The only voice I hear in my head is my own.
They always make it sound so simple. You hear the voice of God, and if you do as The Voice says then you will prosper. God can do anything, and through God, you can do anything.
But if God speaks to me at all, then God speaks in my own voice and in my own thoughts. It is, I'll admit, possible that all of the ideas, thoughts, songs, and images that pass through my head come from God. But, like most others, I am protective of my image of myself as a person: I savour the idea that I have a person I can call my own. It's also possible that God doesn't speak to me at all, and that all that I hear in my head are my own thoughts. If this is so, then why does God exist? Does God exist? Most likely, to my mind, though, is that some of the thoughts come from God, and others come from myself. Now I must learn to tell them apart.
Every action has its consequences. Everybody knows that. Every inaction also has its consequences: think of the man who drowned because you didn't pass by that night to raise the alarm, because you thought it was too cold to go out for a walk that night. Think of the times that someone else has worked themselves to exhaustion because it didn't occur to you to help. But don't think too hard about it, about the interconnecting web of possible futures that we walk on or that drags us along. Try not to consider it, because it will send you mad, make you feel as powerless as a cork in the ocean, as a leaf in a hurricane.
So now we come to the idea of sin. If I am human and humans are born sinful, then sin is not restricted to the choices that we make, for when we are born we have no power to make choices. If humans are sinful then I have three kinds of thoughts that must be delineated: my own thoughts, God's words, and my inherent sinfulness. However, I do not understand this concept of internal sin. It could be defined as a natural tendency to choose the wrong action, to act for selfish concerns first and foremost. But then surely by consciously rejecting those impulses we may free ourselves from sin?
No: I reject the idea that humans are inherently sinful as one which is not constructive. Rather, why not say that we are inherently good? There is at least as much evidence: people who will offer their lives up for others, people who work with the sick despite the prospect of contamination, people who will give up a large sum of money, or their blood, bone marrow or an organ, so that someone else may live. The idea that we are inherently sinful but capable of good is effectively the same as the idea that we are inherently good but capable of sin, and the latter is much more appealing. It means that when and if we sin, we let ourselves down: we are being less than we can be. Strive for perfection and believe that we are capable of it, rather than sinning and claiming that it's simply your nature. No excuse.
But what is a sin? When does an action become sinful or wrong? What about a thought? How will I recognise a sinful thought?
My sins also talk to me in my own voice, inside my head. The voice of God and the voice of the Adversary, speaking to me and indistinguishable from my own thoughts.
I do not know what a sin is. I do not know what good is. And I know that in this world, this perfect, flawed, colourful, wonderful world, an action need not be one or the other. If I save a life, the person whose life I saved may be grateful, while the wife who was beaten every day for fifteen years might feel regret that I intervened. To one, the action is good, to the other, it is wrong. And to me? I will not accept that saving a life is ever wrong. It is said "Where there is life, there's hope", and while there may also be hope outside of life we cannot base our judgements on that mere possibility. One life at the expense of another is a more difficult concept: my life is mine to give, but in the case of aborting an unwanted child, is my control over my own body sufficient to warrant the removal of that not-yet-life?
What hope have we who see that a million viewpoints need never coincide? How can we form a moral stance if nothing is objective? But is that not the same as asking how we can stand on the deck of a ship, which pitches and rolls with the waves? We must adapt to the motion, centre our balance where it will do the most good, but allow for flexibility in joint and muscle action.
And even now I cannot say which thought is mine, which thought is God's. Still, I state that no thought comes from sin, but only from my full and certain knowledge of MYSELF and my hazy, skewed perspective of the second person.
Is this wisdom, then? Do I have a thought, a viewpoint that can change the world? Am I unique in thinking thus, or are these your thoughts also?
Or are they God's?Part fiction, part truth, part-philosophy, part-essay: take from it what you will and reject what doesn't fit. But comments are appreciated.
To cut down on any misunderstandings it's worth saying that this isn't so much my thoughts as a line of reasoning, or a philosophical argument. I don't sit every day wondering when God will tell me to do something or worrying that I won't recognise it if so.
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You are the first ( that I have read ) on this website who has spoken of the consequences of inaction and may I add it was a pleasure to see it. Also I like your deconstruction of inherently 'sinful' ( which I would add, bad or evil to as well ).
For myself, I have trouble leaning to either side, opting instead to settle with our ability to be both as the definition. I don't 'believe' in 'good' or 'evil'... I'd equate them with actions which have a positive outcome and those which have a negative one. Then again I'm also one who has little 'faith' in things..
I also smiled when I read :
What hope have we who see that a million viewpoints need never coincide? How can we form a moral stance if nothing is objective?
I struggle with this one, since part of me demands there has to be an absolute ( one might say 'truth' ) rather like objective reality, yet...the other part of me counters with, yes there very well may be, but do we possess the perception to see it in our rather restricted existance as 'human'. Being limited to the way our eyes and our brains intepret things around them, I'm skeptical .of saying we are. ..If the objective does exist, ..my thoughts are that 'we' are relative to it, in that we will see something different everytime we change our viewpoint yet that .. thing/truth/objective will not change .. as it is, what is is.. ..
