The Dosquatch Says…

I said I wished not to use this as a pulpit. I said also that I saw no reason to drape my root view of “God” in mysticism or parable. It is only fitting that I immediately do both – I’d just be out of character if I didn’t, now wouldn’t I? (reference – Interconnectedness)

I don’t like to initiate conversations about religion. People tend to take such things very, very personally. If someone else starts a conversation, I’ll be happy to participate, and I’m perfectly willing to answer direct questions about my own views… but I have no desire at all to evangelize. I promise there will not be much of this, but it goes to foundation and is important.

The Big Bang is the “source of all creation”, and the resulting universe – including us – is that creation. The sum, source and creation, is “God”. I am perfectly willing to personify it as such for conversational purposes without endowing it with mystical powers.

We are of the universe. We are of God, but we are not the whole of God. His view is much larger in scope than our petty needs and squabbles.

God has no nationality. God has no race. God has no gender, no political affiliation, no form of government, no sports franchise preference, no vested interest in the Grammies, no take on the new season of Survivor:South Bronx.

God has no religious affiliation. We are all of Him, regardless of what we choose to believe of ourselves or others.

God has no currency save the work we do to better ourselves. We are of God, and so as we better the state of Man, we also serve to better the universe of which we are part.

Not the privileged few, whomever you might believe those to be, but all of us, the whole of mankind.

And not just mankind. This holds true for all sentient creatures wherever they may be found in the universe. We are all of the same source, of the same stuff, and ultimately we will all share the same fate.

Everything done in service to this is for Him, all else is against.

And, just to make clear, some topics from the news:

The entire concept of an “illegal immigrant” is based on nationality. God has no nationality, that is a concept of Man. Borders are against God.

“Money” is an arbitrary score keeping system, by Man and for Man. To the extent that you argue that which we cannot or should not do for our fellow man based on this false metric, you are arguing against the betterment of us all, and thus against God. (health care, housing crisis, unemployment, etc.)

Acts of aggression and retaliation against our fellow Man serve to drag us down, not lift us up, including our current conflicts in the Middle East.

Businesses, industries, and governments should be tools to serve Man. To the extent that the needs of such are elevated above the needs of the people these should be serving, they are an abomination.

Our minds are our ultimate tool with which to build a better future. It is our duty to sharpen those tools of ourselves, and then of our children that they may one day do the same for their children. Our knowledge is our ultimate heritage that we pass down, the currency with which we buy our future. Education of all people is our ultimate duty.

And so on. It is from this base that I argue my views, and it is this one-big-happy-world, kumbya kumbya, to which I aspire. As it happens, though, reality isn’t always conducive, but we do what we can today so we may be better tomorrow.

That’s it. Pulpit’s closed. You may now go about your normally scheduled whatever

Meet the Furback, Navel Gazing, philosophy god, morality, pantheism, Religion, values

The swirling mess that is my thoughts, as I’ve said, bounce seemingly unrelated things off of one another and make Strange connections. The upside is a strong aptitude for following cause-and-effect chains. Not implementing them, necessarily, but following them. I touched on this in the Art of Troubleshooting.

I also tend to compartmentalize and abstract a lot, and a lot of my internal dialog-with-self is in the form of pictures of abstractions and an awareness of interconnections with each other – a great lot of what’s in my head is simply not verbal, and sometimes is damned difficult to translate into words.

This abstraction process runs from things tiny to things huge, from subatomic-particles-as-congealed-energy to the-whole-of-the-universe-from-the-Big-Bang. And all stops in between. And from this abstraction comes an awareness, not just of the interconnectedness of things, but the cosmic oneness of all things. We’re not just stuff, we’re all the same stuff. You, me, the breeze and the trees, the star on the far edge of creation. All the same stuff, all from the same origin.

And we’re not just stuff, we’re energy. We are the cosmos, we share heritage and kinsmanship with everything that it is, and was, and will ever be.

This awareness is my faith, or as close to faith as I come. I have neither need nor desire to drape this in mysticism, parable, or allegory. I’ve been told this comes very close to Pantheism, which is fine. I do not claim this nor any other -ism, -ology, or -ocracy, but if you need to pigeonhole me this is probably the least contentious fit.

That said, I was raised Catholic, and tend somewhat to invoke the familiar imagery and vocabulary from such when in conversation even though the underlying motivating thoughts are different. But, oddly, not as inconsistent as one might imagine.

I’ve considered mentioning this before, if only as part of the foundation upon which my views are based, but I really don’t want to use this as a pulpit. Soapboxes, though, continue to be acceptable

Meet the Furback, Navel Gazing, philosophy god, pantheism, Religion