Friday, February 09, 2007
humankind as the highest form of life?
I am not going to sit here and try to argue for the existence of God because most of you, my readers, know where I stand on that issue. I have been thinking lately about those who argue that there is no God and I wonder how they can justify their argument. If humankind is the top of the chain, we truly are doomed. Are we the ultimate good? I am unable to see how the highest form of good can flow out of humans, how we are the highest standard that to which all life is compared. To use two obvious examples, we destroy our planet and kill one another. Even the things we harbour in our hearts toward one another are often dark and insidious. We are capable of great beauty, love, and kindness, but I believe those are gifts that are given to us from a Creator from whom ultimate goodness flows. If we are the highest form of life, life is essentially cold and meaningless, which I refuse to believe, based on the evidence I have seen and experienced in nature, art, and my own life. I see many comments coming from this post...
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3 comments:
Oh boy... let me be the first to put a comment down. Young Matthew, I do miss our debates on the subject. What has happened to think that humans are so terrible, did you get smacked on the bus again? I know that there is good and evil in humans and I don't think that there is "the highest good that can flow out of us". Don't we all inhabit the Earth with all of the other animals. Are not some of those creatures terrible in their own way. Some how we must find a way to survive in the environment that is before us. I do not find life cold and meaningless. There is plenty for humans to be proud of we are amazing whether you believe in God or not.
Michael Lambert
Great post Matt. I am glad that this was my first taste of your blog.
Cheers
Mary
Bing!
I'm coming to this a little late, seeing it was posted Feb 9. I hope the issue hasn't been settled already in the past two weeks...
My take on the the knowledge and experience humandkind has gathered and stored over the past 10,000 years is: "I'm alive. I'm hungry. I'm bored." That last one we have over other animals. Probably.
The element of boredom is all-powerful, I deem. Not being satisfied. More food, more sex, more money, more power, more knowledge, more happiness, more faith, more love, more acceptance - my list includes greed for good things.
I don't know if we're ultimately good, or evil, or what those mean, really, or who or what the ultimate arbiter of those concepts are. Nobody actually does, and thousands of years of debate over the subject has not cleared it up. The only constant I can see is the debate: the need to know, the incessant drive to be satisifed, the boredom of immovable answers.
It is important to struggle for the solutions to "are we good or evil" or "are we the pinnacle of life or is God", but I think it is our asking of the questions that energize everything we do. The question makes us human, not the answer.
Possibly. lol
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