Is God Rational?
- Thread starter Bowser
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So, it's not ignorance if you are in on the lie? ...The lie that you tell yourself to make sense of things because it's rational to want to live in a world that makes sense? And what makes this possible is that one can't prove it wrong?
The very fact that you have not cut your wrist might prove it right.
I'm thinking we all have a degree of faith. I'm sorry for the previous post while trying to illustrate my point. I wasn't suggesting you should, only that you probably love life too, even if that's responding to my posts
What makes you think the irrationality we may experience is inextricably connected to the will of (and hence, nature of) God?
Hello Musika. Life in itself is irrational. In the perfect world, would it be rational?
Life lends itself to incomplete knowledge (aka ignorance .... or the "imperfect world" as we are all too familiar with). You can say this ignorance gives rise to fear, misery and ultimately impermanence (aka conditioned life). These three things are at extreme odds with core values of our rational selves ... but I think its a bit of a stretch to say this makes life irrational, and its completely incorrect to say this renders the "perfect world" irrational.
In other words, if we accept the premise we are in conditioned existence as a consequence of our ignorance, we can understand the problem lies with us (and not some external factor, like God or even this phenomenal world).
Its kind of like a person in jail. Life for a prisioner is conditioned in a manner that irks their core values (desire for freedom, etc). If they do not successfully understand the connection between their activities (ie ignorance) and their incarceration (ie conditioned existence), they have no scope for a rational life (ie a life congruent with their core values). However, anyone who does understand that connection (even if they currently are serving a criminal term) does have the scope for a rational life.
If one advovates that irrational conditioned existence in the imperfect world is but an introduction to irrational (un?)conditioned existence in a perfect world, it would seem that they do not understand the role this world plays, much less the role the perfect world plays.
It would be like a criminal in a perpetual state of blaming prison authorities (as opposed to accepting the consequences of their actions), or a criminal who has become so socialized around prison life that they can't function in a free society (you could talk about mental illness being the result of being socialized around irrational values .... which is hardly the grounds for progressive life).
Because you can never be certain what it will bring next, but that's an open door to new possibilities. My point in the OP is that the Biblical God is a reflection of life itself, and to best of their abilities, men tried to rationalized their existence, and life. They gave it meaning. That's why I find the subject interesting, because within its pages, you can find meaning.
If I were to boil it down to its essence, life is the ultimate purpose, in itself the reason. We derive meaning from living that life, as did those before us. We look to the past to help guide us through the moment. Our mentors might be of old or more contemporary. They can help us along the way, but ultimately we live our lives.
I cannot comment on the prisoner and his rational. His life is his own. If he has reached the conclusion of his journey, nothing I might offer will help, not even a Bible.
So does that make life irrational ... or is it irrational to expect to know everything?
I'm not sure what you are saying here. Its the nature of anything with life to find meaning. If you want to talk of that quest for meaning, action or knowledge having value, you have to tie it down to some goal or quality. There is no escaping this requirement, even if one is talking of rednecks shooting empty beer cans (Why only shoot the empty ones?).
If you were looking at the prospects of a 40 year all expenses paid holiday in prison, would you hire a lawyer, or would you think "I can lead an equally fulfilling life regardless of whether I spend the next 40 years in prison or not"?
The prisioner may have his life, and you may have yours, but is it merely a case of his life being "different" when there is a (rational) desire on your part not to unnecessarily trade places?
Or alternatively, what of those persons whom we would like to trade places with?
(It can take the form of wanting to be rich like Bill Gates or gifted like Mozart or more subtle like tolerant like my grandfather or charitable like Robin Hood). We are constantly engaged in assailing the labyrinthe of higher and lower values as we perceive (either rationally or irrationally) where our ultimate benefit lies.
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Ummmm nooooo life has never been irrational / rational, hot / cold, funny / sad or ANY abstract concept
Life has always been just life. Full stop, end of story. Life is life
Yet you end your post with an emoticonUmmmm nooooo life has never been irrational / rational, hot / cold, funny / sad or ANY abstract concept
Life has always been just life. Full stop, end of story. Life is life
Initially I thought you might have been a bot ... its uncanny how ai mimics human behaviour in order to gain credibility
Why would you ever think such a thing?I thought it strange how I mimic a logical bot
Yet again, what would make you think such a thing?You really don't understand Poe do you?
Again Poe
Either you don't understand Poe, or you have forgotten the world view are trying to argue.
Either you don't understand Poe, or you have forgotten the world view are trying to argue.
I understand Poe very well
However it seems you do not understand me
I don't do stupid
I have a 3 Ping rule
You have breached both
(CLICK)