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SC2  The Search For God

Page history last edited by Ian Kimber 13 years, 7 months ago

 

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SC2  The Search For God

 

Our Skin is a wonderful thing. It is a barrier between us and the outside world that protects the more delicate parts of our bodies from being damaged. It is also a sensor with many capabilities, measuring heat, cold, dampness, texture and many other delicate nuances of these. Our skin also represents the demarcation between what is inside and us and what is outside or our environment.

 

We are all well aware that our physical bodies exist within our skin and that any sensations must arise from within it. This makes it all the more interesting when we consider our responses to sound and light. When we see and hear things we do not have an awareness of a sensor responding as we would if someone had touched our hand. What we are aware of is a total image model of our surroundings projected far beyond our skin. This applies even though we know that the information comes from the response of a nerve to an image on our retina or cochlea. This model is so familiar to us that we seldom give it a thought. It is as if part of ourselves extended from our skin to the distant mountains on the horizon or even the farthest stars.

 

Occasionally this image slips when we encounter an optical illusion. The image suddenly corrects itself when we realise we have been tricked. We may be suffering from some form of illness where this information is disturbed. One of the most common of these is tinitus (like me!) when we hear notes and noises that we know are only the product of disturbed nerves. We are then well aware that what we are seeing and hearing is only a model of reality built in our minds. These models fade at the limits of visibility, illumination and silence but perception persists and given some time we will find that our mind will fill the vacancy with its own images from our imagination.

 

Our imagination is less restricted. Our minds can easily form images of places and things based on memories or pure invention and we can fly through them without any visible means of support. We also have other sorts of images in our mind. Those showing the relationships with family and friends and an image of ourself and the things that we would like to achieve.

 

If we care to look deeper we will find the images of the things that make us what we are. The things that cause us to chose between vital options in our lives. The things that we love and hate. Go beyond that point and we have found our god. However atheist we may claim to be that basic driving force will be there for without it we would not be alive. Our god represents the aspects of life that we give the greatest respect and value. We can also perceive darker and less positive things there like the desire for domination and the fundamental fight for survival. To a large extent among those of us who are considered sane we can control the balance of positive and negative.

 

This deep inner image like normal sight is projected far beyond us and becomes the prime mover in our universe. We may then describe things that we see in the real world in terms of the action of our image of God.

 

I use the term our god and our universe advisedly because we are all individuals and they will all be slightly different. Fortunately we find that we can usually readily agree among ourselves in large groups a consensus of what we see in both an observational or scientific sense and an inner or religious sense. Our upbringing and our historical record have a lot to do with it but few would deny the individual the right to a free choice in these matters.

 

As truly modern Christians although we by choice have taken membership of a group we must remain aware that all other groups have a degree of validity and most other groups that respect certain basic individual freedoms may well contain wisdom from which we can learn.

All this does not mean that there will not be disputes but that is another story.

 

Comments (5)

INEZ COOK said

at 8:18 am on Feb 26, 2011

found this and 'Who am I ' most reveaaling . I salute your honesty. Today George and I were discussing feeling anf thought and decided thought came first, initiating feeling. In fact wondeful as the power of thought is, it does seem to be the nigger in the woodpile setting light to present civilization. Mixed metaphors but you know my style by now. Question. What do we do about thought?

INEZ COOK said

at 8:23 am on Feb 26, 2011

still could not find your response to my remark about David Bohm's Implicate Order. Have embarked on Nietsche Beyond Good and Evil and his expose of the negative powers behind the appearance of positive effects/results. Interesting stuff but not sure I go for it.

Ian Kimber said

at 9:36 am on Feb 26, 2011

Glad to see that you have found this Inez. As I stated in the note thought is no more than a process contained within out minds with our own personal model of reality. The fact that we can fly in our minds through space and time has nothing to do with any ability to fly in reality in space or time and this process has no existence outside ourselves as conscious living creatures both in space and time. Our only possibility of life beyond death is what we leave behind in our effects and interactions with the world within which we live and the people of that world. It is also important to remember that the damage that we do will also live on after us.

As for the lack of response to a particular comment of yours. I cannot for the moment remember the location of that comment and there is a possibility that I may have missed it when it was first posted so could you please place any reminder comments at the location of the comment that they refer to and that will point it out to me.

rosemary Titterington said

at 4:03 pm on Feb 28, 2011

Have found this page -gives me many things to ponder upon! Your almost scientific analysis is natural to you. Not sure I would want to examine my deeper self and motives -or that I could come up with a result. As you say much depends on our background and mine was a simple belief in a greater power-transmitted in words simple enough for us to understand.

Ian Kimber said

at 6:04 pm on Feb 28, 2011

Nice to hear from you rosemary. I do not wish to disrupt anyone's simple beliefs. One way that I describe things is that the belief in a loving and caring God that inspires people to build a loving, caring and tolerant society is probably by far the simplest model. Try going to http://iankimber.pbworks.com/w/page/10732334/Introduction and follow the "insiders" route in my writings which includes this page.

A pair of statements that view things from the insiders and outsiders perspective

Insiders viewpoint If God didn't exist it would be necessary to create him

Outsiders viewpoint God doesn't exist to it is necessary to invent him

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