First Post

I had a couple of things I wanted to get off my mind on this medium to get me started. Once my brain juices flow, hopefully the momentum will get me going.

I have been having trouble listening to Dawkins' God Delusion on audiobook. It's not that it isn't interesting, but his voice is annoying, and its hard to turn on my ipod and not listen to good music. That said, my issue with Dawkins' god hypothesis: Dawkins is wrestling with a god that is supernatural. I can't help but suggest that god is nothing BUT natural. At least in my mind, if there is a god, god is all things natural. Rather than a white-bearded, male figure sitting in a chair in the sky, I picture a god that resembles mother nature, never really depicted but representing the forces of nature. Realistically, I must add, if there is a supreme "being" in our universe, I sincerely doubt that it could be defined in the bounds of male or female sex.

My second issue comes with Lane's religious/spiritual analogy of the waking life to come. I have long believed in a model like this, but more expansive than one of sleeping and dreaming, although it is a very apt analogy. My problem is that I had always pictured the ideal state of mind and body was that of a newborn, not polluted by the thoughts and materials of the world. Admittedly I don't know the answers of the universe, but when Lane referred to the boogey monster and the toddlers vs. the 11-year-old, he made it sound like the toddler is naive and therefore less developed. This sounds wrong to me because I think less developed is ideal. It is perhaps a bias on my part towards the past not only in the world (ie. our ancient pre-historic elders) but also in my own life (ie. my infantile self). Perhaps the ideal state is that of a infant AND a wise old person who has experienced the world but has not been polluted by it, or has been cleaned of it. I think this is a model that I'll have to work out...or not. My buddy Adam says it doesn't matter because it can't happen and if it does it won't matter.

All I can figure is there are two purposes: Enjoying life, and figuring out the ultimate state of life.