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Sunday, May 25, 2008Creative SpiritIf this is a divine plan, how carefully crafted it is to appear spontaneous! Maybe creation truly is... creation.
Posted by Paul at 12:17 AM Permalink
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30 Comments:
blessings,
Lance
www.lancessoulsearching.com
TIMJAMZ: Are you thinking that this sort of simplicity relates directly to the idea of creation? Interesting… How?
GAUTAMI: I think there’s a lot of truth to that, especially when you hear people purporting to represent God’s thoughts, attributes, likes and dislikes… political opinions… with great self assurance and in great detail.
LANCE, thank you –
CODAKIZ: I like how you worded that – “an intelligence beyond thought.” Just think, for example, of the human brain. It seems unlikely that whatever sort of intelligence created something so complex and that still greatly surpasses our understanding, was a form or kind of intelligence just like the kind associated with a brain that still hasn’t figured itself out!
I’m not arguing here for “intelligent design” vs. evolution, but saying that your thought here gives me the idea that whatever sort of creative activity produced our brains probably didn’t process and develop information in the same manner that the brain does.
I don't thinkGod has a plan, per se ..... maybe just some hopes for us.
CRYSTAL: Yes… “created” (and still coming into being) just seems to fit the look of the actual world better than “planned.”
To me, versions of free will that overlook the heavy influence of variables beyond our control on whatever degree of choice we may have - thereby making free choice a bit too free, so to speak - appear unrealistic.
This doesn’t require having a deterministic outlook. My own impression, if I had to guess, is that the universe is indeterminate, especially as you look at the finer details as distinct from its larger outlines. Human choice wouldn’t be the only source of indeterminacy. There appears to be at least one other major factor: randomness.
Donald Knuth, a Stanford computer scientist and Christian commentator, remarks that he finds pseudo-random numbers useful and applies them with purpose. He then extends this thought to God who may use randomness with purpose to allow free will to certain degrees. Knuth believes that God is interested in people's decisions and limited free will allows a certain degree of decision making. Knuth, based on his understanding of quantum computing and entanglement, comments that God exerts dynamic control over the world without violating any laws of physics suggesting that what appears to be random to humans may not, in fact, be so random.
I've never heard of that guy before - must look him up.
i wonder if i create my life as i go along, just like that clay, or it has been pre-determined.
PK MILLER: I agree, and thanks for stopping by. All we can do is our own best.
;-)
DORKO, I'm glad.
"Maybe creation truly is creation"
To my mind, I rather believe that our journey toward knowledge and connectedness with "God," as it were, is like the mountaineer's quest to reach the peak. It is a long and uphill battle, but once the peak is reached, I can only imagine the mountaineer breathes heavily for a moment catching his breath and looks around only to say, "This is it, eh?" Then, back down the mountain....
In that sense, the simplicity of God, or even infinity is similar. We struggle to understand it because we try to capture it all - details included. However, I think all of creation ultimately falls to such simplicity - it is what it is - and it is up to us to accept this reality of creation and resolve to live and be part of it rather than separate ourselves from it by analyzing and dissecting it. That is, of course, unless our pleasure in living comes from the dissection thereof...
TIMJAMZ: On simplicity, I think so too.
So we're not really experiencing creation any more, we're just experiencing what we think it is, which then seperates us off in our own little world of understanding. Otherwise we'd have to forget everything we'd learned so far. But reading this thread, I'm thinking that we can get back to that raw experience and perhaps being creative helps us to do that.
Since 99% of all life forms that have ever existed are now extinct it would seem to be more of a hit and miss thing...
that being said when a Darwinian winner comes along..
like sharks...
they do seem able to stick around and make the most of it for millions of years.
Unlike us of course. Like an out of control Virus we have quickly outsmarted ourselves and put the entire biosphere in jeopardy and all within a few hundred thousand years.
Bravo!
I can certainly appreciate the desire to believe that there was or is some sort of plan but the evidence doesn't seem to support it...
unless of course the plan was for us to be a flash in the pan species?
Either way it had to start somewhere and it is magnificent in it's scale and intricacy.
Whether you believe in 'The Watchmaker' or not, the Creation makes us realise how tiny we really are.
DONN: It is amazing. And as I understand, although evolution is empirically one of science’s best supported theories, scientists themselves don’t feel they adequately understand just how it happened. I.e., the evidence strongly suggests that evolution occurred; however, the random mutations/survival of the fittest model doesn’t adequately account for some of the things observed – maybe the variety or complexity… or time frame… frankly I forget…!
I’m not arguing for a “God of the gaps” here (finding God wherever science hasn’t yet explained something), but saying that the process, whatever’s involved, could be even more interesting and amazing than we understand.
I dunno if God exists but there must be some supreme being who came up with this life n death theory..or else how?
btw I did that ownership just now..hv a look when u hv time.
*HUGZ* TC!
Keshi.
HAYDEN, I see what you mean - about how "creating" something could be taken as "making it up" or dreaming it up. What I had in mind myself was more the way that to me, creation - as the larger, natural world and universe - strikes me as resembling human processes of creation (as, for example, in the arts) more than human planning/map making.
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