I’ve been giving this some thought, lately. I’ve recently adopted an agnostic view of the world, as you might have gathered from my previous posts, and it leads me to wonder what the purpose of my life is if it is not God. As a devout fundamentalist, I was convinced my sole purpose was to be God, to men. However, I can see now that there is a “fundamental” flaw in that logic in that no one can be God. Aside from that, I’ve taken to wondering if any human, regardless of their views of deity, can truly model their lives after deity legitimately.
What is a God-emulating life, if God never changes? Aren’t we all just saying that we want to be the same and that we never want to change? That we want to be like God, immovable and powerful, moral and just? It’s a question worth exploring.
God never does anything different: As the Bible says, He is unchanging, forever the same. He is the solid rock on which we can stand. So, by modeling our lives upon the idea that we are unchanging, eternally the same, we are stating that we are perfect; there is no need to change beyond conforming to God; that having a million “Gods” walking around is desirable, indeed, beneficial to the world. I see a few problems with this, however. In that no one who models God does anything different, creativity also goes out the window. Do nothing different; create nothing new. Being immutable means that you cannot change your mind about anything. Say your emotions tug at your heart for someone who you believe to be heathen. Say you were to fall in love. That love is wrong, and your beliefs say you cannot do it. Yet, God is supposedly love. Therefore, you love what you claim to hate, and you hate what you claim to love. Immutability is not desirable, if cases like these can occur.
Another thing that springs to mind is the statement I made in “wanting to be like God.” This should be sounding alarm bells in every good thinker’s mind. Ok, we want to emulate God. We want His characteristics, we want his morality, and we seemingly want to wield His power as absolutely as He does. Do you mean to say that this isn’t an issue; this isn’t a problem? People wanting to take the place of God isn’t a problem? This should come as nothing less than disturbing! The only way that a person can claim to be substitutionary for God is to BE God. Only one person in any religion has even partially succeeded in this: Jesus. No other holy figure has attained this status. Not Moses, not Aaron, not David or Solomon, nor Muhammad, for that matter. Only Christ made that claim to be substitutionary for God, to be Divine, and even then, assumptions are the basis for that. My point is this: assuming all of this is true, why substitute yourself for Deity? Why put a human where no human belongs?
Therefore, I’ve thrown out the idea that my life is means to emulate God, to be like God. According to any and every definition of God, I would fail the test. I am not the benchmark; I don’t even reach the bench. What part of my purpose is left?
To be a good person? Perhaps so. This would be an admirable goal in life. It might even be fun. To me, it does not appear to be this way. If my purpose was to be only good, then I have fulfilled it and I can die this moment. In taking meaning in being “good,” I take meaning in that my life is already good. In taking meaning in that my life is already good, I take meaning in my completion of my task. Therefore, I take meaning in my completeness. If I am complete, what purpose is left?
I think, however, that my purpose is not to simply be “good” and “moral.” These things will happen, naturally. What my purpose is, however, is to excel at what I can do. I am not a good laborer. I hate to do anything involving labor. Ask my parents. I usually hate to do anything stressful. Again, ask my parents. I am a good writer and a good friend. Therefore, I take my purpose this day in excelling at that: Being a good friend, and a good writer. To that end, I practice and I work, to achieve my goals. That purpose is never-ending, because of the assumption that I cannot be perfect, and I accept that assumption. I cannot be perfect, but I sure as hell can try.
What My Life Really Means is “I am.” My purpose is to sharpen “me”, so that my life means more. No God-complex to run and hide under. No one else to blame for my successes or failures. Just me, as dull or as sharp as I make me. As a human, I perceive that this is fair. I can live with that.
I don’t ask you to change. I simply ask this: Could you live with that?
I’m So Sorry
29 12 2006This is in relation to a story here in the Tampa Bay area of sunny Florida, about an Iraqi woman who was deported recently for alleged connections to “a suspiscious person.” The link is here.
This poor woman came here to America to visit her son, a former U.S. Navy hopeful and now a resident of Spain because of what was done to his mother. His father and her ex-husband has lived here for 27 years in exile from Iraq. This is a travesty of civil rights on par with what prompted the civil rights movements in the 1960’s. Not only was this woman strip-searched and deported on a “suspiscious” connection, but they deliberately hurt U.S. nationals, some of whom loved this country enough to desire to serve her — in wartime.
This is to that woman, wherever she is, even if she’s not ever going to read it. I am so sorry for my country’s actions in this. Even if these connections were accurate, they had no right in doing what they did and how they did it. It was a violation of your rights, and should never have happened in a civilized country. Even if you don’t come back, please know that we are not all like that. We do not all hate Muslims with a vengeance without even meeting you; we do not all suspect you of wrongdoing without cause. There are decent people in the USA. I promise. I hope that some day our government would come off the Gestapo act and that you could see the good parts of our country.
I’m so sorry.
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