Imagine a god seeing a human creature starving and struggling and that god deciding in an act of mercy to arrange a bucket of grain to be discovered by that human as a gift.
Imagine that human on discovering such a gift, taking a cupful out of the bucket and tossing it into a fire to burn to ashes saying this I offer as a sacrifice, as a burnt offering, by way of thanks for your mercy, my almighty provider. Is might not be unreasonable to think that that god might think I can appreciate the gesture, but I really do not need people burning things I give them to please me. After all, god do not really need our compliments and flattery, nor is not swayed by such.
Now imagine if that human instead have taken a cup of grain and decided to till the land and plant the grain so increasing the gift that was provided to him or her, so providing for the future. One might assume that that merciful god might be more pleased, feeling it made the right decision.
Now one may ask what has this to do with Christianity? In Christian theology, there is a concept named redemption theology with refers to the deliverance of Christians from sin and freedom from “captivity or bondage of sin.” It assumes an important position in Christian salvation theology because the transgressions in question all form part of a great system against which human power is helpless.
The writings of the Christian Testament writer Paul use the concept of redemption primarily to speak of the saving significance of the death of Christ. There is often the saying “Christ died as an offering for humankind’s sins on the cross.”
It is absurd since many Christians believe Jesus is god and so is the Holy spirit and the so called father god, that all three, are the one, the so called trinity doctrine. The consequence being, we have a god that impregnated a human (Mary) so he can be incarcerated as a human on earth and allow himself to be crucified as an offer to appease himself. We have a god offering himself to himself, as an offer to appease himself, for humans sinning, something that he caused by creating the fruit of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, known as the original sin or fall from grace.
Surely one can see the absurdity and contradiction in that, if not a pointless, absurd exercise in drama, especially the part where god incarcinated cries out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Who is he crying out to? To another part of his many split personalities. An example of Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder), under hypnosis, the person’s different “alters” or identities may be very responsive to the therapist’s requests.
It would also be immensely useful if god when he gave the tablets to Moses in front of all those people would have mentioned” By the way Moses just to let you know,actually I am a trinity you know The father, the son and the Holy Ghost instead of waiting two thousand years later and letting some church fathers decide on its formulation at the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325 as part of the Nicene Creed. Who knows what other personalities such a god might have up his sleeve.
If anyone had to ask me did you ever think that there is a higher intelligence that guide creation when I for instance look at the stars? I just honestly say no, when you look down a microscope, then also, no and when I learnt how to measure, record and quantify physical laws and calculate certain outcomes then also my answer would still be no.
Yet, strangely, it is most often when I look at the behaviour of tiny insects I often wonder how such a tiny brain could have evolved to fly, crawl, see and identify things, mate and have a sense of direction or even purpose. It is just incredible that so much energy and processing power is packed in such a tiny package. These are times when I suspect a higher intelligence or creator at work.
Also, when I meditate looking at nothing in particular, even when my eyes might be closed, I can feel the presence of many things, but at a certain point I can feel connected to something that seem to fill one with a certain energy or life force and peace. This I often wondered about, that beyond mere matter and flesh what kind of energy is feelings and emotions actually composed of? maybe it could be emanating from a higher source?
So no, “reason” or “nature” is not my “Bible” nor do I believe in so called divinely inspired scriptures or revelations or prophets. Life is my Bible, that living energy, that force that animate and rush through one’s veins.
When I worked with animals in an animal clinic it always fascinated me to see an animal on the verge of exhaustion and death hooked up to a mixture of electrolytes, glucose and hormones and watch it “come to life again” as if it is a meat machine coming alive. It was always such a miracle or marvel for me.
While working with animals one other experience that made me thinking was dealing with the criminally insane. This also opened a new awareness to me. Some “genius” in charge thought that if prisoners and the mentally disturbed placed in some categories, if they interacted with animals it would be highly therapeutic for their rehabilitation.
I had to collect them and drop them off again at times as well as making sure that they are not making a nuisance of themselves in general. So I had to carry out my duties and also get them to help where they can, but not allow them to get out of hand. Easier said than done. The nurses did a good job of getting them to interact with animals, letting them walk animals, pet animals, play with them and exercise them as well as clean cages and groom them.
But I often had to help intervene in problem cases and believe me, I have seen people descend into states of insanity that one can describe as pure evil. I can believe it is easy to believe in the existence of evil and evil entities if you looked those people in the eyes and heard them speak and swear. It seems as if they are possessed at times by something that is pure evil you can almost feel its presence. But do I believe that? No.
