09-02-24: Weird start to Sept, a long weekend for a holiday during the changing of the calendar. The weather is great, it's a beautiful day in Rockingham County... it's about 70, mostly sunny, an occasional breeze, not too much traffic going by the house... yeah man, nice day.
Philosophy is kicking my ass, the reading is dense, and full of new names, time-lines, ideas, concepts, and vocabulary. Expanding our vocabulary for new pursuits can be a challenge... i'm halfway decent with English, but not so great at other languages, their words/names... so taking in a bunch of unfamiliar ideas/concepts/words/names and trying to sort through all of the information while not knowing what information will be required to demonstrate proficiency is a struggle. My noggin cannot retain the amount of new information that i'm consuming, so I have to try to figure out which part of the info is most important. I suppose I'll learn that over time, and probably be less anxious about grades as I begin exercising my mind, and setting better learning routines. I took almost a year off from reading REALLY heaving material--maybe a few exceptions during the year-- but, getting back into creation, various scientific laws, and historical people's names and theories has been a bit overwhelming. I am clearly not processing and retaining information with the efficiency that I was six months ago... some of it is physical stressors and distractions, some of it is unpredictable cognitive functioning, some of it is genetics, and i'm sure there are other factors as well.
Christian Apologetics added into the Philosophy changes the dynamic. We are currently learning about the theories and observations revolving around the topic of our universe's begining, how it may have began, and whether the Abrahamic-centric religious claims of an intelligent designer/creator remains closest to reality based on scientific laws.
As interesting as it is to read the theories of some of history's influencers, I'm more drawn to the 'why' of creation... why did God create the universe. He certainly used a great deal of His potential in doing so. He certainly demonstrated much of His abilities, and gifts. My bias toward Christian ideology and text makes the case for an intelligent designer a no-brainer, and no one published has made the case strong enough to challenge that, although many smart people have tried during their quest to understand reality. But my understanding God being a 'personal/relational' father-like figure is that God wasn't simply showing off Hid great abilities and intelligence, He did so to share the gifts of life/intelligence/free-will/creativity with a creation that will not only appreciate what was given to us, but will appreciate The Creator himself... not just in worship type of appreciation, but in a relational aspect as well. Parents care for our needs, and prepare us to be capable individuals that can navigate life with some success. Some parents try to help their children understand things about God as well, and to understand that God will help direct their lives to be meaningful and purposeful far beyond thier parent's capabilities. With a relational God, that requires the knowledge that God not only exists, created our universe, and is personally attached to His creation, right down to the individual. Prayer is nothing more than time devoted to communicating with God, and prayer begins when we know that God exists, and is personal enough to listen to us, and to even speak back to us through creation, or His spirit. Intentional communication with God requires us to approach reality on a level that many people are uncomfortable with, God already knows what's going on in our live's, but trying to understand it all, and how it should be positively effecting you, and for discernment in understanding things that don't make sense; He knows all of that already, and knows how to communicate with you in time, but we have to willing to approach reality whether we are fully capable of understanding it all, or unwilling to understand and accept reality at it's face. We pray because we know that there is a Source/God/Creator, and we know that God is personal enough to communicate with us. God communicates with creation because He is a personal/relational God that cares for His creation, and has shown us how to live sustainably through various ways over millennia.
If you want to prove my theory wrong, you could try doing this extremely unrecommended experiment... see how long you can go doing everything the way that YOU think you should do everything, do everything at the speed in which you think it should be done. Conduct your life based on feelings, what you eat/drink, how much you sleep, throw away moral integrity, and any of the reasoning behind that. Quit praying, or even contemplating God, live your life as if there were no God... and then see how sustainable your life has become, how long you can go on for slowly drifting from reality... observe how meaningful you think your life has become... document it all.
The truth is that we all do that from time to time, for various length seasons. We stray from reality by being hypocritical to our understanding of it, as we seek paths of little resistance, motivated by energy/exhaustion-levels and desires that we might subliminally be pursuing. I don't recommend my proposed experiment, but most of us experience that battle of us being our own God, and then hopefully/eventually appreciating God because He is God, and He did things right…despite the many times we wish we could have changed things.
God didn't create this universe to complete a project in some science class; or to show off his skills to the guys, or to impress a girl... it's this purpose that I always go back to when reading the theorists bicker over who understands some aspect of reality better than others. Why? To utilize his potential to share life by creating more life... creating life that can birth to bring forth more life, in a sustainable universe created in a way which supports this life? To give intelligence, free-will, creativity, and access to necessary resources provided by more of creation. It's the 'Why' considerations that gets my attention when discussing creation. And, when you start to realize why, what do you do with this information, how do you apply it in your life?… seems like a long topic to ponder in itself. A good place to start is with prayer, and a desire to seek reality in all aspects of your life--you should expect nothing less when communicating to the one who gave life--it's a commitment to entering into a relationship, what should be the most important relationship of your life, one with our creator/God. Once you have taken that step, ask Him to teach you everything that you need to know about Jesus... as you'll come to see--it's quite important.
The PHIL240 class is kicking my ass, lot's of reading to do on subjects that I haven't spent much time consuming. Lot's of names, and partial theories, date periods, and previous influencers... lot's of information to consume. Some of the difficulty is because people are speaking about topics that are only relevant for very small parts of conversation, unless you are an apologetist at heart. I like thinking about creation, but currently only under the context of 'why' God did it, not 'how,' 'what', 'when'... I already know the 'who', and that is God... unless we have completely different understandings of reality. -- ct