What a Hummingbird Taught Me About God

by metatron 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  metatron

  Last year, I put out a bird feeder and filled it with seed. I would frequently watch birds come and go while making breakfast.

  During early summer, I passed by the window and spotted a hummingbird hovering near the seed filled feeder, looking around

  as if to say, "Where's mine?".

  The next day I bought a hummingbird feeder and filled it. Hummingbirds came back day after day during the remainder of the summer.

  I'm told that a hummingbird's brain is about as big as a grain of rice. Yet, somehow, it manages to raise young and fly and recognize

  bird feeders, in looking for its food. I've experienced a lot of strange little incidents like this one and they only serve to confirm my opinoin

  that nearly all controversies about "God" miss the point. Creationism and Intelligent Design and Evolution talk about a creation that

  took place eons ago, apart from our examination. "God" seems to be on a vacation, if he exists at all and the world is interpreted

  as a sort of clockwork, wound up and needing no day to day intervention.

  We take too much for granted in explaining away the wonders of the world around us. We toss around 'genetic code' like a

  metaphorical landfill to "explain" away and pigeonhole everyday miracles. We insist on trying to reduce complex behavior into

  lesser causes that can't 'carry the load'.

  To me the world 'works' because for all intents and purposes, the universe is "God", with consciousness and adaptive intelligence

  distributed throughout it. I have no doubt that life will eventually be found on Mars and elsewhere, not because organic molecules

  thwack into each other and accidentally produce single cells, but because life is something the universe makes, just like atoms

  or photons or the maintainence of existing physical 'laws'. Individual minds function because they are tapped into the consciousness

  of this universe, like a television receiving pictures and sound ( rather than originating them). Consciousness is a primary phenomena,

  intermingled with the quantum world and we do not exist apart from it.

  To me, this is a synthesis of all the competing ideas about evolution and creation .... and it is the most compelling.

  metatron
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  wombat

  Beautifully put Metatron......

  It is easy to accept that God is a judgmental person (male) looking down from above for falling sparrows or me coveting my neighbour's wife's ass.

  We humans insist on describing God in our own limited parameters. I agree with you that God is in fact the whole power of the universe including us. (If that is what you mean).

  And I do believe that we can tap into that power through prayer.

  I believe that we need Holy Men, spiritual guiders, to assist us. Such Holy Men could include Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, the Pope, Sharmans, etc.

  But then again..I'm just a wombat.
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  justsomedude

  It is ;easy to accept that God is a judgmental person (male) looking down from above for falling sparrows or me ;coveting ;my neighbour's wife's ass.

  We humans insist on describing God in our own limited parameters. I agree with you that God is in fact the whole power of the universe including us. (If that is what you mean).

  And I do believe that we can tap into that power through prayer.

  I believe that we need Holy Men, spiritual guiders, to assist us. Such Holy Men could include Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, the Pope, ; Sharmans, etc.

  Some of those "holy men" teach that god is a judgemental male looking down from the sky though. Why would we need them?
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  JamesThomas

  You're certainly not alone on this Metatron. It's quite amazing isn't it, what the universe has to share when we are present and open to see.

  Perhaps all distance and separation from what the word G-O-D points to, are simply misjudgments of the mind. Which begs the question: just under all the drama and story I believe myself to be, what am I, really?

  j
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  MerryMagdalene

  Thanks for that Metatron...what a good way to start the day...beautiful reminder...

  ~Merry
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  Satanus

  To me the world 'works' because for all intents and purposes, the universe is "God", with consciousness and adaptive intelligence distributed throughout it.

  I agree, more or less.

  S
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  ellderwho

  I hear ya Metatron,

  And from nature I see wonders as you mention. An atheist that I will not mention by name stated here recently, words to the effect that this life is purposeless. But what really gets to the core of my being re: this life, is the love that is manifested towards others esspecially my wife and kids.

  So if I am to subscribe to the thought of purposeless life, then why the love and why the caring of fellow man? Naturally speaking. And why the evololution of moral standards?
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  Carmel

  THE UNKNOWABLE ESSENCE

  All the people have formed a god in the world of thought, and that form of their own imagination they worship; when the fact is that the imagined form is finite and the human mind is infinite. Surely the infinite is greater than the finite, for imagination is accidental while the mind is essential; surely the essential is greater than the accidental.

  Therefore consider: All the sects and peoples worship their own thought; they create a god in their own minds and acknowledge him to be the creator of all things, when that form is a superstition -- thus people adore and worship imagination.

  That Essence of the Divine Entity and the Unseen of the unseen is holy above imagination and is beyond thought. Consciousness doth not reach It. Within the capacity of comprehension of a produced reality that Ancient Reality cannot be contained. It is a different world; from it there is no information; arrival thereat is impossible; attainment thereto is prohibited and inaccessible. This much is known: It exists and Its existence is certain and proven -- but the condition is unknown.

  All the philosophers and the doctors knew that It is, but they were perplexed in the comprehension of Its existence and were at last discouraged, and in great despair they left this world. For the comprehension of the condition and mysteries of that Reality of realities and Mystery of mysteries there is need for another power and another sense. That power and sense is not possessed by mankind, therefore they have not found any information. For example: If a man possess the power of hearing, the power of tasting, the power of smelling and the power of feeling, but no power of seeing, he cannot see. Hence, through the powers and senses present in man the realization of the Unseen Reality, which is pure and holy above the reach of doubts, is impossible. Other powers are needed and other senses required. If those powers and senses are obtained, then information can be had; otherwise, not.

  (Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 381)
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  Satanus

  Elderwho

  Do you need a purpose to love someone?

  S