Talking about God and faith is oftentimes not easy, I’ve discovered. Not that I really like to bring it up as a normal topic of discussion, honestly. Personal faith is such a difficult subject for so many, and often times leads to people becoming offended over the different things we believe, or telling someone out right that what they believe is wrong or incorrect. Most often, if I can, I simply avoid the subject. It simply saves so much trouble, it seems.
What I find funny though is I shouldn’t feel the need to avoid such conversations. I am a person who understands, has questioned, and searched for his faith in God, and knows exactly why and what it is that he believes. Nor do I wish to ever convert or convince another person my personal faith is better or more correct than theirs, regardless of what I believe regarding their faith (I cannot deny, though, I do believe that some beliefs have been fundamentally perverted…but this is not about those at all). Yet, I shy away from the whole discussion at times.
For some reason I just find that all interesting. I feel like it’s been brought to my thoughts while watching Battle Star Galactica lately. The show, while a sci fi drama, is heavily laced with the discussion of religion, God, and the ideas of how God interacts with human beings. The most intriguing concept is the difference between how the Cylons view every action in the universe to have been preordained by God and is destined to have happened, while humans view God as having a role in comforting and bringing grace to the universe, but ultimately all our actions are made of our own free will.
This division is so interesting to see play out because it is an argument that is still relevant today. I personally am on the side of free will; we as humans make choices, and through those choices we commit sin, give love, save our souls, and live our lives. The idea that every moment of life is pre-ordained makes no sense to me: God having mapped out a whole life, complete with what your sins are, would negate the need for us to be sentient beings living on earth. Why live when it’s all set out for us? Don’t get me wrong, I think God has an idea of what he wants for us all. But that is achieved by us being in tune with Him and making the right decisions based off of our personal council with Him. If we blindly believe life will take us to our destiny…well then where’s the living in it all?
Wow…I’m impressed that I was able to write a post about faith all because of a science fiction television show. Crazy, no? The power of good television, I guess. That, and I’ve been home sick the past two days going out of my mind with boredom. Clearly a post was the cure for that…or something.
Well, I’m gonna go to sleep so I can be rested for work tomorrow. Yay for fighting and beating the flu/cold in two days. Or something like that. I’m telling myself I’m cured. Whatever.
Much Love,
K.E.
1 Comment
February 6, 2009 at 1:26 am
I like what you said about free will/destiny. The way I envision it, when we our born our lives are mapped out like a giant river with many tributaries and maybe a few branches, maybe a few places where the river forks and then meets back up again…the main branch of the river could be seen as our intended destiny, but I don’t think it’s a guarantee we will live that life. I also like this analogy because I know when I’m on my path (focusing on school, getting exercise, working hard) everything in my life seems to flow better, I have more energy, I’m happier. I’m going with the current instead of against it, or getting lost down some tributary that only leads into darkness. Some tributaries just delay us from our paths, others may lead us astray for good.
Thanks for provoking my thoughts.