This one is careering around the empty space in my head banging against my skull in the totally off-hand clueless manner as many of my thoughts. But this one answers a long standing question of mine - "Why did God create the sinful nature?". Well here the theory.
Inside we have a compelling desire to create. Something real. If we don't we feel bad. If we do we feel good. To create something good we have to spend lots of energy from our total budget. Self preservation informs us that we are spending too much. So our flexible brains come up with the idea that we can pretend to create. That way we feel good about what we've created and we don't have to spend much valuable budget on actually doing anything. The part of our brain that comes up with that as a solution persuades the creative part to ignore the fact that the pretend construction isn't real – well largely. I don't think the creative part of the brain is ever totally convinced but it is largely silenced. So far so good. The creative compulsion is largely satisfied, at least to the order of magnitude where the good feelings of completion outweigh the bad feelings of awareness and honesty.
There is one big problem. The Other. They don't share our brain so to protect the fragile system of things we have to persuade them that our construction is real.
I think we now have enough of the theory to extrapolate the process to explain the world we see around us.
5 comments:
"Why did God create the sinful nature?"
I'm not sure He really did. I think we just THINK He did, so that's the way our lives respond.
But I do think there is a reason we are all participants in the great "Earth experiment". I think we have been thrust into the wildly variable environment to experience something, and learn something. Maybe God knows that we will never truly understand goodness until we've experience evil. Maybe he created all these obstacles and pitfalls to see how well His creation can adapt and overcome. Maybe He's a crazy old man who gets His jollies by experiencing the struggles of life vicariously through us.
But, I do firmly believe that someday all the answers will be revealed to us, and we will say "aaaaah".
lol… I'm now starting to think maybe there is no such thing as a sinful nature and that Paul was confused… what if we are creatures of habit… and sin is merely inappropriate behaviour for a particular level of growth… and the sinful nature refers to old appropriate behaviour in a new and inappropriate setting and the tendency to habitually continue the behaviour… what if sanctification was the process of changing our habits to be more appropriate…
anyhow it's just a thought I'm thinking…
acceptance and peace
DM
I see what you're saying, and I tend to agree.
Lately, I've been seeing the message of the cross to be a "leveling" thing. Revealing to us all that we're all at the same level. None of us is any better, or better off (spiritually) than another. Sure, we all strive to be spritually better off, but look what that brings... division and strife.
Maybe the thing we recognize as "sin" is really just what we feel, and the reactions we get, when we try to elevate ourselves above others... when we place our worth over the worth of someone else... when we place our needs, wants, and desires over that of another.
I think it's possibly one of the hardest things to do -- become equal with others. Maybe that's why so many "christians" find it so important to place themselves below others. If we are consistently below others, then there is no chance that we run the risk of placing ourselves above them. I'm not sure that's good thinking either. Reacting that way often removes us from interacting with others, and robs them of any encouragement or enrichment we might be able to bring into their lives.
It's like a balancing act. But, what has become evident to me is that my life is much better if I just go along watching God do stuff all around me. I don't force it on people, and I don't hold it back. I just enjoy being a part of it.
Oh, who knows?
It would be good to hear from you again!
Love ya!
Hey hey I'm still here -- DM
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