(no subject)
Do you think it's true, I asked the Reb that day, that our nature is evil?
"No," he said. "I believe there is goodness in man."
So we do have better angels?
"Deep down, yes."
Then why do we do so many bad things?
He sighed. "Because one thing God gave us-and I'm afraid it's at times a little too much-is free will. Freedom to choose. I believe he gave us everything needed to build a beautiful world, if we choose wisely. But we can also choose badly. And we can mess things up so awful."
Can man change between good and evil?
The Reb nodded slowly. "In both directions."
*
The Reb once did a sermon on how the same things in life can be good or evil, depending on what, with free will, we do with them. Speech can bless or curse. Money can save or destroy. Science can heal or kill. Even nature can work for you or against you: fire can warm or burn; water can sustain life or flood it away.
"But nowhere in the story of Creation," the Reb said, "do we read the word 'bad'. God did not create bad things."
So God leaves it to us?
"He leaves it to us," he replied. "Now I do believe there are times when God clenches his fist and says, 'Ooh dom't do it, you're gonna get yourself into trouble.' And you might say, well, why doesn't God jump in? Why doesn't God eliminate the negative and accentuate the postitive?
Because, from the beginning, God said, 'I'm gonna put this world into your hands. If I run everything, then that's not you.' So we were created with a piece of divinity inside us, but with this thing called free will, and I think God watches us everyday, lovingly, praying we will make the right choices."
(Have a Little Faith: A True Story, by Mitch Albom, pg 197-198)
you know how i always wondered what it would be like if my very own life was a Truman Show story? Actually i think it might be somewhat true afterall, except that actually everybody's life is a Truman Show in itself. And one day when the end comes, the Truths will be revealed and we will see how we are so alone after all, yet together in a community of Truman Show lives, and that our souls are afterall, one of a kind. Existing by itself.
you know what i mean? that like in the end, even in the very big picture of things, we will realise though we are small, our own souls, we are existing individually, and independently. and there is an eternity to it. crazy right? it's so ungrapple-able, incomprehendable, that God is overlooking my life right now.
"No," he said. "I believe there is goodness in man."
So we do have better angels?
"Deep down, yes."
Then why do we do so many bad things?
He sighed. "Because one thing God gave us-and I'm afraid it's at times a little too much-is free will. Freedom to choose. I believe he gave us everything needed to build a beautiful world, if we choose wisely. But we can also choose badly. And we can mess things up so awful."
Can man change between good and evil?
The Reb nodded slowly. "In both directions."
*
The Reb once did a sermon on how the same things in life can be good or evil, depending on what, with free will, we do with them. Speech can bless or curse. Money can save or destroy. Science can heal or kill. Even nature can work for you or against you: fire can warm or burn; water can sustain life or flood it away.
"But nowhere in the story of Creation," the Reb said, "do we read the word 'bad'. God did not create bad things."
So God leaves it to us?
"He leaves it to us," he replied. "Now I do believe there are times when God clenches his fist and says, 'Ooh dom't do it, you're gonna get yourself into trouble.' And you might say, well, why doesn't God jump in? Why doesn't God eliminate the negative and accentuate the postitive?
Because, from the beginning, God said, 'I'm gonna put this world into your hands. If I run everything, then that's not you.' So we were created with a piece of divinity inside us, but with this thing called free will, and I think God watches us everyday, lovingly, praying we will make the right choices."
(Have a Little Faith: A True Story, by Mitch Albom, pg 197-198)
you know how i always wondered what it would be like if my very own life was a Truman Show story? Actually i think it might be somewhat true afterall, except that actually everybody's life is a Truman Show in itself. And one day when the end comes, the Truths will be revealed and we will see how we are so alone after all, yet together in a community of Truman Show lives, and that our souls are afterall, one of a kind. Existing by itself.
you know what i mean? that like in the end, even in the very big picture of things, we will realise though we are small, our own souls, we are existing individually, and independently. and there is an eternity to it. crazy right? it's so ungrapple-able, incomprehendable, that God is overlooking my life right now.