I was going to begin my second posting by expanding upon my premise from the last one. I was going to dive right into the “if everything is God, then so are you,” notion that my definition inferred, and throw in one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Betty “We’re all a pinch of God stuff,” etc . . . And then, I got some news that a friend of mine apparently has liver cancer, and my focus shifted abruptly. Don’t worry, this posting isn’t going to be a downer, at least as far as I see it. However, I do feel like continuing with Theodicy, the question of why do bad things happen to “good” people, since I had to ponder on how this recent news factored into my own understanding about the divine for a moment this week.
So, to the question of Theodicy, I give a simple answer: God doesn’t care. I mean, God cares, but God doesn’t care, if you catch my drift. If I were reading I wouldn’t have caught my drift by now, so allow me to qualify that . . .
It has always struck me as arrogant, or at least I’d like to think it has always struck me as arrogant even though I really can’t recall that far, that people seem to have had a tendency over the ages to think that God is singularly obsessed with their comings and goings and day-to-day lives. It’s the kind of thinking that might lead one to believe that their planet was at the center of the universe. Or that their particular social clique was “chosen” out of all other groups of people, making them somehow “better” than other people. Or that a person is the center of the universe . . . And, if the universe is infinite, and therefore doesn’t really have a center, then you really are the center of the universe. And so am I. And so is the lint in your dryer, etc . . .
If, as I claim, God is everything, then God has to be impartial. Otherwise, there would be so much wish granting by the cosmic Genie that we might as well just exist as light, because nothing would ever get done. And I contend that all the wishes do get granted, but that there are certain laws in place to keep us all from constantly imploding into one another, and that the cosmic room service is more implicit than explicit. There is time that needs to be taken, natural laws that need to be followed, genuine desire that needs to be present.
So, is God conscious? And, if so, why not eliminate cancer? And the answer is that God is impartial. If as a collective entity we contaminate our oceans and our air, use these apparatus that contaminate our oceans and our air to make substances resembling food that aren’t really food (any one want a cheese nip?), and then after growing our vegetables with our self-poisoned water we add a bunch of pesticides onto them so that the rest of God’s creatures can’t have them, and leave those poisoned creatures to die in the soil and water sources, is it really any wonder that at any given moment in time one of us develops cancer? Never mind the various poison sticks we like to suck on and expose others to as a form of recreation . . .
If God is everything, then we, in part, are God. And this is what we are doing to ourselves. The reason why I don’t see all of this as a “downer” is this: the good news is, if we can effect so much collectively that we give each other cancer “randomly,” then we can, collectively, choose to do something better. And that is what being God is all about, and why my next entry will be about the fact that if everything is God, then so are we. I’ll be quoting Dr. Betty, and Spiderman. It’ll definitely be happier.
Now, aren’t you glad I didn’t mention how we’re destroying the ozone (not that there’s any scientific proof of that . . .)? On a lighter note, as I review my writing style, I can’t help but think: I truly believe people would be happier in this world if they used more ellipses. . .
TTFN
Tygarjas Twyrls Blog 
You, my friend, just made my night. Or put the icing on the cake of what turned out to be a surprisingly spiritual evening. This post DIRECTLY relates to the book I just read in one sitting for my class tomorrow.
A fact that may add intrigue to the above statement: the class is Children’s Literature. It’s turning out to be one of my favorites – maybe ever. I’m reading all kinds of wonderful books that I either loved as a child or would have and taking the opportunity to read the childhood classics of my generation that I missed because I was reading the classics of my parents’ generation and beyond.
This book was called “Keeping Score” (italics, I know, but I’m not sure that the comment box accepts HTML and I’m too tired to go back and edit if it doesn’t), by Linda Sue Park. Ostensibly, it’s about a girl who’s a die-hard Brooklyn Dodgers fan in the 1950s. Really, it’s about a spectrum of well-researched and fascinating topics – one of the best pieces of historical fiction I’ve read in a while, possibly ever. The themes that tie all these threads are faith, doubt, ritual, and the power (or lack thereof – it’s an ongoing debate) of one to affect the direction of a larger outcome. I highly recommend. I read it in just over 3 hours and would have finished it more quickly had I not been marking it up for a group discussion.
Thank you for furthering the contemplations that were already beginning to churn in my head. I may have to go make my own blog post now (instead of going to bed like I really, really should, considering I have class in 6 hours and 40 minutes…)
Namaste.