Posted by cav on July 13, 2005 at 03:32:20:
In Reply to: Re: However- posted by cav on July 12, 2005 at 18:47:58:
I realized after posting this that under the impersonal divine category (which granted are over-simple for sake of conversation) there could be one other option beside nihilism...that would be acceptance of another established tradition such as Theravada Buddhism or Hindu in which there is no God and the cycle of samsara provides the motivation for good behavior. But then I have to answer myself by saying that I live in a Buddhist country, and while my experience is far from expert, I have come to recognize that though the purest form is very impersonal, the practical application is every bit as personal as Christianity in which followers plead to Buddha, or one of the "Buddhas" for salvation. I have observed Hindu to be the same way in practice...This I beleive takes it out of the impersonal divine category and places it in the good personal sovereign category. I believe this is because people at large realize that they must have some sort of understandable revelation of the immense Divine, and this logically is most understandable in the form of a personal God or revelation of it (ala Jesus or Buddha, here equated in logic, not to be confused with relativism.)
This of course brings to mind many more lines of thought, but I have to cut it off somewhere. I really enjoy thinking of this kind of stuff. Anyone feel free to respond. You have every right to disagree and don't feel like you have to write some treatise. My language is a vanity I know. I'm working on it. Sorry.
: But let me pose one more thought. I beleive in the end there is only one other choice. Either God must be good or I must become a nihilist. For we both agree the Divine exists. We don't need that proof. But then the question is, good personal sovereign God, evil/indifferent personal sovereign God, in sovereign god, or impersonal divine. In all cases but the first I will eventually find life and striving to be good futile and decend into the existential abyss of nihilism. From which most existential philosophers spent their lifetimes trying to construct some sort of meaning for themselves or come to terms with their futility.