thread: 2007-01-04 : Self-identification vs. Membership
On 2007-01-06, NinJ wrote:
Vincent, I don't really know that much about Mormonism aside from bits and pieces gleaned from you and rumor. Can you describe the religion as you see it?
I consider wrestling with God to be one of the great pleasures of my religion.
Here's a playlet that might take place in my shower (and probably should. I got stinkpits.):
God: So what's the concept of "God" that you've got have to do with the nature of the universe?
Me: Well, it acts in a way that seems to my intelligent mind to be similar.
God: So you think God is an intelligence?
Me: (Sensing a trap) No, I think that intelligence is a corner of God that I can recognize. One of the Fingers. But the thing that has whatever it is that I can partially recognize as intelligence, is God.
God: Why can't you accept that the universe just has attributes that you misidentify as intelligence, but is really massively complex in ways you can't understand? That the intelligence you see is just a projection?
Me: The way that I interact with the massively complex is by forging metaphor. I can understand an intelligent phenomenon.
God: So God is a made up thing for you. A metaphor.
Me: Of course you are. I've got to be able to settle for that if I'm going to contain a concept, if I'm to be able to relate to it at all. I mean, "Creator of the Universe" implies that you're like "Creator of a Really Good Cake", but I put a little asterisk by it that says, "Whatever you're thinking, think bigger in every dimension, and in more dimensions than you're thinking." You're a concept that I have so that I can have the concept. But you're really just a marker, like saying "Adonai" when what's written is "yhvh".
God: Doesn't that seem kind of weak, saying "Well, I can't understand God, so I'll make up a concept that I can't understand and call it God?" Aren't you just making something up because tradition, ignorant of the philosphical tools we now have, but possessed of the same curiosity and neurological mandates, dictates my existence?
... and so forth.
Now, off to the shower to argue for my own existence. Wish me luck; we're supposed to be playing Mechaton in 2 1/2 hours, so if I don't exist, it's gonna really screw up the score.