I have seen them calm down or get ”possessed” as if one flick a switch on and off by just giving them one injection or another. I often wondered how just mere chemicals or a certain compound made from a simple chain of elements can actually trigger moods, emotions and even a chain of thoughts.
I wondered about the existence of evil, what is right and what is wrong. This leads me to the works of Maimonides. Moses ben Maimon, Born in Córdoba, Almoravid Empire, present-day Spain, on Passover Eve, 1135 or 1138, commonly known as Maimonides, also referred to by the acronym Rambam, for Rabbeinu Mōšeh bēn Maimon, “Our Rabbi Moses, son of Maimon”, was a medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. In his time, he was also a preeminent astronomer and physician.
Maimonides were not known as a supporter of mysticism, although a strong intellectual type of mysticism has been discerned in his philosophy. Maimonides wrote on theodicy, the philosophical attempt to reconcile the existence of a God with the existence of evil. He took the premise that an omnipotent and good God exist.
In his Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides writes that all the evil that exists within human beings stems from their individual attributes, while all good comes from a universally shared humanity (Guide 3:8). Maimonides says that there are people who are guided by higher purpose, and there are those who are guided by physicality and must strive to find the higher purpose with which to guide their actions.
To justify the existence of evil, assuming God is both omnipotent and omnibenevolent, Maimonides postulates that one who created something by causing its opposite not to exist is not the same as creating something that exists; so evil is merely the absence of good. God did not create evil, rather God created good, and evil exists where good is absent (Guide 3:10). Therefore, all good is divine invention, and evil both is not and comes secondarily.
Maimonides thus starts from the premise , “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Rather, idolatry also includes any denial of G-d’s oneness— His absolute singularity, unity and exclusiveness of being. To ascribe any divisions or compartmentalizations to the Divine being, or to believe that G-d has any partners or intermediaries to His creation and sustenance of the universe, is to transgress the prohibition of idolatry. Maimonides thus further state in strict monotheism there is no room for an opponent or opposing supernatural entity such as the Devil, Lucifer, Satan or a fallen angel.
The error in idolatry lay in that they believed that it would be pleasing to G-d if they were to venerate the forces of nature which serve Him, as a king desires that his ministers and servants be venerated. Soon they were erecting temples and altars to the sun and the stars, offering sacrifices and hymns of praise to them, believing all this to be the will of G-d.”
Most followers of Judaism do not believe in the existence of a supernatural omnimalevolent figure. Traditionalists and philosophers in medieval Judaism adhered to rational theology, rejecting any belief in rebel or fallen angels, and viewing evil as abstract. The Rabbis usually interpreted the word satan as it is used in the Tanakh as referring strictly to human adversaries and rejected all of the Enochian writings mentioning Satan as a literal, heavenly figure from the Biblical canon, making every attempt to root them out.
The Hebrew word Ha-Satan actually means adversary or accuser not Satan as Christians translate it. Even in the Book of Job where “satan” appears as an adversary to a god figure in the book. The book is a poetic dialogue set within a prose framework, which may have been written around the time of the Babylonian captivity.
The whole “play” should be seen as a debate between “god” and his alter ego “accusing” himself testing or debating his own nature and ideas. It is a whole lot of ,”what if” scenarios. What if there was a righteous man like Job, What if god built a wall of protection around him (Job 1:10 Hast not thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.) What if god tested Job by removing the prosperity that surrounds him, etc. The play does not actually say that a being such as Satan really exist or Job for that matter, but the accuser has a particular role in this play to illustrate a point.
See, a wall as mentioned built around Job can mean two things, it can keep bad things out, protect something, but it also can keep things in, confining things, restricting one’s freedom. Now god does not need limited entities, to continually praise him like parrots or marionettes to serve him like robots. We are given free will to some extent, to some extent we are free, sure we are neither totality free flying about like sprites, not needing to eat, drink or sleep but we are free to some extent. The story of Job does question something about the nature of god and the nature of god’s existence.
In the book of Job, the text, describes Job as a righteous man favoured by a god figure in the play. Job 1:6-8 describes the “sons of God” (bənê hāʼĕlōhîm) presenting themselves before a god. The god asks one of them, “the Ha-satan” the accuser, where he has been, to which the accuser replies that he has been patrolling the earth. The god asks, “Have you considered my servant Job?” The accuser replies by urging the god to let him torture Job, promising that Job will abandon his faith at the first tribulation. The god consents; the accuser destroy Job’s servants and flocks, yet Job refuses to condemn his god.
The first scene repeats itself, with the accuser presents himself to the god alongside the other “sons of God”. a god points out Job’s continued faithfulness, to which the accuser insists that more testing is necessary; a god once again gives the accuser permission to test Job. In the end, Job remains faithful and righteous, and it is implied that the accuser is shamed in his defeat.
