h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yes, Shea...

When Clive gets back, blame it on me. Tell him what a bad influence I am.

We blame it on *everybody*... cause, you know, it is sorta the truth... *looks about innocently*

made me do it. honestly

*chuckles ironically*

I don't know if you can chuckle ironically, but if you could, that's what the sounds coming out of my mouth sound like.

I think it's kinda funny that the Yanks post got moderated, but the Limey one didn't...

Probably a Mod who was northern... *shrug*

Maybe they figured out we were kidding, or they don't frown on retaliation, or they don't know what the word means, or .

I just noticed your reply to my attempt at a serious question. I quite like your response, it's strangely coincidental with my own thoughts on the matter. Perhaps it comes of similar reading material, or maybe it's the only way to reconcile the biblical "paradox" of man's free will and the sovereignty of God. Oy, brain hurts .

I wanted to come up with an intelligent, thought out reply to your serious post, Amy ... but pondering it reminded me of an answer that my mother gave me when I was a child. I had started to ask her the question "If God always was, and God always will be..." She told me to ask Him when I got there!

Heh, questions for heaven, that's almost a Christian cliche. Heard a song on the topic recently by Chris Rice.

Geez, are you a mirror of me or something?! Chris Rice is awesome... so's Christoper Wright. There was a funny commercial on the Christian radio station up here, trying to get people to realize the difference since they were performing a concert together... I still laugh when I hear it.

But, yes, interesting that we have the same views of predestination/free will. Maybe it's because of common reading material (though I didn't start getting heavily into Lewis until last summer), maybe our brains work the same way *gasp of horror!!*. Or maybe because it very well may be close to the truth... I dunno. But it's nice to know that I'm not alone in my thinking.

Ooh, time and no-time and all that. Nice modern sci-fi stuff, which is why I love the second verse of the hymn "Ring Bells Ring":

God in Time, God in Man
This is God's timeless plan
etc.

Time seems to be one of my specialties in philosopy (if I indeed have one)... I've been contemplating it since I was nine. (I'm not kidding!). And it sure is fun to think on...

Anyway, back on topic... I was just wondering if you guys have noticed that a lot of people, even those that consider themselves Christian, have a tendancy to put a limit on what God can and can't do. They keep on putting Him in a box... at least, I've seen that. Weird... seems to me a God with limits is a pretty lousy God. *shrug* Makes me wonder why the Greeks believed what they believed after all...

I think that people may find it easier to put God in a box, so to speak, because He is so utterly incomprehensible to us mere humans. Maybe it brings Him down to earth for them (well, that was the whole point behind Jesus though, wasn't it? not realizing that kind of loses the whole point of the thing ... nothing worse than rambling off on another tangent in your apostrophes!).

What exactly do you mean by "Makes me wonder why the Greeks believed what they believed after all..."? The Greeks gods certainly had many weaknesses and faults ... but maybe I'm not catching onto your point here ...

*makes a grab for the point, and another, but misses hopelessly*

The whole point was that the Greek gods (and thus the Roman gods) had all these faults, they *could* fit into that box-- doesn't that in some way lower their god-like status? Then again, if people like nicely packaged gods they can understand with limits, then why *shouldn't* the Greeks and Romans have believed in faulted deities? Must just be me...

Maybe the problem is that we're looking at it from the other side! We've got a perfect God, so we find it hard to understand why anyone could put much faith in a deity that had many faults. The idea of a perfect "god" may have been too much to contemplate at the time. Perhaps the ensuing philosophy and growth in culture made people better prepared to accept a more perfect deity.

But the Greeks (at least, the Athenians) were one of the most civilized and philosophical communities in the history of the planet! They persued the ideal constantly-- there are no statues of old people nor of people who weren't beautiful. You would think they would realize, as many Christian philosophers have theorized, that the very existance or thought of an Ideal would mean that there *is* and Ideal somewhere (otherwise, where could it have come from?). I think Plato wrote one of his treatises on that... I don't really remember.

Then again, there was always a kind of man verses the gods theme in Greece. Oedipus Rex is like that. Maybe, in some way, the Greeks somehow thought they could outdo the gods?? I don't really know. I'm rambling.

How appropriate.

Hybris ... one of the great sins the Greek gods would zap you for ...

Luckily they sort of died out... (the Greek gods, that is)...

God in a box, hmm...

I would say that this tendency comes from the same place as idolatry.
Not to Bible thump, or anything, but here's a very relevant passage:

Romans
21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23  And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

We are vain in imaginations, changing uncorruptible(the idea of perfect, complete, or infinite for this conversation) to corruptible (like people). Of course Paul was a Roman citizen, as well as a Jew, so he'd be familiar with this phenomenon of Greek Gods and such.

C.S. Lewis(he always comes up, doesn't he?) has a really cool quote in the Screwtape Letters on pg. 30 in my copy on objectifying God. He refers to the idea that some people pray to their "God" who is actually located(subconsciously I suppose) in the corner of their bedroom ceiling.

Course this doesn't really explain why this is, just that it happens. If we really wanted to get into it, we'd have to bring in the "old man" from Paul's letters or go back to original sin in Genesis.

come on, longest post in 24 hours list, this time you will be mine. Mwa ha ha