4 Aspects Of God

Occam's Razor and Parsimony

2009-02-15T15:22:00.005Z

Parsimony is a preference for the least complex explanation for an observation. This is generally regarded as good when judging hypotheses: However, parsimony is a preference rather than a general principle.

Occam's Razor is the "Principle of Parsimony". The principle states that "the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory."

For example, imagine that you find that the saucer of milk you left on your kitchen floor is now empty.

You then consider two possibilities to explain this situation:

1. Your cat, who had easy access to the kitchen, walked into the kitchen while you were engaged with other activities, and drank the milk.

2. The milk fairy removed the milk in order to feed a hungry community of gnomes.

The first hypothesis requires fewer assumptions to be made. For example, it does not require an assumption that such a thing as a milk fairy exists. It also does not require the existence of a community of gnomes who rely on a milk fairy for their survival.

Occam's Razor would favour the first of these two hypotheses, and so with your preference for following the principle of parsimony, you would then work on this assumption.

Parsimony is relevant for the living of our lives, because it can help to fill in the gaps in our knowledge, to allow us to take action sensibly.

The Multiverse

2009-01-28T19:12:00.004Z

It could be that there are an infinite number of universes in the multiverse, each one with different physical laws. If so, then it is hardly surprising that we are are living in a universe which has physical laws so finely tuned as to enable the development of our consciousness: Since we have the consciousness to be able to ask this question in the first place, then we must be living in such a lucky location.
Let us thank our lucky stars that we have arrived at such a lucky position.
In another universe, there may be the physical conditions present for the development of a type of consciousness of a completely different and heavenly form. Let us worship and adore the perfection of this life. Also, let us accept and embrace the reality of our own reality.

The Freedom of God and Addiction

2008-07-08T23:06:00.003Z

There is a big difference between the freedom experienced through God, and the freedom that causes us to slip into addictions. The freedom of God lifts us up, while harmful addictions drag us downwards. When listened to, God draws us to the positive choices, and so we have no need or interest in anything else.

Perhaps the worst form of addiction today is Affluenza. This is a contagious epidemic of epic proportions, transmitted through many channels, and stemming from the constant pursuit of more.

Symptoms of this disease are overload, debt, anxiety, and emptiness.

The cure is to discover the wholeness of God.

With the non-existent God we can gain freedom from both oppression and addiction.

Another Ontological Argument

2008-04-25T18:52:00.006Z

A God that does not exist is necessarily better than a God that does.
This can be seen by observing that the universe can be improved and is imperfect.
In fact, in our experience, anything that exists is imperfect.
Therefore the Non-Existent God, as the ultimate being, is the true identity of God.

The Bible with the best bits kept in

2007-10-04T19:31:00.000Z

It seems to me that there are many books of the Bible that are irrelevant to me and also distract from the main messages. Therefore, I have built my own personal "canon", for my personal bible, which includes the books that I would like to concentrate on, but excludes others.

The Gathas

The Old Testament

The Canonical Gospels

The Epistles of St. Paul

The General Epistles

The Sayings Gospel

The Absolute Reality

2007-07-23T21:12:00.000Z

The absolute reality is formless, and indescribable. To get closer to the absolute reality, you can understand some parts of God, the ultimate being. God has many images, which the many religions of the Earth have uncovered.

Likewise, the meaning and purpose of life is also formless and indescribable. To get closer to the absolute meaning of life, you can better understand the four aims of life. The aims of life also have many images, which the many religions and peoples of the world have uncovered. However, there is absolute truth behind these diverse strands.

Odin

Jesus

Isis

Krishna (an Avatar of Vishnu)

Quetzalcoatl

Ahura Mazda. The first revelation of God?

2007-05-28T21:31:00.000Z

Zarathustra experienced God through meditation and reflection. This was perhaps the first time that the idea of God was revealed to human kind.

Zarathustra turned to his experiences and inner feelings to understand God, instead of experiencing God through supernatural occurences, such as in the case of Moses.

Within Zarathustra's philosophy, we are given free choice to act as we will. But with this comes responsibility for our actions. The aim of life according to Zarathustra is to advance the world towards perfection.

