Does God create, we create or is there a co-creation?
There is an age-old philosophical question about the relationship between an event such as a sound vibration and the presence or absence of humans. The question as first recorded by Dr. George Berkeley, an Anglican Bishop and philosopher in the 1600s was: “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound.” Dr. Berkeley answers that there is a sound because God hears it. Others have argued that the falling tree creates vibrations which is experienced as sound or, if no one is present , it is experienced by other life forms as a disturbance in the movement of the air. It is not experienced as sound.
I was thinking of this philosophical question as I was pondering the existence of a divine being or God. The question I posited was, “Do humans create God by positing or imagining a divine being. If so, it then follows that without humans there is no divine being. If, on the other hand, a divine being creates all that exists, including humans, then without creation there is no God or humans. Another possibility is that humans have to posit a God for he/she/it to exist and God has to exist for humans to create him/her/it. One might then say that God and humans are co-creators.
The reader might now be thinking that he or she does not have time for such playful and perhaps useless intellectual exercises. Yet, this morning as I was thinking about the construct of friendships, I was reminded that friendships only exist if there is two or more people who acknowledge each other and each gives and receives. If one only takes and does not give there is no friendship. If one only gives and does not take there is no friendship. For any relationship to exist requires actions by both individuals. This is true in all relationships. Michael Atkins in a February 5 2018 articles in Northerontariobusiness.com questions the existence of tweets; “If no one is reading a tweet does it exist? “ or “If no one comments on a tweet does it exist.”
Many of us have a habit of reacting rather than acting. Someone does something which we dislike, are frightened by, or which we find in poor taste. As soon as one reacts the action of the other exists. Yet, it one refuses to react then one is taking an action which does not acknowledges the existence of the prior action. Thus, one might posit that the initial action did not happen.
To return to the prior question of the existence of God. If I act as if I am not part of whole than the whole does not exists. I am positing that for the whole to exists all parts not only need to exist but must acknowledge the existence of the whole for it to exist.. Paradoxically then God or the whole only exists if one is present to bear witness to the whole.
One might suggest that the price of not showing up – of not being present – is that nothing else can exist.
Written May 23, 2019
Jimmy F. Pickett
coachpickett.org
There is an age-old philosophical question about the relationship between an event such as a sound vibration and the presence or absence of humans. The question as first recorded by Dr. George Berkeley, an Anglican Bishop and philosopher in the 1600s was: “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound.” Dr. Berkeley answers that there is a sound because God hears it. Others have argued that the falling tree creates vibrations which is experienced as sound or, if no one is present , it is experienced by other life forms as a disturbance in the movement of the air. It is not experienced as sound.
I was thinking of this philosophical question as I was pondering the existence of a divine being or God. The question I posited was, “Do humans create God by positing or imagining a divine being. If so, it then follows that without humans there is no divine being. If, on the other hand, a divine being creates all that exists, including humans, then without creation there is no God or humans. Another possibility is that humans have to posit a God for he/she/it to exist and God has to exist for humans to create him/her/it. One might then say that God and humans are co-creators.
The reader might now be thinking that he or she does not have time for such playful and perhaps useless intellectual exercises. Yet, this morning as I was thinking about the construct of friendships, I was reminded that friendships only exist if there is two or more people who acknowledge each other and each gives and receives. If one only takes and does not give there is no friendship. If one only gives and does not take there is no friendship. For any relationship to exist requires actions by both individuals. This is true in all relationships. Michael Atkins in a February 5 2018 articles in Northerontariobusiness.com questions the existence of tweets; “If no one is reading a tweet does it exist? “ or “If no one comments on a tweet does it exist.”
Many of us have a habit of reacting rather than acting. Someone does something which we dislike, are frightened by, or which we find in poor taste. As soon as one reacts the action of the other exists. Yet, it one refuses to react then one is taking an action which does not acknowledges the existence of the prior action. Thus, one might posit that the initial action did not happen.
To return to the prior question of the existence of God. If I act as if I am not part of whole than the whole does not exists. I am positing that for the whole to exists all parts not only need to exist but must acknowledge the existence of the whole for it to exist.. Paradoxically then God or the whole only exists if one is present to bear witness to the whole.
One might suggest that the price of not showing up – of not being present – is that nothing else can exist.
Written May 23, 2019
Jimmy F. Pickett
coachpickett.org
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