The world is imperfect. There are many problems facing mankind each day, each one, created, by mankind itself. Someday, maybe sooner, but probably later, when the Sun goes supernova, I'm sure everything on this planet will be obliterated. The point is, we all have to die sometime, and all we can do about is nothing. Live your life and try to leave some good behind.
Or.....
Or you can scan some book of fables and myths, parables designed to impart some ancient knowledge for some clue, any clue, until you create in your mind that the world will end on May 21 2011. Then you can spend your remaining days in bliss, spreading your message while trying not to appear as a total nutjob, warning people that indeed their days are numbered. But what happens on May 22?
Jesus predicted to his followers he would return in their lifetime ( Matthew 16:28) and that never happened. In fact, the list of claims of Jesus' return and end the world is fairly long. The Heaven's Gate cult is another prime example of people who believed in the end of the world. In fact, most major religions have these end-of-the-world fantasies where their people are spared the agony of death by the trueness of their belief system.
My point is this: if there are people who are willing to believe that the world will end soon, then they have no stock in dealing with the real problems facing us now. Therefore, any Christian extremist should not be elected to public office, because their belief system is based on some invisible guy in the sky scooping them up up and away from the consequences of their actions. The world belongs to the non-believers. We're certainly not the ones screwing it up.
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Cynical, I see. You're not alone. I've talked to many cynics over the years. Mostly, you all have the same tale, and speak with the same amazing authority.
You say: "The world is imperfect." Actually, it's perfect. If you could see that perfection it would leave you speechless.
The "problems facing mankind each day, each one, created, by mankind itself," attest to that perfection. Mankind is perfectly "creating" what you have described as an imperfect world.
A larger question would be: Why? Why would mankind perfectly create a world that is "imperfect," as you express it?
The answer is simple: Because the world chose to. The world could have chosen otherwise--it was at choice in the matter--but it didn't.
For all its seeming flaws, the world, as it now exists, serves a larger purpose.
"The point is, we all have to die sometime, and all we can do about is nothing. ."
No one dies. Life never ends. And there's plenty that you can do, and are doing, about it.
Yes, "[l]ive your life and try to leave some good behind." It's the good that you do that becomes the measure of your life, but even a life that's not devoted to "good" isn't a total loss.
No life is lived in vain. All of life, even the good and the bad, has value, and should be accepted as a part of who you are--because, at some level, you "created" it all, and to repudiate even a part of it, is to disown your own creations.
"Jesus predicted to his followers he would return in their lifetime ( Matthew 16:28) and that never happened."
Oh, but it did. It did, indeed! Jesus, the man, exemplified the Christ. The Christ, not the man, comes to us all (although there's nothing to stop the man Jesus, the physical Jesus, from doing so).
"Behold I stand at the door and knock...."
The Christ exists in all lifetimes, and returns just as He promised.
"If any man will open the door...."
Closed doors, and you may be one, refuse to open, but the knocking persists.
The "world" doesn't necessarily ends in one swell swoop--only for those persons who open the door. For them, the "world," and its influences, end and they're new born.
"My point is this: if there are people who are willing to believe that the world will end soon, then they have no stock in dealing with the real problems facing us now."
II
What are those "real problems facing us now"? I'm sure you can enumerate several of them, as you perceive them, but are they "really" the "problems facing us now"?
As I see it, we have only one problem, and it's not really a problem existing in the absolute, but merely in our relative, physical world, where the sublime is often seen--as you put it--as "fables and myths".
Here's the problem: We humans are mired in a world of our own making, of our own choosing, a world perfectly suited for our purpose, but one in which the illusions of this world (which we made up by the way) seem altogether too real.
They aren't real.
Death is one of those illusions. And, just for the record, we're all "screwing it up," Christians, Christian extremist, Muslims, Jews, you name it--everyone--even agnostics and atheists.
