we are the result of many millions of years of
evolution which in itself was not necessarily destined to produce us in
our present form.
Fifth, there is no heavenly throne just
outside of the sky where God resides. With what is known of the universe
it is impossible to propose an external location for God. The
anthropomorphic model of God is increasingly harder to sustain.
Sixth,
it is evident that the whole universe is in a state of creation and
evolution. Thus there is no evidence of some one time perfect state.
Thus the evidence is that perfection is a goal yet to be realized and
not a previously lost state. One basic criterion from observations is
that change is the nature of the universe and thus is most likely the
nature of God.
Seventh, we have two choices in the way that we
look at our human predicament. One is that we live in a Godless universe
where chance and chaos rules. The other is that there is indeed a God,
but we must search for a definition just as those people who lived four
thousand years did.
Eighth, I choose to believe that there is a
God and start by suggesting that God exists throughout the universe and
thus is not identifiable as a super human. I believe that our evidence
for the existence of God is in all life forms. I suggest that God is
incarnate in all life and that we as humans best observe this
incarnation in human life. It might well be that this incarnation is
rather primitive with respect to the nature of God throughout the
galaxies. But human incarnation is the only contact that we have with
God.
Ninth. There is a connection to the ancient stories of
Jesus and his proclamation of the establishment of a 'kingdom of God' or
the type of society where the God incarnate on this earth can find the
fullest expression in the lives of humankind.
Tenth. This leads
to a very different view of Jesus and what he taught. It has nothing
whatsoever to do with him being the perfect sacrifice for the sins of
the world. It sees him as very human as are we. It even sees that in
some things he was very wrong in some of his ideas of how God intervenes
in this world.
I know this theology isn't for everyone but it's how I see the subject.
