The creator and the creation

I find it interesting how, although contrasting and poised in opposition, Christianity and science can agree on at least one thing, that the universe was somehow created. The idea of God being a man in the sky is a concept however, I for one have had difficulty in accepting. In pop culture we are led to believe that Christians think of God as being this nicely robbed, bearded man who diligently watches over his disciples from a cloud. I think it is important to dispel this notion in that this image is solely symbolic and incongruent to the meaning of God. It imparts the idea that Christians, and all religions for that matter, seemingly pass through life in a cartoonish haze of gullibility, putting their time and energy into a romanticized speck of their imagination. 

When we walk, we tend to look in the direction we are going, when we are working we tend to look at what we are doing. In the same way, as long as I focused on the cartoon-like concepts of God, the further I went from actually understanding what the message was and in fact, was undermining my own ability to understand that which does not conform to my own ideas in the first place. After all there are plenty of people who model their lives after celebrities' and concepts like TV shows and movies, and this happens because we focus on these things. In the same way becoming closer to God, whether he exists or not, is just a matter of focus and intention.

In my own opinion I see God, or at least, imagine God as being something we cannot actually comprehend, like a shape that exists in a few dimensions up from us. Hence the need to symbolize this into something that can be given meaning. A lot of people who talk about "knowing God" tend to say that he exists more as a feeling or state of mind, as opposed to a literal physical being. But comparatively there are those who revere the creation as opposed to the creator. Although drenched in my own preclusions, I would attribute this to the indulgence of earthly pleasures without at least earning it. 

I would argue, for example, that money and wealth is usually the bi-product of work, the work being the creator or the action of sowing, and the reward being what is reaped. In society we tend to look down on those who do things for personal gain, because selfish intent drives us to sacrifice the quality of what we do, usually at others expense and to our own demise. We have a tendency of claiming for ourselves what others do not claim, and at the same time treating the belongings of others better than we treat our own, even if only subtly. The creator has the first right to claim ownership of their creation, like how the biological parents are more favored over anything else and nobody likes to see their property stolen or mistreated. 

Worshiping the creator means recognizing that the earth was given to us by God's blessing but under certain conditions, to assume we have ownership of the creation without recognizing it's creator is to assume we can do with it as we please. And so with this preconception we have driven animals to extinction, destroyed eco system's, invented diseases and viruses and have shown a great lack of respect for life and ultimately ourselves, all because we assumed we are the inheritors of the world without earning it. To the true Christian, we and the world are God's property, so treat it better than you would your own, and if you do not believe God is there, imagine he is.

In the bible when people turned their back on God, what usually followed where droughts and disasters which almost always leads to great suffering. Whether or not these events where real, something very similar can be seen from two key inventions in the 20th  century. The light bulb is a great invention that literally brought mankind from the out of the darkness. Although the original creator is actually a subject of controversy as to "who actually did it" as an invention we respect it and in many ways can't live without. At the same time almost everyone knows the person who the creation is credited to. Ask someone who invented the the lightbulb, and even if it's only half true, the answer is inferably Thomas Edison.

On the other hand, ask yourself who invented the television? Nearly every household in the free world that has a lightbulb has a TV, and if we do not know the creator, how do we know if it is being used for it's intended purpose? It may surprise many people that it isn't being used how it was originally intended. Philo Farnsworth intended for the TV to be used to educate people, to end war and bring understanding and unity to mankind. Philo was once said that the television was a gift of God, before his invention was defiled right before his eyes and used to dumb the masses, is it any wonder that there are those who now say the TV is the work of the devil? Or is it a wonder that the TV had brought a pun us an intellectual drought?

On the most mundane level, everyone has parent's, a pair of creators who when in a healthy and well adjusted environment, will protect their children. This is why the Christian ethos "we are God's children" bears relevance from a moral perspective. Addictions, criminality and deviances all seek to claim our children as their own, with no regard of what their parent's intention's where, which is usually to have a fulfilled life. This is the same for the world, the same for mankind. Too end, here is a quote from the inventor of the TV, after his creation had been claimed for nefarious reasons.

"There's nothing on it worthwhile, and we're not going to watch it in this household, and I don't want it in your intellectual diet" - Philo Farnsworth.

A.R.