these things i believe

trying to be a little more forward looking, thought i would start taking a stab at trying to figure out, not what is wrong about what other people think or do, but what is it that i believe. so, here is a a list of a few things that i believe today.

• i believe the universe was created and is held together by a single entity. this entity is unlike anything we can extrapolate from our experience with other humans, but is still very familiar because we all seem to know or yearn for qualities that only this entity can posses. ultimate kindness, ultimate justice.
• i believe that this entity so embodies the ideal of love that it is a evolutionary neccessity that we be created and be given free will. not so that we would be play toys, but just because to be fully alive is to love.
• i believe that this entity has a name, and it delights in being known and named, much in the way a parent delights in being known and named by its children.
• i believe that dualities such as "physical / spiritual", "sacred / secular", "natural / supernatural" are just inventions we have made, words we have created. these dualities are not inherent in creation, but their existence in our thinking is an indication of our limitations.
• i believe that there is a redemptive process in place for me personally, and for all of creation. though it may not reflect perfect love, or perfect justice now, there is hope, both in the present moment and in the time-transcendent moment, that the yearned for will be manifest.
• while i believe that humans can with pretty good confidence assert the truth of one or more sentences, i believe that trying to extrapolate Truth, the essence that all true statements have in common, has been proven to be an unsolveable problem.
• i believe that, for the pragmatic purpose of getting on with the business of living, we often agree not to argue about Truth. so, for example. we accept the scientific method of inquiry as a useful paradigm, allowing us to use cell phones without having arguments about the accuracy of theories of quantum mechanics.
• i believe that the stories told in the christian bible are stories of this creative loving entity and the human race.
• i believe that if we really read this bible, we would have serious questions about my previous statement, because the god of the bible seems really wrong in so many ways.
• i believe that it is only in this real wrestling, with our concepts of what it is to be good and loving, and with the god we see revealed in the bible, that we can crack open the universe and begin to see the quantum particles of reality, much in the way that we learn about the deep structure of matter by creating high energy collisions and observing the fragments flying around and intuiting the structures neccessary to produce such fragments.
• i believe that it is wrong for me to try and convince other's to believe like i do, not because my beliefs are just for me, or that all beliefs are the same, but because my beliefs are to some extent given to me, and i need to trust that god loves everyone enough to make him/herself available to everyone.

Comments

[Alan Hartung]

I love this list, and I echo many of your beliefs stated here. You provide a lot of food for thought and express difficult ideas in simple statements. Thank you!

[Ryan Sharp]

Good stuff Michael. Missed you Sunday. Heard you had quite a time getting into our very elite party. Glad you made it in eventually. Next time, the secret password is 'existentialistic prophecy'. Cheers!

[bobbie]

what a great list michael! i love the way you verbalized the truth about the truth - much echos with my own journey. thank you!

[Michael Toy]

thanks for nice comments all.

the statements on truth are lifted straight from richard rorty, who is often way too smart for me to understand, but occaisionally says something really beautiful like that.

[Chris(tine)]

Great list, Michael - heisenberg, rorty, and all - and I'm so glad I know someone who can repackage some of all that in a way that makes sense to me, and that helps to make sense of so many things.

[Gary]

Just posting a comment so you know i've duly read your list :) And a great list it was too!

Gary