Amor, amor, lema sabachthani.
"Love is of the highest order, and so one must be given entirely, freely." - A badly phrased quotation, of yours truly.
It means nothing if one's touch or what one says is reserved only for you because of a pronouncement - what matters is if one gives it freely.
(Is that why in religion, with the threat of a penal hell, faith and love for God are demeaned? Surely it is better for God to receive one's love in how one lives life if you do not have the threat of hell forcing you to be "good" and give up life's sins? What I mean to say is that surely it is faulty for God to punish those who do away with what he "asks" as it would demean the actions of those who gives them freely to God and to as he says? By punishing those who do otherwise, you reduce the value of those who worship God through how they behave. Instead, if sinners weren't punished, and those who gave themselves to God and his ways weren't rewarded, actually worshipping God would have some meaning?
Gosh, I had never thought of that before.
The whole idea of an bimodal afterlife - where you are either rewarded or punished - seeks to demean the idea of true love for God, in my eyes. Just as being sexually monogamous simply because you "should" be so, as you are in a relationship with another person, actually ends up demeaning the whole concept of having sex with that person. Instead, if one wants to ensure that meaning is present when you have sex just with that person, you should view it as though one is free to have sex with whoever - one will not be "punished" for having sex with someone else. Then, to give up sex with everyone else and reserve it for one person actually has some meaning to it. (The underlying, faulty, assumption on my part is that the idea of having sex with everyone else is something that people desire. Not so for me, I say!)
In a similar vein (or artery, or even capillary if you are tiny), if one will not be punished for going against God's wishes or desires for how we live our life, and if one is not rewarded for following such modes of living, then the following idea emerges: Those who truly do live their life as God may want them to, and love God with their heart, strength, soul, and mind - without any (knowledge of, at least) reward being offered - would not need a reward of any sort. They would genuinely love him / her / it / the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
By offering rewards or punishment for having faith in God, those who might have true, proper faith in God - living their life as he might want them to simply because he requests that, as opposed to "threatening" one - have their loyalty demeaned, I think? If it is desirable for God to reward those who would follow him, he could do so without telling us beforehand that heaven and hell exist.
Wow. Forgive me, but I am just having a profound moment, for I have never before come across this concept of how love for God and the concept of heaven / hell are slightly ill at ease with each other. Golly.
Oh, dearest readers, I should probably point out that I am an atheist. Furthermore, I have been so for just under half my life, with the remainder being at a time when my cognitive abilities were rather immature (because I was a child! Oops, you can now determine my age with some certainty.). Just clearing any preconceptions up - I have never, whilst I have been mature, believed in a God, so I may very well be lacking in understanding of faith or the love of God or other related concepts. I proclaim my ignorance in such matters and offer this by way of a disclaimer.
I had not intended to write this brief monograph on (of?) religious ideas; I was intending to write solely about the topic of love and how unconditionality and sacrifice can be reconciled with it. Having said that, I have given birth to some profound thoughts in my own mind, so I'm rather glad I delayed some pressing work to write this post.
How fun.)
---
Before I depart, I shall tell you that the book I am reading now is one of the few books I have ever found truly pleasurable - I am dreading it ending, which is a pleasant change from my normal state of wanting a book to end ever so soon! I think. I am truly dreading it and am hating having to put it aside to do more pressing tasks. (Guess what it is. ;))
It means nothing if one's touch or what one says is reserved only for you because of a pronouncement - what matters is if one gives it freely.
(Is that why in religion, with the threat of a penal hell, faith and love for God are demeaned? Surely it is better for God to receive one's love in how one lives life if you do not have the threat of hell forcing you to be "good" and give up life's sins? What I mean to say is that surely it is faulty for God to punish those who do away with what he "asks" as it would demean the actions of those who gives them freely to God and to as he says? By punishing those who do otherwise, you reduce the value of those who worship God through how they behave. Instead, if sinners weren't punished, and those who gave themselves to God and his ways weren't rewarded, actually worshipping God would have some meaning?
Gosh, I had never thought of that before.
The whole idea of an bimodal afterlife - where you are either rewarded or punished - seeks to demean the idea of true love for God, in my eyes. Just as being sexually monogamous simply because you "should" be so, as you are in a relationship with another person, actually ends up demeaning the whole concept of having sex with that person. Instead, if one wants to ensure that meaning is present when you have sex just with that person, you should view it as though one is free to have sex with whoever - one will not be "punished" for having sex with someone else. Then, to give up sex with everyone else and reserve it for one person actually has some meaning to it. (The underlying, faulty, assumption on my part is that the idea of having sex with everyone else is something that people desire. Not so for me, I say!)
In a similar vein (or artery, or even capillary if you are tiny), if one will not be punished for going against God's wishes or desires for how we live our life, and if one is not rewarded for following such modes of living, then the following idea emerges: Those who truly do live their life as God may want them to, and love God with their heart, strength, soul, and mind - without any (knowledge of, at least) reward being offered - would not need a reward of any sort. They would genuinely love him / her / it / the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
By offering rewards or punishment for having faith in God, those who might have true, proper faith in God - living their life as he might want them to simply because he requests that, as opposed to "threatening" one - have their loyalty demeaned, I think? If it is desirable for God to reward those who would follow him, he could do so without telling us beforehand that heaven and hell exist.
Wow. Forgive me, but I am just having a profound moment, for I have never before come across this concept of how love for God and the concept of heaven / hell are slightly ill at ease with each other. Golly.
Oh, dearest readers, I should probably point out that I am an atheist. Furthermore, I have been so for just under half my life, with the remainder being at a time when my cognitive abilities were rather immature (because I was a child! Oops, you can now determine my age with some certainty.). Just clearing any preconceptions up - I have never, whilst I have been mature, believed in a God, so I may very well be lacking in understanding of faith or the love of God or other related concepts. I proclaim my ignorance in such matters and offer this by way of a disclaimer.
I had not intended to write this brief monograph on (of?) religious ideas; I was intending to write solely about the topic of love and how unconditionality and sacrifice can be reconciled with it. Having said that, I have given birth to some profound thoughts in my own mind, so I'm rather glad I delayed some pressing work to write this post.
How fun.)
---
Before I depart, I shall tell you that the book I am reading now is one of the few books I have ever found truly pleasurable - I am dreading it ending, which is a pleasant change from my normal state of wanting a book to end ever so soon! I think. I am truly dreading it and am hating having to put it aside to do more pressing tasks. (Guess what it is. ;))