Punctum Saliens

I’ve been reading I Am That by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and while reading page 15 where he says:

All there is is me, all there is is mine. Before all beginnings, after all endings — I am. All has its being in me, in the ‘I am’, that shines in every living being. Even not-being is unthinkable without me. Whatever happens, I must be there to witness it.

the following thoughts started flowing. They carry on where what I posted here leaves off. These are rough thoughts and were written while drinking coffee and feeding my daughter her lunch. As such they may not be very eloquent or complete but that’s ok. Anyway, here goes …

Don’t you see that Jesus had to portray God as being “out there”? He had enough troubles claiming that he was God’s Son and, therefore, God himself. Imagine if he started saying “Oh, and so are you!” His ministry wouldn’t have lasted three days let alone three years. He was talking to Jews, afterall, who had some real issues with “blasphemy”.

Ravi Zacharias, in the Introduction to Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message, talks about Deepak Chopra “who teaches a doctrine … woven into Vedic teachings, karma, and self-deification.” And the inference is that self-deification is bad because only God can claim to be God. But Zacharias’ version of self-deification is saying “I am the God of the Old Testament. I am the God whose name cannot be pronounced. I am the God who cannot be looked upon or else you will die.” But that’s not what the eastern religions are saying. There is no notion of the God of the OT — there’s no valid comparison between “I am God” said by a westerner and an easterner.

So, Jesus portrayed God as out there but he didn’t stop there. Now, I don’t know where the Jesus and Holy Spirit pieces of the Trinity were in the Old Testament but they were not a big part of it. But they are in the New Testament and this is the evolution I talked about the other post. Let’s see what they are in the NT.

Jesus is the way to God. And we are to be like Jesus. We are called children of God — just as Jesus was the son of God. The Holy Spirit is God in us. God is in us. God is part of us. The character of Jesus is the character in us that points us to God. The Holy Spirit is that part of us that is God.

So, Jesus starts with the bordering-on-blasphemous idea of his being God. He showed us God in human form. This is exactly what we needed. We needed a way to God. This is through Jesus Christ. But if Jesus was the son of God and we are children of God, then isn’t Jesus that part of us that points to God?

That’s all I’ve got … for now.

I ping technorati with every post. On their site my blog has the correct “last updated” time. Yet, my posts do not appear! The most recent post that Technorati lists is from 26 days ago. That’s TWENTY SIX! I email them every time I post and give them the running total of non-appearing posts but I don’t hear squat from them. I used to get a lot of hits from them but, obviously, not recently. I own both the .org and .com versions of this domain. So, I claimed the .com version of my blog the other day. And the same problem is happening. “Last updated” time is correct. No posts appear.

To quote Bluebeard: “ARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!”

Or was that Blackbeard?

Can an all-good God exist alone? Why is it that sin came into existence before Christian history — i.e. before the creation of man? And after Satan is vanquished in the end, why won’t it happen all over again? Another angelic revolt to restore the “balance”?

Is there absolute goodness without relative evil?

Is there absolute beauty? In a world where every woman looked like Uma Thurman would I find every woman as beautiful as I find Uma in this world? Hard to imagine that. Why is Michelangelo’s The David so freakin’ amazing? Because not every statue looks like it — it’s a one-of-a-kind.

But back to absolute goodness. I can imagine a community of people who treat everyone equally and don’t steal or kill or yada yada yada. But isn’t this only good because we are contrasting it with the world we know? Doesn’t the idea of Heaven seem a little bit like Mayberry? Aunt Bea bakes pies for everyone. Even the town drunk is harmless. But I think little Opie grows up and can’t wait to get out of there. Just like Lucifer wanting out of Heaven.

Haven’t you ever met anyone who was just “too good” and all you wanted to do was smash in his or her teeth with a brick? Now imagine being with millions of them for all eternity! Hell, I wouldn’t have to fall — I’d jump!

So, it seems to me that a totally good God cannot exist without the opposite also existing. Lucifer sinned before man was created because Lucifer has always sinned. And always will. There will always be the antithesis of the 100% good God. That the “event” of Lucifer’s fall is placed in the pre-human history (aka mythology) is, for me, proof that sin has always existed. And if sin has always existed, then an all-good God cannot, or more accuratley, does not exist.