Screwing up the world, as you state it, is an equal opportunity occupation, and preoccupation. No one here on planet earth is innocent: We all have had a hand, some less so, and some more so, in the screwing.
Let me define what I mean by "screwing it up".
We "screw it up" by pretending that we're not one with all that is--that we're separate an apart from all of Life, and our reason for being.
It's been fun chatting with you. Now, let me leave you with something that you can categorize under that rubric of "fables and myths."
The following not only sums up my knowing, but constitutes my experiences:
Nothing in your world is real.
The meaning of everything
is the meaning you give it.
You are who you say you are.
Your experience is what you say it is.
Lightworker,
Yeah, and I've talked (or listened, as most "conversations" tend to be endless preaching) and all those religious wackos all speak with the same amazing authority as well.
If the world is perfect, why do thousands of birds fall from the sky due to hypothermia?
Save your bible bull for someone who is less gullible. Saying that every thing happens for a reason and the invisible guy in the sky has a plan is just an empty cop out.
"[A]ll speak with the same amazing authority as well."
True.
Yet, not all speak with the same authority. I speak from experience, albeit anecdotal, and I'm cognizant of the fact that I'm not likely to convince someone of my experiences, whose experiences are dissimilar to mine.
"Yeah, and I've talked (or listened, as most "conversations" tend to be endless preaching)."
Although I've presented another perspective, my intentions haven't been to be didactic: I have no interest in winning souls, changing minds, or converting.
You're more than welcome to believe as you choose. In that, I have no preference.
"If the world is perfect, why do thousands of birds fall from the sky due to hypothermia?"
Fish are dying as well, by the thousands. Has the cause been determined?
Because things seem to perish, doesn't make the world imperfect, unless you define perfection within this narrow scope.
Nothing dies. Things may change form, as they often do, but they still remain. In this, material science is in agreement.
"Save your bible bull for someone who is less gullible."
Happily. I never stay where I'm not wanted. As I implied earlier, I'm the source of much of the "bull" that you find objectionable.
Yet, better understood, that "bible bull," as you describe it, is a wellspring of knowledge and offers answers to many of the problems perplexing humankind.
"Saying that every thing happens for a reason and the invisible guy in the sky has a plan is just an empty cop out."
I hate to disappoint you, but there's no "guy in the sky." If you're referring to God, you could very well be referring to yourself, since God is everything seen, and everything not seen.
I said that we're at cause for everything that happens in life, individually and collectively. You suggested as much yourself! You, me, and everyone else, are creating our realities and our Reality.
In that we have no choice: We're creation machines.
I'd like to tell you that there's no Plan, but I'd be lying. But here's the Good News: You're already fulfilling that Plan. You don't have to know The Plan in order to carry out The Plan.
"Cop out" or not, The Plan is one that you, too, are subscribing to. Your presence here on planet earth is proof that you subscribe to it.
From your tone, I believe that I have offended you in some manner. Believe me: That was not my intention. I have no need to persuade, convince, or otherwise attack your belief system.
What you believe is your business, and I honor that.
Further, I have no need to make you wrong, and me right. I have no needs at all.
I had one intention: to present another perspective--to share. Nothing more complex than that, nothing more simple.
Namaste.
Robert Heinlein was correct. Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
Yes, kudos to Heinlein! Heh!
Yes, the world is perfect in its imperfection. So I learn to love the imperfections, not to worry about whether they were created or not, and just appreciating them because the ARE what they are... and to not stress over trying to turn someone else to my religious belief system... because I basically don't have one, and because I don't want one, and I probably am not going to want theirs.
When James Watt was Secretary of the Interior, there was speculation that because he was and "end times" kind of guy, he basically advocated using up the environment while we could, which pretty much threw stewardship out the window.
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - Ambrose Bierce
"If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little." - George Carlin
"Man, if you have to ask, you'll never know."
-Louis Armstong
"It's after the end of the world. Don't you know that yet?" - Sun Ra
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