Sorry for rambling on.. but....I much enjoyed..
~~Lisa/whims -
If there's a deity out there that thinks for 'us' then do we really have thoughts of our own? I'd conclude not.
I usually do not read anything but poetry, usually articles and stories do not hold my attention (even the ones I write) but there are a few that hold my attention, and this is one of them.
I found it philosophical but I also found it mundane which perhaps that was the point and if not, mundane works for it.
It's a good piece, there were slight repetitions, not in phrases exactly but in certain words, too many to point out and too little to even have the outcome be enough to change anything.
It's a good piece overall.
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Religion is what you make of it (or what you let it do to you). Spirituality is entirely different from religion, but I think in the best of circumstances, they dance together. I like the name of the collection this is from.
I think I can tell which thoughts are mine, and which are God's... I'm the one who wants to eat so much ice cream that I puke, and God's the one who laughs at me and thinks it's cute that I like ice cream so much. The choice of whether I will actually eat insane amounts of ice cream is mine. Is it a sin to eat a lot of ice cream? No, but I can see that letting myself eat six gallons of ice cream every day will make me sick. Maybe the part of me that wants to abandon myself to ice cream-eating is the "sinful" part... I think when they talk about the whole Original Sin thing, they're just trying to make the point that we aren't as good as God, or specifically Jesus. I guess we're inherently more able to let ourselves do dumb things that could be really bad for us (this goes way beyond ice cream) than Jesus is. So he had to show up and try to teach us a few things.
A few of my simple thoughts (I try to think simply.). -
Hi Paul,
I think a lot of this column came from my own Christian roots. Certainly the whole bit about 'original sin' and hearing God's and the Devil's voice in my head are basically Christian ideas.
I know that the idea of good and bad being relative rather than absolutes truly terrifies many Christians, but I don't think anything I've written here actually goes against Christianity. I simply feel that designating absolute rights and wrongs that are entirely inflexible simply opens a door to judgemental and hateful attitudes (like the pro-lifers who stand outside abortion clinics) rather than the love and compassion that should be such a central principle of Christianity.
As with everything in this world of greys, it's a matter of where you draw the line. For me, the line occurs when someone else is harmed unnecessarily or in a preventable way by your actions (which deals with wife beating or anyone-beating, for example). And even that line is fuzzy, as my feelings on abortion and euthanasia tend more towards the "if you don't know the facts then how can we judge?" than any deliberate moral stance. -
As a Christian, Joanna, I think you can guess how I feel about many of the things you say so there's no real need to debate them here. One thought I had though concerns "good" and "bad" (or good and sinful if you chose). These seem to be relational items, not only related to each other but also to some "system" or standard of behavior that determines goodness and badness. Thus one's good may be only beating his wife during the morning hours and giving her the afternoon off while another badness may be failing to cover his mouth when he coughs, etc. Seems that might be an interesting subject to address also.
Paul -
If I understood the work of Immanuel Kant enough, I think there is some sort of answer in there, but I am afraid I am not conversant enough to repeat it here.
Having been brought up to believe I was full of the stain of Original Sin just by being born human (sic) I can understand where you conflict of thought is coming from. I agree wholeheartedly that is we are inherantly sinful but capable of good, what is the difference between that and being inherently good but capable of sin? Personally I deal with it by thinking as I stumble to the bathroom of a morning, " Will I be a good man with bad intentions today, or will I be a bad man with good intentions?" I have to admit that some days, being 'bad' appeals. On those days I always seem to be tricked into doing something that is good and selfless etc more than I do on days I decide to try to be good. (Not that I ever do anything all that bad, you understand lol).
There are so many variables that I firmly believe these days that the self , the thought , the moral judgements, all come from experience and impressions- they are mine, not 'God's' and any contradictory voices are like a sound system in the mind- switch off one speaker and you hear different things through the other.
Hope all that makes some sense- just random ramblings really- all mine, can't blame them on God.
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Well Sin is only relevent to religion, i.e you sin if you break the rules. Other than that sin does not exist. Good, if your religious, again can be defined by the teachings of the religion. However if you are athiest good and 'evil' (Which is what we will call it for this purpose) are more vague as really, they all come down to perspective. Ultimately different people have different morals, good and bad/evil are just social interpretations of what we will allow. Its 'good' to help people, its 'bad/evil' to kill people. But really its neither its just that we made a decision as a society to describe them as such to teach people what they can and cannot do. As for the voicve in your head i think Gods 'voice' is supposed to be distinguishable from your own, i.e moses and the burning bush or the angel gabriel. As far as i can discern from the bible God will make it pretty clear what he wants you to do if he wants you to do anything. But then i'm an athiest so its all a bit ridiculous to me.
At the end of the day all a person can do is make their own decision what they will or will not do, you have to make a decision yourself about what you think is right, wrong or just.
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