Quotes from Paul Tillich

2007-05-19T00:30:00.000Z

Paul Johannes Tillich (20th August 1886 - 22nd October 1965) was a German - American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher.

I feel that a few of his quotes will brighten up my blog today.

"Cruelty towards others is always also cruelty towards ourselves."

"Doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is one element of faith."

"Faith consists in being vitally concerned with that ultimate reality to which I give the symbolical name of God. Whoever reflects earnestly on the meaning of life is on the verge of an act of faith."

"Faith is an act of a finite being who is grasped by, and turned to, the infinite."

"He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being."

"I hope for the day when everyone can speak again of God without embarrassment."

"Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone."

"Man's ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically, because symbolic language alone is able to express the ultimate."

"Religion is the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern, a concern which qualifies all other concerns as preliminary and which itself contains the answer to the question of a meaning of our life."

"The awareness of the ambiguity of one's highest achievements (as well as one's deepest failures) is a definite symptom of maturity."

"The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt."

"The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable."

"The first duty of love is to listen."

"We can speak without voice to the trees and the clouds and the waves of the sea. Without words they respond through the rustling of leaves and the moving of clouds and the murmuring of the sea."

The Weakness of Humans

2007-04-08T14:36:00.001Z

During life, no man or woman can hope to be the same as God. However much we try, a person can never hope to have the power of God, for example. People will always make great mistakes, and this demonstrates the frailty and the imperfection of mankind.

There is no need for a human to become God, though, since God can show the way to each of us. God forgives us of our failings the very moment we admit our faults and we let God in to improve our path.

The Nature of God

2007-02-18T20:22:00.000Z

God may be a physical being, made of material just like me and you.

Alternatively, God may be a spiritual being. By a spiritual being, I mean the very common view of God as a being who is separate from the material universe, who often can have a direct physical impact upon it. A spiritual God is seen as a consciousness beyond our universe, who yet still must have a (spiritual) substance of some kind, which is a different substance to the sustance our universe is made from. It may be that the substance of this spiritual God is beyond our understanding in many ways, since we can only have knowledge of our own universe.

A third view of God is that God is a spiritual God as described above, but that also the entire physical universe is a part of God. In other words, the universe is a part of God, but God is more than the universe.

A fourth view of God is that God is nature. Our universe is the same as God.

There is another possibility- that God is an idea or concept of a being with instincts that are perfectly attuned with its purposes, with the greatest possible power, wisdom above all others, and the greatest focus on transformation of the universe for good. This God is eternal and existed before the universe had been conceived, and will continue to exist forever. This God lives in the world of ideas and concepts which is separate from our physical universe, but which is a world that is intimately entwined with us.

In every case, in whichever direction it is approached, God exists!

Transformation Of the Universe

2007-02-04T18:23:00.000Z

Often, if someone starts to learn about the ideas of Darwinism and Evolution, then that person will get the idea that the only purpose of our lives is to compete against others, or to multiply as quickly as possible. This might be a "Survival Of the Fittest" view of life, and it might be similar to the aims of life that are called Instinct, or Power, in this blog.

However, this view is simplistic, even if it is true. From the perspective of any of us, there are clearly other things (besides "Survival Of the Fittest"), which we do. The final aim of life is the most challenging aim, and which I have called Transformation Of the Universe. Sometimes it may appear that the fourth aim of life has disappeared and that the world is a cold and chaotic place. But when the fourth aim of life appears it is easily recognised, for example when strength leads us to honesty against all odds, or a random act of kindness is shown to us.

Power, or Instinct, is like gravity which will make a small fish swim down a stream with the flow of the water. This is good for the fish, because it brings the fish closer to the ocean. However, the fish might get stuck in a small muddy pool, where gravity can help it no longer, but can only keep the fish where it is, stuck in a rut. The fourth aim of life can allow the fish to leap out of the muddy pool, and to escape the pool to get closer to the clear and open waters of the ocean. Here, the fish can be one single person, or the whole universe.

Wisdom

2007-01-18T20:38:00.000Z

Nicholas Maxwell said that Wisdom is the capacity to realise what is of value in life, for oneself and others. He said that it includes Knowledge, Understanding and Know-how, and much more besides.

