Thought #3
Got this uncle named Tom, a real great guy. He don't believe in God, he believes in reincarnation though. Hmmmm! Sort of a conflict of interest here I think, cause I think he's missing the point. Not that that's any of my business. Cause it surely ain't! Anyway, it made me wonder what the deal with God was all about, if nothing else.
God had uncountable numbers of angels to worship Him; that's all that they were created to do. But He wanted someone to worship Him because they wanted to, not because they had to, so He created man. But there was a catch to this scenario; men had to be free to choose to worship God or there would be no point in creating them.
How then, ya gotta wonder, does God make men free to choose? He couldn't very well say: I'm God and I created you as free entities, now worship me.
There is no evil in heaven; there is only good, there is no choice. So how then does God make men to be free? He must allow for evil and He must allow for alternatives to Himself. That would seem obvious I think!
If God created only good and made manifest to men that He was God; What gain?
If God explained all that exists in great detail, men would have to be gods to understand; What gain?
Evil is necessary, that men can be free to choose, for with only good; What choice?
Faith is necessary, that men can not be certain that God is, for to know all things is to be Godlike; What choice then, but faith?
If there existed no alternatives to God, then men would have to believe in God, What freedom?
There are those who say that there is no eternal life, that when you're dead, you're dead; yet these same persons claim to be optimists. How does this paradox come to be? Optimism impies hope for the future, forever. Optimism guised in the wrappings of abandonment, as in 'when you're dead you're dead', is relinquishment of any real optimism, it is an illusion created from resignation.
One thinks only of leaving a legacy. That's a real trip! What legacy? Six months after your death who really cares? After all, you're dead!
There are also those who do not believe in God, yet are proponents of
reincarnation. What kinda thinking is this? If one chooses to believe in God, one must fully accept metaphysical teachings. If one chooses to believe in reincarnation; does not the same apply? For a spirit is a metaphysical entity, whether one believes in God or in reincarnation.
One cannot believe in either one without accepting the metaphysical aspects of the one or the other. In other words, to believe in reincarnation is to believe in the metaphysical, to step 'beyond' the boundaries of the finite realm into the spiritual world. To believe in God is the same thing. One cannot choose to believe only in the metaphysical as it applys to reincarnation, since metaphysics is metaphysics, take it all or take none. There is no other option! What individual then, professing to possess intelligence, would choose the lesser over the greater? Get an 'afterlife' willya!