“One is Most Dishonest to One’s God; He is not Allowed to Sin.”
What is ‘one’s God? Is it the higher self? Is it the God we have been taught to believe exists, but not quite in our physical capability to see?
Is the God we think of, you think of, he thinks of, she thinks of, really a perception of perfection we think operates with no flaws?
Well, the universe doesn’t operate perfectly. There is no way to know if the universe operates perfectly. Everyday people are making advances in technology, science, physics, and so many other things. Scientists and science doesn’t know everything. Science is the language of how things work- it is still developing. It’s still a baby in many ways- with people operating and learning new perspectives. As in life, outside of science, things are always changing.
Yet, the question of ‘God’ remains the same. We live our lives in many ways, none of which are exactly the same as another. Everything is different, but holds similar… there are similarities but many differences. Perceiving many similarities might entice us, as creatures of nature, to see that the objects, situations, and people are the same. But why? No situation or object is truly the same. To the naked eye it might seem exactly the same, the appearance might entice us to think all the parts ARE the same and made out of the same material, however how do we truly know? We don’t. We trust that it might be the same, very likely that it could be the same.
Say we are looking at a car stereo- there are thousands in front of you, all of which appear to be the same, however not all are the same, some wires are more worn than others from production. No same wires inside are made exactly the same from the same plant that produced rubber or the essentials for plastic, it’s made of SIMILAR quality. Same with people- many people have legs, arms, torsos- an outside perspective- a perspective of an animal might see us ‘the same’ however with more knowledge and more examination, it can be seen there are subtle differences. Not everything is made exactly the same, yet there is this idea that god makes everything perfect. God is perfect. Is he? Is she?
Does the idea of perfection destroy the self- does it push people to want to destroy themselves if they are not perfect? Why? We all have flaws. Each copy of something, from object to living breathing animals, people, and plants, each thing has its own flaws and its own beauty. Even something visually appealing is not perfect, there might be things complicated on the inside- we wouldn’t truly know, we can’t see DNA. There could be a very beautiful flower but has weak DNA. We don’t truly know. We assume based on what our perspective shows us and based on what we have been taught to believe is beautiful/ perfect/ ideal. What if we changed that? What if we changed our perspective on ideals? What if we challenged our own beliefs that God is a concept of an idea to follow vs this supreme being? What if the idea of perfectionism is not the best idea to adhere to?
How does perfectionism help? How does it truly help? Nothing is truly perfect, even in science, there are flaws no matter what. And if something IS perfect, it is constructed WITH the help of imperfections as well. What if the concept of ‘God’ is introspection and self help?
The idea and prayers I have combed through overly promote self sacrifice. Is self sacrifice beneficial if the self is not learning from self sacrifice and is constantly being judged and criticized by the outside world? We have adopted this mentality where judgment is wrong, yet so many people are judges in a world where we all commit atrocities and all have questionable/ debatable morals/ ethics. Morals and ethics are always changing- yet if we admit to ourself or to others about the questionable topics, almost shameful topics, there is a social ‘crucifixion’ that is celebrated in a destructive way. How does that promote self growth and forgiveness? It appears that the very people who have taught me about ‘forgiveness’ were more about ‘condoning’ and making ‘the sinner’ feel intense self hatred for mistakes/ missteps.
‘God’ might not be this judgmental/ harsh being that has been perceived and taught to people. Words have changed and continue to change. Maybe texts that were written need to be taken with a grain of salt. ‘Sinning’ could very well be a metaphor, interpretation of mistakes, of human nature, a person observed and wrote into a fictional text for the sake of protecting themselves from the backlash of the society of their time.
…I’m not a historian, I read a lot. I love reading philosophy and this train of thought is inspired by Nietzche. I have been spending time reading through the pandemic and have many questions. I am not privileged to have a professor or anyone to discuss these ideas with, so I am turning to this. And I quite dislike social media with how toxic it is…
Where does our belief system hold its place? Do we really believe in it because we ‘feel’ that to be true? Do we ask enough questions about ‘God’ or whoever else plays an important role in our belief system? Should we be placing more emphasis on the principles of what religion teaches vs this idea we struggle to truly accept? Does it mean reject religion altogether? Or does it mean that we need to open our mind to new ideas and possibly challenge that as a ‘herd mind’ we could all be wrong? What if? Would that be so bad?
