Things have been very busy lately, which is why I haven’t posted here in some time. I moved out of Pops’ house a few weeks after he passed away and I’ve spent the last two weeks settling in to my new apartment and working on other projects. I did come across something interesting in a book I’m reading, The Monk and the Philosopher.
There is a discussion regarding what exists “behind” the objects we see and agree upon in a convention sense. For example, we see an apple and agree that it’s an archetype “apple.” We throw the apple in the air and agree that it will fall to the ground due to the “law” of gravity. These archetypes and laws are considered by some to be the unseen forces of nature – the principles that bind together our universe and essentially our reality.
The scientific view is that there are certain constants and other things that can be agreed upon. The Buddhist view is that there are static forces or objects, since all things are constantly changing. What is really interesting is the discussion of God in this context. If a creator, who is always deemed to be all-powerful in religious doctrine, decides to create something then he is simply acting under the influence of his desire and is therefore not in complete control of his on whims. Accordingly, if the creator creates without deciding to do so, then control over the creation is not his and he is not all-powerful.
It’s quite an interesting problem, with no obvious solution for those who wish to believe that their creator is all-powerful. Of course, they could simply say the rules that appear to apply to everything that God created do not apply to him, but that seems like a cop-out. All of these questions are largely unknowable to us at the present time, and may always be, but they are certainly fascinating to ponder.
Leave a Reply