Self-sacrifice
So having broached the subject of war with God, I decided to move on to other aspects of politics. I asked God how she felt about laws based on Biblical directives. She said that it was pretty obvious that some things that the Bible comes out against would have to be part of any sensible set of laws, but that they should be derived separately, not just lifted from religious texts. The point, she explained, of religious prohibitions had to be free will. You needed to do the moral things out of love for her and love for each other, if you just did them out of fear of punishment, then it was no better than if she just made it so you couldn’t do them to begin with.
She also said that a lot of the stuff in the Bible and other books didn’t really come from her. A lot of people had slipped in their own personal pet peeves and a lot of stuff had gone in for other reasons. Like dietary restrictions. Most of the stuff about don’t eat this or don’t eat that had more to do with the lack of refrigeration and other aspects of food science than her really caring what we ate.
She apparently thinks the Catholic idea of giving things up for Lent is pretty cool, though. It’s not what you specifically give up, it’s that you make some personal sacrifice in order to keep God in your thoughts. She likes the fasting that Muslims and Jews do for pretty much the same reason.
I told her I didn’t do any of those things. That was okay too, she told me. Being good was the important thing, ritual supplication was just one way to get there.
One of my concerns about Toby’s conversations with God is his apparent lack of history with the subject. It seems that he has a lot of experience with trying to explain him, and his place in people’s lives, but not with asking questions to settle things on a more complex level. I’ve read quite a bit of C.S. Lewis’ nonfiction, where he tackles such things as the issue of the pain that we feel, both emotionally and physically, even when he are under the arm of a ( presumably ) benevolent God. That subject Lewis went into in great detail, and I, for one, don’t need to look at the subject too much anymore. But there are plenty of other questionable things in life that could be delved into.
While I don’t always agree with him, Lewis’ logic is always impectable.
One topic that I find perplexing is the difference between pre-destination and free will. I don’t see a difference between doing something that was preordained, with the whole intricate web already in place, and doing what you choose to do, pulling the web along with you. To me, it all seems to come to the same end, along the same roads.
I just hope that Toby gets a little more complex with his thinking, that’s all.
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Well, I may or may not get more complex in my thinking, but even if I do, I’m not sure it’ll show up here. When it comes down to it, I’d rather be entertaining than educational, though both would be nice. I’d love to see some deep conversations happen in the comments but for the main post of the day, I want to keep things light. I think that’ll serve a wider readership.
Besides I want to keep the average post short enough to fit into people’s morning routines, that doesn’t allow for much complexity.
I appreciate you keeping things light and simple. I wonder though, last lent I was planning on giving up cigarettes. It was too difficult though, so I switched brands instead. They didn’t taste very good so I didn’t enjoy them very much. Does this qualify as a sacrifice?
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Well, it’s not for me to say whether or not that counts as a sacrifice, that would really be between you and God. My guess though, is that you know if it was a sacrifice or not.