Wisdom is developed in many ways, and includes the accumulation of knowledge about the world. Without knowledge we are blind to the world. With knowledge we have our eyes opened, and with understanding we simplify what we see, concentrating on the important parts.

Know-how is a more practical section of Wisdom, and involves, through experience, learning how to do something.

With Wisdom, we can know joy in truly understanding God and the universal human virtues.

The Order and Balance of the first 2 Aims Of Life

2007-01-09T19:33:00.000Z

The 4 aims of life can be looked at as having a kind of progression from one to the next.

The most fundamental of the aims is Instinct, and in fact, as can be seen from observing some simple forms of life, Instinct can be present on its own, as the single aim of life. For a single celled organism like an amoeba, there is only one aim of life, instinct.

However, for us as human beings, there is more. Once we have satisfied our fundamental Instincts to a certain level, then we concentrate on other matters. The next aim, Power, is indeed separate from Instinct. Power provides us with the ability to begin to separate from simple blind existence (when compared to Instinct), and provides the tools and resources we require.

Power, is indeed separate from Instinct. This is despite the fact that all the aims are intimately entwined and so it may at first appear to be the same aim, only with a different name.

There are adverse consequences for those who concentrate on only one of these aims. As an example, if someone continually eats tasty food (due to Instinct), and never tidies up or cleans the kitchen, then at some point the mess will have a negative impact on this individual's instincts in some way. Perhaps he will get ill. On the other hand, if the person is always tidying and cleaning the kitchen, then he may become very unhappy, because the body's nature has been ignored. This person needs to rest!

This is not to say that equal amounts of time always need to be spent on each aim, but only that neither aim should be forgotten.

Each of the aims of life relate to an aspect of God. These first two aims may not appear very holy or godlike, but they are necessary to demonstrate the wholeness and completeness of God, as well as the notice which God pays to every possible aspect of reality.

God has the best or ultimate instincts, higher than any other, which are perfectly suited and complementing the other of God's aims.

God also has the highest power, and is more powerful than is possible for any other.

In addition, God does not become obsessed with just one aim, but keeps a balance between them all.

Visuals

2007-01-08T20:32:00.000Z

Here is my first attempt to visualise the four aims of life.

Instinct

Power

Wisdom

Transformation Of the Universe

The Four Aims

2007-01-08T12:25:00.000Z

I will go into a bit more detail about the four aims of life.

1. Instinct.

We all have instincts which it is unwise to ignore completely. For example, hunger for food, need for warmth, and for fellow companions. Generosity can also be included as an instinct, because it often feels so natural, particularly if it is a habit which has been developed over time.

Instincts can also be negative for us, for example for the drug addict, or other kinds of addict. This is why, for us as people, we must have other things to aim for.

2. Power.

Without the resources or the attributes to achieve the things we want to in this world, our dreams will stay just that, dreams. But the way to follow this aim is different for each person, depending on many things.

For example, a parent may need to go out to work to provide for him/herself, to provide a living for the family. A sports-person will need to eat and train, to have the strength to do well at the sport. Eating healthy food is also possibly included in this aim, since it is not instinctive for most people.

3. Wisdom.

Without some knowledge and understanding, it is impossible to know that we are on the right path, the path we want to be on. It is often positive to take some time out to learn about something new, or to just sit and think about matters.

4. Transformation Of The Universe.

Moving with our instincts and nature in mind, fuelled by our earthly power, and guided by wisdom, we can make a difference to the universe for the better. This may be just in a simple action such as helping someone to cross the road. It may be in travelling to a poor country to build infrastructure that will contribute to the health of a village for many years. In fact this aim may take many forms.

The Four Aims Of Life Leading To God

2007-01-08T00:08:00.000Z

There are four aims to life which are the same for every human being in this world. These aims are

1. Instinct
2. Power
3. Wisdom
4. Transformation of the Universe.

God is the ultimate being, and so posseses

1. Instinct which is as far as possible in accord with the universe
2. Ultimate Power (some may say omnipotence)
3. Ultimate Wisdom (perhaps even including omniscience- or knowing everything possible)
4. Ultimate focus on transforming the universe.

In the teachings of the religions throughout history, reflections of God have been revealed. At least some part of God is revealed in each of these reflections.