I just have a hard time accepting that we attract events that occur at random. In fact, we dont.
grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
I never suggested that it's easy to accept. Owl be the first to agree that it is
extremely problematic from a practical point of view.
Potentially even provably incorrect.
Atheism is the only truely non-problematic philosophy.
Well, I can say that either, because even atheism has the problem how any kind of order could have just happened by pure accident. Especially the kind of order that would be required for conscious being to evole.
Although many atheists will argue that entropy explains this.
Being a physicist I can't argue with that. It truly does.
Just the same I still have intuitive problem accepting pure atheism. Not that I'm uncomfortable with it. It's just that I have a problem with anything at all existing purely by 'accident'.
But then again, even if spirit exist I suppose that would have had to have been an accident too.
I mean, let's face it, even the existence of a divine spiritual essence doesn't answer the question where spirit came from (or could exist even in a timeless realm).
The mere fact that anything exists at all is beyond logic. So whatever exists is clearly not logical on any level.
I'm totally satisfied that the biblical picture is necessarily false because that picture has shot itself in its own feet in so may ways that it no longer has any feet to stand on.
When it comes to random events, we can only assume that spirit overrides them. Unless we want to just accept atheism.
I'm just trying to figure out a way to make spirituality possible.
Clearly there are things that we cannot control. But then again, we might have more control than we realize.
I mean you could choose to live your life in a padded protected room. The mere fact that you chose to particpate in the world means that you are willing to risk some degree of randomness.
The choice to take your chances with randomness was a choice that you made.
Jeanniebean's argument is that you made the choice to play the "Earth Game" before you ever got here.
I guess we just don't really have an intuitive feel for reincarnation.
But then again, if we have all agreed to the risks of randomness, then there's no need to claim that we have individually attracted what happens to us.
All that would be required is that we agreed to the risks of randomness before playing the game.
So maybe that's it.
There's no need to claim that everyone attracts everything to them.
All we need to assume is that everyone agreed to the risks of randomness before they got here, and that they knew what those risks were.
So I suppose you're right. We don't necessarily need to attract everything that happens to use in order to justify divinity. All we need is reincarnation, and that justifies it right there.