Has anyone heard the fable of the blind men and the elephant? Blind men are asked to describe an elephant, one feels the body and says, “An elephant is wide like a wall.” Another feels a leg and says, “No, an elephant is round like a tree trunk.” Still another feels the ears and the last feels the trunk. “Elephant is wide and flat.” “No an elephant is like a snake.”
So each one is correct from their own perspective, but they are missing the full picture. Even if you put them together it still wouldn’t equal an elephant. Try to draw a wall, a tree trunk, a large flat pancake and a snake. If you connected those images you would have a messed up picture.
Now what if you had a bunch of blind men? Now you have a bunch describing legs, but is that the same leg, or different legs? Or what if each blind man felt more than one part? Without someone sighted to track their progress you might end up with multiple descriptions of the legs. How would you draw a six legged elephant? What if they gave descriptions of four legs, but all they had felt were the two front legs? What about if they missed something, like the tail?
This is how I see religion, the totality of God the creator is so vast, our limited human minds cannot conceive it all. Our minds have a hard time wrapping itself around the size and complexity of the cosmos. It is said that our brains can conceive of the universe, even the multi-verse, but not the Omni-verse. (I don’t have the time to get into it right now, sorry) If we can’t understand that, how can we understand everything about God?
It seems that people of science like to rely on science for answers, and people of faith use religion. The reasons why are as individual as the person, what I don’t understand is why they can’t get the two ideas together. It is like my cupcake theory, most people laugh, but it makes some sense.
I walk into the room holding a cupcake and say, “Look at what I have created!” Most people at that moment say that I didn’t make it out of thin air. And my answer is, “Prove it.” Since you were not there at the moment of the cupcake creation, you can’t prove that I didn’t create it, and the cupcake in my hand is proof of the creation. You can’t dispute the cupcake exists, so I must have created it.
That is the impasse that I see religion and science at. Science knows the process of creating cupcakes, they can narrow down the ingredients, know how those ingredients work together (eggs are the binding agent, without them cakes crumble) and determine through trial and error the complete process of mixing and heating to make a cupcake. Even if I used a process, didn’t I still create? Were there no cupcakes before me?
Of course I can only make cupcakes, as much as I like myself, I am not a God. But this does demonstrate that it is possible to “create” utilizing a “process.” God snaps His fingers creating a big bang. Then stirs the cosmos, mixing ingredients and adding a touch of heat. With a little push, there is life on one tiny blue orb.
I had a discussion with a guy about how we are too complex to be created. (Some would say we are too complex to be an accident) and he had a good logical argument about the odds of life and some other stuff. Here is how I see it.
If I had several HUGE bundles, one each of cupcake pans, cupcake paper inserts, cake mix, oil and eggs. Each one had explosives in the center and detonated them all at the same time. Or I had multiple bundles and had some detonate at different times.
If we had an infinite number of each, would we at some point get edible cupcakes? You can work out the math, but there has to be a number of cupcake pans that would survive the explosion, some papers would have to land in some of them (of course some oil could line the inside and still a decent product) in the air the mix, eggs and oil would combine and land in a good pan. If we took the pans and baked them, there would have to be edible cupcakes in some of them.
Of course this is a hypothetical, given the infinite scale, however it is an interesting thought. What I try to illustrate is this: Isn’t it possible that science is able to explain how God created the universe? Maybe they aren’t two separate things.
I have been reading the bible and the more I read, the more I see how some religions are off base. What they preach isn’t in the bible, or is a poor translation of it. For example God didn’t destroy Sodom and Gomorra, and is for sure wasn’t over homosexuality.
Did that twist your noodle a little? Good, now pay attention because I am going to kick you some knowledge. Three men approach Abraham and he makes them his guest. One of them is God and he talks of the wickedness of the two cities. He pledges not to destroy them until after he has seen this for himself. Abraham asks in the most humble way possible that if God can find 50 good people in Sodom if he will spare the whole city, and God agrees. To shorten the story, Abraham is able to get that number down to 10. (Remember that because it is important.)
God stays with Abraham while the other two men (angels) go into the city to see for themselves. (Another important fact.) Lot takes the two men in as his guests and insists that they stay with him and not in the city square where they want to sleep so they can better observe the people of the city. Here is where it takes a bad turn. Men in the city come to Lot’s door and demands that he bring the strangers out so they can have sex with them.
Now I can see how the shortsighted would think, “that means gay is bad” but if you think about it, that isn’t the case. You don’t destroy a city because a couple gay dudes knock on your door, it is because the society is so bad that this kind of behavior is allowed.
Let’s say some people visit friends in a small town. How wrong must the people in that town be to allow its citizens to go to the host’s house and insist on being allowed to rape the visitors (no matter if they are male or female.) The fact that behavior was so accepted in that city proves how depraved the society was.
The angels protected Lot by pulling him back into the house and blinded the men so they couldn’t find their way in and said that they were going to destroy the city. (Almost seems like self defense.) Lot went to his friends and family and said that they needed to leave with him. They declined, had they left they would have lived. Here is one of your points to remember, had they not been attacked, the angels would have met Lot’s extended family and found at least 10 good people. That would have saved the city according to God’s deal with Abraham.
Lot fled with his wife and two daughters, he was told to flee to the mountains. Lot asked if he could hide out in a village which was much closer. He might have done it because he was tired, or just lazy. I like to think that he did it to protect the village from being destroyed. There was going to be a lot of death and destruction raining down from the heavens. All they had to do at that point is not look back.
Was Lot’s wife turned to salt because she took a quick glance back, or did she linger to watch too close to Ground Zero? Either way, stupidity is terminal, and when agents of God tell you to run, you run! One more thing to point out is that God saw that his agreement with Abraham was not met.
What does this mean? God didn’t destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorra, and they were not destroyed for having gays there. It was the society that was wicked, not the sexual orientation of some of the citizens. Don’t believe me, check it out for yourself. Too many people are arguing the wrong things about the bible, get the facts first.
Someone did tell me the passage in the bible that is supposed to say that homosexuality is wrong. I didn’t write it down, but they quoted one line. I need to see it in context, if anyone knows the passage, can you send it to me?
I have droned on long enough, what it all comes down to is that we all get only one part of the whole picture. Often people have bad information or haven’t actually looked at the information. How many people think that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorra?
Oh and by the way, I haven’t embraced any new faith. My beliefs are the same, I just decided that I was ready to see for myself what was really said and I have the ability to think for myself and not just go off of what someone else tells me. That is what works for me, I’ll explain my spiritual beliefs in another blog if anyone cares. Thanks for actually reading this all the way to the end. I know it was a long one. Feel free to comment. I am open to other opinions and ways of thinking, provided they are actually an exchange of ideas. Anything stupid will be deleted.
