05-28-2021, 02:05 AM
Hmmm....
If I try to read this according to numbers of "believers", then my Abrahamic theory falls apart, as the number of Jewish adherents is vastly smaller than even the number of secular/non-affliated folks.
If I stick to the Abrahamic traditions theory (in order of appearance), then the last stanza still proves problematic (to me).
That said, the statement "Their God allows... does speak to choice: we can choose to believe, or not, and we can then choose to adhere to those beliefs, or not. And if we adhere very strongly, then we may feel we can fault "their God", and vindicate our belief system. It's worth noting that even, sometimes especially, under a certain "tent" there are strongly held differences.
Interesting that it's not "Their God forbids...". If, in fact, an all powerful deity did "forbid", then the forbidden things just wouldn't happen. In comes the arguement- why is it that "...God allows outrageous things?"- the "if God, then why evil" arguement. That, I think, has a bit to do with why there are such large numbers of secular/non-affliated folks.
Now Paul, the fact that you are making observations does lend itself well to multiple interpretations. Still, as I mentioned in a previous post, there are areas that need to be reworked. In such a short piece that will be very difficult to accomplish. Or, since this in MISC, your'e not intending changes, but merely cutting it loose (having taken it as far as you wanted to go, and there is definitely wisdom in that approach, or you'd wind up with several volumes of books).
At very least, ya got us thinking,
Mark
If I try to read this according to numbers of "believers", then my Abrahamic theory falls apart, as the number of Jewish adherents is vastly smaller than even the number of secular/non-affliated folks.
If I stick to the Abrahamic traditions theory (in order of appearance), then the last stanza still proves problematic (to me).
That said, the statement "Their God allows... does speak to choice: we can choose to believe, or not, and we can then choose to adhere to those beliefs, or not. And if we adhere very strongly, then we may feel we can fault "their God", and vindicate our belief system. It's worth noting that even, sometimes especially, under a certain "tent" there are strongly held differences.
Interesting that it's not "Their God forbids...". If, in fact, an all powerful deity did "forbid", then the forbidden things just wouldn't happen. In comes the arguement- why is it that "...God allows outrageous things?"- the "if God, then why evil" arguement. That, I think, has a bit to do with why there are such large numbers of secular/non-affliated folks.
Now Paul, the fact that you are making observations does lend itself well to multiple interpretations. Still, as I mentioned in a previous post, there are areas that need to be reworked. In such a short piece that will be very difficult to accomplish. Or, since this in MISC, your'e not intending changes, but merely cutting it loose (having taken it as far as you wanted to go, and there is definitely wisdom in that approach, or you'd wind up with several volumes of books).
At very least, ya got us thinking,
Mark