Theory #1: "I Think, Therefore God Isn't"
Bear with me, I am going somewhere with this.
It all begins with a story about poker.
I am playing in a 1000 person tournament and there are 25 of us still chasing the dream at 1:45 on a Wednesday night. I get Ten Ten and, without any attempt at being clever, I push all $35,000 of my chips in. I am sitting about 18th. If you don’t know, the real money is finishing in the top 4 or 5. Finishing 25th nets you about a $15 profit, hardly worth the two hours and forty five minutes of effort.
One person calls with Ace King: the classic showdown. The flop is harmless and the turn is harmless. One card left to fall and I am over a 6 to 1 favourite to move into third place.
And so I stop and think. “I might just make some good money tonight. I can strut around the office tomorrow morning, tired and groggy, but beaming that my life away from work is rewarding because somewhere in the world are 1000 people who tried to do what I did last night and failed.”
Which brings us to the big question: God?
I can understand that every society since the dawn of mankind has created the god(s) that best suited its needs. I can also understand that we must have gotten here somehow. I am past the stage of blindly asserting there is no “God” with some grand level of certain certainty. That kind of talk requires as much faith as actually believing in God.
I just don’t really care one way or the other. God is irrelevant, wither by design or happenstance.
Therein lies Theory Numero Uno in the Book of Mark: “I think therefore God isn’t”.
You should live your life assuming there is no God. Your God would have wanted it that way.
If there is a “God” I am gambling that he/she didn’t create the universe with the intention that we would all huddle in a building every Sunday and mumble “it is right to give him thanks and praise” in bored monotone voices.
I’d also like to think he didn’t create a moral code for us to blindly follow for the most pointless of reasons – because God said so.
I think we’ve either been put here intentionally to choose or own path, or we just ended up here by chance, still free to choose our own path. Same difference.
God or no god, I’m here, just like you, left to my own devices. I must use my limited tools to discern the good act from the bad, and the good life decision from the bad life decision. Bear in mind, I can’t even snap. It’s the afternoon and I haven’t eaten yet because I am too lazy to feed myself. What left turn at Albuquerque led to human evolution producing me?
Which, in turn, brings me to why I have finally joined the blogging world. It is high time that I too come down from the mountains with my own theories of life. It’s up to us to sort out this mess out together. “The Book of Mark” will be my contribution, one stupid, self indulgent theory at a time. I hope you Internet freaks enjoy.
Meanwhile, back on Wednesday night, a King fell on the river and I was out of the tournament. Losing to Ace King with Ten Ten is no miracle. The fact that fate waited until the river to inflict the most possible pain, is also, in and of itself, no big deal.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but think that the godless universe was screwing me over.
Where does that leave me?
It all begins with a story about poker.
I am playing in a 1000 person tournament and there are 25 of us still chasing the dream at 1:45 on a Wednesday night. I get Ten Ten and, without any attempt at being clever, I push all $35,000 of my chips in. I am sitting about 18th. If you don’t know, the real money is finishing in the top 4 or 5. Finishing 25th nets you about a $15 profit, hardly worth the two hours and forty five minutes of effort.
One person calls with Ace King: the classic showdown. The flop is harmless and the turn is harmless. One card left to fall and I am over a 6 to 1 favourite to move into third place.
And so I stop and think. “I might just make some good money tonight. I can strut around the office tomorrow morning, tired and groggy, but beaming that my life away from work is rewarding because somewhere in the world are 1000 people who tried to do what I did last night and failed.”
Which brings us to the big question: God?
I can understand that every society since the dawn of mankind has created the god(s) that best suited its needs. I can also understand that we must have gotten here somehow. I am past the stage of blindly asserting there is no “God” with some grand level of certain certainty. That kind of talk requires as much faith as actually believing in God.
I just don’t really care one way or the other. God is irrelevant, wither by design or happenstance.
Therein lies Theory Numero Uno in the Book of Mark: “I think therefore God isn’t”.
You should live your life assuming there is no God. Your God would have wanted it that way.
If there is a “God” I am gambling that he/she didn’t create the universe with the intention that we would all huddle in a building every Sunday and mumble “it is right to give him thanks and praise” in bored monotone voices.
I’d also like to think he didn’t create a moral code for us to blindly follow for the most pointless of reasons – because God said so.
I think we’ve either been put here intentionally to choose or own path, or we just ended up here by chance, still free to choose our own path. Same difference.
God or no god, I’m here, just like you, left to my own devices. I must use my limited tools to discern the good act from the bad, and the good life decision from the bad life decision. Bear in mind, I can’t even snap. It’s the afternoon and I haven’t eaten yet because I am too lazy to feed myself. What left turn at Albuquerque led to human evolution producing me?
Which, in turn, brings me to why I have finally joined the blogging world. It is high time that I too come down from the mountains with my own theories of life. It’s up to us to sort out this mess out together. “The Book of Mark” will be my contribution, one stupid, self indulgent theory at a time. I hope you Internet freaks enjoy.
Meanwhile, back on Wednesday night, a King fell on the river and I was out of the tournament. Losing to Ace King with Ten Ten is no miracle. The fact that fate waited until the river to inflict the most possible pain, is also, in and of itself, no big deal.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but think that the godless universe was screwing me over.
Where does that leave me?
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5 Comments:
...and Jesus wept. Welcome to the blogosphere.
Although I am no expert I understand that in the Christian Book of St. John Chapter 20 Jesus says:
"Thomas, because thou hast seen me,
thou hast believed. / Blessed are they that have not seen / and yet believeth."
There seems to be an argument in the Christian approach to life that a belief based on faith is important. Your Theory #1 assumes that religion would support a critical approach over faith without any backing except your own opinion of what God would want.
I submit Theory #1 - which tries to rationally support your approach in life with the implicit support of a possible God - is unfinished or needs to be re-addressed as most formal religions call for worship on faith alone.
I'll get to faith eventually. Stay tuned . .
Mike Mandel would slap you silly, with your limited possibliities. Asserting free will exists means you haven't done any ground work. Maybe you are where you are because that's the way it is and there ain't nothing you can do about it. Your genes and the random positioning of electrons have put you in the agnostic, slightly heodonistic, with a tinge of moral assertiveness, camp. Your deluded belief that you can do anything that changes that is just more of the same. I will have to read on and see how you dig yourself out of this... or not.
Beautiful - faith and determinism both thrown in my face. I can't cover everything on the first day! Enjoy my digging . .
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