We were given this world, we didn't make it

[Postmaster]

One of my recent ideas is.. Humans have been in there current form for at least 100'000 years and the way we think, are creativity and progression is all part of evolution. But come to think of it, I have been responsible for none of it! I'm just an outcome, therefore we were given this civilisation and world we didn't make it. The progression made in civilisation has been through hard work, death, effort and the human spirit of which God has manifested through humans. Although God might not have created the world in 7 days, the concept still remains the same. We all have much to be grateful and should not forget the inspiration or the creator, God. It is our duty to continue this effort and refine it more including social justice and as told to us rewards are given in the next life (of non material value).

[Eudaimonist]

Originally Posted by Postmaster

The progression made in civilisation has been through hard work, death, effort and the human spirit of which God has manifested through humans.

Aside from the source you identify for the human spirit, I agree. Even if we are products of evolution, the cultural and material progress made has been through creative human activity, and none of it is really a "given" in the sense that the existence of the Earth is. It can't be easy to forget just how much humans have done to shape the Earth into our values. Let's just make sure to pick the best values.


eudaimonia,

M.

[mee]

revelation 11;18and to bring to ruin those ruining the earth. .............. Jehovah God can see that man is ruining the earth, that is why in the book of revelation it tells us that God is going to bring to ruin those who are ruining the earth.
I well know, O Jehovah, that to earthling man his way does not belong. It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step Jeremiah 10;23 its all trial and error with man

[wil]

Originally Posted by Postmaster

One of my recent ideas is.. Humans have been in there current form for at least 100'000 years and the way we think, are creativity and progression is all part of evolution. But come to think of it, I have been responsible for none of it! I'm just an outcome,.... It is our duty to continue this effort and refine it more including social justice and as told to us rewards are given in the next life (of non material value).

My current conceptual continuity states that we are and were always...now I can agree about form...this vehicle we currently occupy which conveniently operates in this 3D with opposing thumbs and frontal lobe, et al...is quite convenient... But I think 'we've' been operating in it for those hundred thousand years and have been around in one form or another since inception participating on various levels in this creation...as we continue today... And yes, I agree it tis our task to keep the ball rolling...

[lucius]

The natural world could be said to be given by God. Human culture and civilization are human productions - some under a divine influence no doubt, but much of it coming from other motivations.

I think our task is to make a new world - If God wills to bring this world to a greater perfection, it is through us that it will be done.

[taijasi]

I think the idea is to make the Earth as much a Heaven as is materially possible - at this stage of our evolution. Our destiny is to be true co-Creators with God, including everything that such a phrase might imply or entail. Perhaps at this stage, Humanity still gives expression to some of the lesser aspects of such co-Creation. Unnecessary, wanton destruction - is still the obsession of many.

Easy to see why the Buddhists say, "The Miracle is to walk on Earth."

taijasi

[Tao_Equus]

I see it that each of us is a face in a great multi-faceted jewel that is , for want of a better word, G_d. To separate Us and the big Is......well its like seeing only the one tree in a vast forest, one grain of sand on a beach, its just not possible Shine on you crazy diamond.

David

[lucius]

Originally Posted by taijasi

I think the idea is to make the Earth as much a Heaven as is materially possible - at this stage of our evolution. Our destiny is to be true co-Creators with God, including everything that such a phrase might imply or entail. i

I certainly agree with that.

'on earth as it is in heaven'.

[taijasi]

Originally Posted by Tao_Equus

I see it that each of us is a face in a great multi-faceted jewel that is , for want of a better word, G_d. To separate Us and the big Is......well its like seeing only the one tree in a vast forest, one grain of sand on a beach, its just not possible Shine on you crazy diamond.

David

Rock on, man!

Tao, that is just about my favorite imagery/metaphor for our relationship to the Divine (our true Self, the root of Eudaimonia, or `Buddha Nature' - to cover all the bases). Either God is like, one pole of our spiritual Being (representing perfection, while we are God in potential) - or else, I want nothing to do with religion whatsoever.

The neat thing about the crystal or jewel imagery, is that Light shines through all the facets (our inner face, spiritually) ... and almost like Plato's cave, the various projections on the cave wall around us - plus the cave itself - compose our world. No, we ourselves may not have originated it, but we are so bound up in/with our conceptions of it (and of ourselves, of the Divine, etc.), that for all intents & purposes, we do generate the world, at this point.

And it is my belief that we have a sacred, unavoidable responsibility to help transform it, as best we are able, into something better. HUMANITY redeems the world, by giving expression to the spiritual qualities within, by developing, unfolding and practicing them, by living a life of virtue and by sharing with all others that which is both our common heritage and our common Destiny.

There is no room for "us and them" in such a world. Yes, that's what all the fighting's really about (the haves and have-nots) ... but we know, that things need not be this way. They must change, they will change - and to that end,

May each of us do our part.

andrew

[Eudaimonist]

Originally Posted by taijasi

Tao, that is just about my favorite imagery/metaphor for our relationship to the Divine (our true Self, the root of Eudaimonia, or `Buddha Nature' - to cover all the bases). Either God is like, one pole of our spiritual Being (representing perfection, while we are God in potential) - or else, I want nothing to do with religion whatsoever.

Well put! Someone once coined a word to refer to a "god within" -- endotheism. (Don't bother looking for it in the dictionary. I don't think it is there. Since endo- means "within", it's a reasonable word.)

I believe in a god within, though in a poetic way, not a literal one. (I'm philosophically a nontheist.) I suppose if anything deserves to be seen as godlike, it is our innate potential for perfection. Even if this perfection is thoroughly human and does not grant superpowers , it is reasonable to feel about it as something godlike (hence, I say poetic) for spiritual purposes.

Our personal daimon (or "genius", what the Greek or Romans would think of as the little god or fate governing our lives, something similar to a guardian angel, but granting wisdom or talent, not protection as such) could be a poetic personification of this potential. Hence, eudaimonia -- meaning happiness or flourishing, but having the deeper poetic meaning of being possessed of a good (eu-) fate or wise spirit (daimon).

I think it is possible to feel a connection to one's daimon (actually, I know from personal experience that this is possible, though I see it as a connection to one's potential future self, not an actual being), and I tend to think most highly of those spiritual paths that accept endotheism in some form, instead of insisting purely on some sort of exotheism (god without) which views human beings as necessarily inferior creations of some external superbeing.


eudaimonia,

Mark

[inhumility]

Originally Posted by Eudaimonist

it is our innate potential for perfection.

I think that’s why they say that God created man on his image.Thanks