Job, just because he is “good” or a faithful servant cannot always live sheltered life, but he can enjoy the fruits of his labour. But there is much about the nature of existence, we still do not understand. But one thing remains clear this is not a great struggle between good and evil, this is not God and Satan playing chess and humankind the play pieces.
Nor, is it about sacrifice nowhere in the book of Job is it said he must make sacrifices. Yet, Job does; Job 1:5 When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.
And what was the outcome of those sacrifices? It did not end well for Job nor his children. Job lost his children, all his children died. if there is a consistent message in the Hebrew Testament building altars, making sacrifices or building temples and making sacrifices, it will all end in pain. Temples were smashed down to the ground not once but twice. From Abraham to the book of Psalms god has one consistent message.
Psalms 40:7-8
6 You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings. Now that you have made me listen, I finally understand — You don’t require burnt offerings or sin offerings
7b Then I said, “Look I have come. And this has been written about me in your scroll;
8 I Take joy in doing your will my God, for your law is written on my heart.”
Maimonides contests the common view that evil outweighs good in the world. He says that if one were to examine existence only in terms of humanity, then that person may observe evil to dominate good, but if one looks at the whole of the universe, then he sees good is significantly more common than evil (Guide 3:12). Man, he reasons, is too insignificant a figure in God’s myriad works to be their primary characterizing force, and so when people see mostly evil in their lives, they are not taking into account the extent of positive Creation outside of themselves.
Maimonides believes that there are three types of evil in the world: evil caused by nature, evil that people bring upon others, and evil man bring upon himself (Guide 3:12).
The first type of evil Maimonides states are the rarest form, but arguably of the most necessary—the balance of life and death in both the human and animal worlds itself, he recognizes, is essential to God’s plan, but not if you are the one doing the dying then it doesn’t seem so necessary then, does it?
Maimonides writes that the second type of evil is relatively rare, and that humanity brings it upon itself. The third type of evil humans brings upon themselves and is the source of most of the ills of the world. These are the result of people falling victim to their physical desires. To prevent the majority of evil which stems from harm we do to ourselves, we must learn how to ignore our bodily urges.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a ind that was as calm and clear as a still lake at dawn, to have a heart that was as warm and radiantly open as the setting sun, to be as grounded and solidly rooted as a mountain.
You can achieve this if you practice meditation. Yes, meditation and contemplative practice in Judaism has taken a variety of forms, and bears a variety of names, but it’s been a part of Judaism for a very long time, practicing the presence of G-d is part of Jewish tradition.
In the Genesis account of Adam’s creation, it is said that God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” Start by concentrating on your breathing. Just sit down or lie down naturally and relax. Breathe naturally, observe your breathing that it is not too fast or too shallow, but breathe in and breathe out deeply and then let it flow calmly. Let your thoughts drift by like clouds don’t get involved in them and don’t let emotions rise in response to thoughts that rise-up from below just let them fade away and let peace and relaxation fill you. Don’t hang on to thoughts, merely accept them and let them pass Just think of a greater force working within guiding you, you are repairing and healing, reformatting your thoughts and ideas.
Tikkun Olam is a concept in Judaism interpreted in Orthodox Judaism as the prospect of overcoming all forms of idolatry, and by other Jewish denominations as an aspiration to behave and act constructively and beneficially. I am asking you to cultivate a type of inner Tikkun Olam giving up the idolatry of cravings, desires, making gods out of your wants. Getting angry is wanting to have the power of a god to change things with might, that is idolatry as well. But to start an inner process of rebuilding repair and reconstruction based on thanks and appreciation.
This world has much, but not enough people appreciating it. Those with higher understanding and insight are aware of something greater than themselves leading us inspiring us.
Has anyone ever produced a mirror out of mud and straw?
How can you be polished if any slight run irritate you?
Keep focused and work at it.
One technique is giving thanks or being grateful. Even if you are an atheist, having a sense of gratitude and being thankful, is still tremendously positive and reaffirming because being thankful about something and respecting life’s “small graces and mercies” you discover and acknowledge that there is some good in life and others.
Being well-balanced, sound and living healthy one need to set your boundaries recognising that this is my space, my time, my life and taking ownership of it also mean taking responsibility for it.
By focusing your thanks on a higher power, you simply acknowledge that there is influences beyond our control, but taking cognition of its presence and acknowledge it, you are developing your ability and insight to see beyond the obvious and become aware of an inner power working within you making you more aware.
Phil in Motion 