The Mind of God (The nature of a \'Creator\')

by dhw, Thursday, October 14, 2010, 09:47 (5153 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

I have posed the question of whether our world shows any sign of God caring about us as individuals, and although I agree that the beauty of volcanoes and hurricanes may demonstrate God's aesthetic sense, I would not regard that as much consolation for the victims of such random slaughter.-TONY: It is not up to the UI to make people pay attention to the warning signs. Humans are notorious for not taking responsibility for their own lives. Or, more poignantly, they take responsibility for their successes, but not their failures. They have a tendency to blame everything bad in their life on the UI.-Once again, I find nothing to disagree with in what you say, and it's what you don't say that makes me wonder about the maintenance of your balance. I can't see how, for instance, a child can be held responsible for being drowned in the unprecedented rainfall that has led to some 2000 deaths and literally millions of people being injured, sick, starving and homeless in Pakistan. What do you suggest all these people should have done when the rains came? However, I would personally regard such natural disasters as precisely that ... the random, impersonal destructiveness of Nature, which counterbalances the random, impersonal creativity of Nature, both of which may or may not have been set up by a UI. And it's something we have to accept, since we can't change it. My argument remains that it doesn't provide one iota of evidence that God, if he exists, cares about us as individuals. If the impersonality of Nature is all that he can provide for us, there might as well be no God at all. -You have acknowledged that this is "a hard question", and your analogy is parenthood: 
"The UI gave us earth, and (supposedly) provided us with scores of texts outlining the ways of being virtuous, which basically boil down to 'love your neighbor, love yourself, be honest in all things, do not be afraid to live or die, and do your best at anything you do'. But like any good parent, you have to take a hands off approach. [...]"-I don't know whether a UI gave us earth, we have already discussed the many dubious texts you say he (supposedly) provided us with, and being virtuous is obviously no defence against what our insurance companies call acts of God. Apart from that, however, once more I'm in total agreement with these and the rest of your admirable precepts, as I'm sure any humanist would be, and anyone else in any form of society, godless or otherwise. But as with the impersonality of Nature, and the seemingly random comings and goings of species throughout evolution, the question remains: of what relevance is God to us?-Of course I don't have an answer to my own question, but I'm aware that there are other possible approaches ... for instance, via the nature of consciousness, the concept of the soul, and the question of whether there might be some kind of life after the death of the body. This is a topic on which we've already had lengthy discussions on the forum, and which you've glanced at in your biblical exegeses, but I'd be very interested to hear your more detailed views when you get home, if you're not too fed up with these unanswerable questions. Meanwhile, I wish you a safe journey, devoid of all natural and man-made catastrophes!