Short Story Meant To Convey A Couple Points

[Kahalachan]

So critique me, say what you got out of it, yada yada





This was truly the most peculiar thing to ever happen to me. In a matter of seconds, my memory and brain was instantly mapped with a lifetime of memories. In a sense, I was outside of time and space.


Said I to god, in our long discourse "Are you really god?" yet instantly I knew it was god.

"Yes" God said.

"How do I know?" I questioned.

"You don't. You think your mind made all this up." god answered, "But this experience isn't to prove I exist. This is to let you know what is"

"What is?"

"Yes" God said. "Emotions are a human trait. Curiousity is a human trait. Not so in my case. I simply deal with what is and what isn't"

"Ok, fair enough. What is?"

"What is, is that all your human perceptions of me couldn't be further from the truth. Even intelligence, which is an evolved characteristic is not my own characteristic. All I am is a series of what is or isn'ts "

I was shocked to see that god seemed intelligent but said he wasn't intelligent. God spent ages helping me understand this simple truth. What follows is a series of questions and answers to help my feeble mind grasp this, all happening instantaneously taking no time at all.


God said to me "I didn't create the universe. I didn't design it. And I certainly didn't interact with the universe. The universe just is."

"So you are the universe?"

"No. Not pantheism. The universe is just one of those things that is. The universe is also bound by laws, that just are. There are an infinite number of things that just are...."

"I kinda understand" I said but I didn't really. God knew this and continued.

"I am not one entity, and I'm not every entity. I am just a reflection of what is. If there was a devil, there would be an infinite number of isn'ts that the devil would be. But the devil isn't, so the devil doesn't exist. All that humans have called me, is simply a small portion of what is."

Finally grasping hold of this concept, but still baffled I allowed god to continue.

"What spans the entire universe, what information that travels faster than the speed of light, is what you would call logic. This logic says what is and isn't. Your science has done so much there. Your religion has done so much there. Your religions say what is, in terms of human imagination. What connects you to every other form of intelligence out there is the ability to say what is and isn't."

"So you don't think there's something wrong with religion?" I asked.

"There is no right or wrong. Only what is and isn't. What is right for you humans is determined by morality. Morality isn't something that a deity would give you, but it is something that is needed for all intelligent life to survive. Right and wrong are the selection pressures that allowed your social and intelligent species to survive." God explained and then continued.

"There are different forms of morality for all the different forms of life in the universe. So bizarre the universe and all that is would appear to you, that it greatly surpasses all the complexity you creative humans have imagined concerning the supernatural world."

It was then that god took me on a tour of the universe.

The creatures I beheld were beyond anything we have ever conceived but existed in reality. They were.

As I witnessed a form of life that appeared to live in absolute bliss, god explained..."These creatures you see right now. They do not believe in a deity. They don't worship a thing. They work on logic and what is and isn't. They haven't evolved the same emotions as you. Their emotions are nothing like yours. Their emotions are as alien to you as much as an ant could never understand love"

Another form of life I witnessed was a gathering of a great variety of aliens.

God explained, "These creatures worship far more deities than you humans, but are more advanced with little strife. Their technology supercedes yours as much as your supercedes a Neanderthal. What is, is that they all worship each other's deity as their sign of respect. They know what isn't. They know their deities aren't. Because they agree on this common ground, worship to them is a form of respect for the other social and intelligent beings on their planet"


Many other creatures did I see. One creature produced excrement that was so mouth wateringly delicious that I cared not where it came from. God didn't explain until too late, that it was *explative deleted*. As shocked as I was that god said "___", I realized, ____ just is and we humans make it profane.

Another form of life, utilized the laws of the universe so skillfully, that they were gods themselves.

And more forms of life I saw, not as successful. I saw ancient ruins and god explained that those were the creatures that evolved too much emotion and not enough intellect. Those were the creatures whose belief in deities were so powerfully dogmatic that they drove themselves to extinction.

When I asked god, why this trip was necessary, god said, "You have seen what is. I allow you to suggest what should be in order for your species to live on. If you humans, on your tiny blue planet cannot survive, you humans will be what isn't"




Edit: Forgot about the profanity rules and censorship. I editted accordingly.

 

[Lifesaver]

That all we say about God falls infinitely short, and is true only in an analogical way, of what He in fact is, I completely agree.

However, look at what your short story does: it begins by denying the very possibility of any metaphysical enquiry concerning existence; we are supposed to accept that things "just are" ("just"? Existence is the most mind-blowing act there is!).

What things are is a very interesting question, the answer to which provides us with much knowledge about reality and enables us to both live and think better.
However, it is the fact "that" things are which is the most mysterious of all.

Fair enough, many things are. But why is there anything instead of there being nothing? This is the fundamental question of philosophy, and if we rest at the realization of what is we'll never move on to it.

Incidentally, this metaphysical question and the answer we give (or fail to give) to it will have a deep impact on our religious convictions and basically on how we view everything else.

To marvel at what is is the first step to philosophy; to prevent our minds from trying to go further is to deny ourselves our very humanity: our reason.

 

[Kahalachan]

That all we say about God falls infinitely short, and is true only in an analogical way, of what He in fact is, I completely agree.

However, look at what your short story does: it begins by denying the very possibility of any metaphysical enquiry concerning existence; we are supposed to accept that things "just are" ("just"? Existence is the most mind-blowing act there is!).

What things are is a very interesting question, the answer to which provides us with much knowledge about reality and enables us to both live and think better.
However, it is the fact "that" things are which is the most mysterious of all.

Fair enough, many things are. But why is there anything instead of there being nothing? This is the fundamental question of philosophy, and if we rest at the realization of what is we'll never move on to it.

Incidentally, this metaphysical question and the answer we give (or fail to give) to it will have a deep impact on our religious convictions and basically on how we view everything else.

To marvel at what is is the first step to philosophy; to prevent our minds from trying to go further is to deny ourselves our very humanity: our reason.

Ah but it does get into the metaphysical question about how there is something. The universe just is. There is also something else, that just is, that allows the universe to be. I think the story said the laws that dictate the universe just are. Whether it be god or something else, it simply is real.

So I wold ay the root of philosophy is to figure out what is and what isn't, and in which category the is's fall under. Subjective or objective truth?

 

[Lifesaver]

Okay, true, the story does also state that there is something else.
However, even though I know how inadequate our language is to express the richness of reality like it is in fact, I do think it is possible to go much further into our enquires about "being" than the short story wants to allow us.

 

[nadroj1985]

To marvel at what is is the first step to philosophy; to prevent our minds from trying to go further is to deny ourselves our very humanity: our reason.

I think marvelling at what is is the necessary condition for philosophy, and not merely its first step. When the marvelling goes away, philosophy stops and dogmatism begins. Philo-sophia is not the having of wisdom, but the loving of wisdom. Wonder and awe are always necessary.

This is not to say that inquiry is unphilosophical, or that we should all just throw our hands up and stop using our noggins. But, there are some questions that are not asked with the intention of receiving an answer. For me, at least, "Why is there something rather than nothing?" is the principal example.

 

[Tynan]

Nice story !

Who are you going to get to play you ?

I am already thinking of Danny Devito for the 'god' role.