Something Rather Than Nothing
What it Might Mean to Follow God
Every so often, my son and I spontaneously have a long and interesting conversation that spans physics, philosophy, psychology, religion, music, technology, culture, and more. We both love it when that happens, and it just so happens that last night was one of those nights.
My son is a very logical person, and hasn't had the kind of experiences that make God feel real to him. He has consumed a plethora of content, arguments for and against, and given the lack of direct experience, tends to land on the side of the skeptic. Yet, he admits that, at a minimum, agnosticism makes sense. There is really no way to know for sure, so how could one truly land in a position of atheism.
I said, "well, as a logician…" he chuckled, "what about the argument that if there is no God and you spend your life believing, what is the harm, but if there is a God,"
"You are not seriously going to try to throw Pascal's wager at me are you?" he said.
He went on about how history has so many gods and if you are going to believe in a god then the chances of picking the right one are so slim, and if God was all powerful anyway or all knowing anyway then, yada yada yada.
We then got into God creating man in his own image, but really it was man interpreting God in man's image, and how limiting that must be.
So, then he asked me.
So what then dad?
What is the point?
What does it mean to follow God?
Wouldn't it just be to do what you want and live a life that makes you happy?
Obviously, I don't know. I don't know God any better than the next person. Either we are all connected to God or we are not. But if I were to offer my best guess based on all I have read, studied, and experienced, I would say the following.
No, it's not just about doing what you want to live a life that makes you happy. Lots of people do exactly that and look at the result.
When people are allowed to act purely in their own self interest, and have the means to do so, other people are often radically hurt, the planet gets decimated. The sick get sicker, the poor get poorer, the hungry starve.
Why?
Not because we don't know how to solve these problems.
Because we have not earnestly and collectively prioritized solving these problems.
I go back to the baseline. Creation. Not whether it was evolution vs divine, but the simple fact that there is something rather than nothing.
Here we are.
Alive and not not.
Being and not not.
Something, rather than nothing.
As that something, I personally feel a responsibility of stewardship of that something.
There is a trajectory to being alive. You grow, you nurture, you get sick and heal. You try to organize and do better.
I suppose it's all where the rubber meets the road where people then diverge on this.
Some think pruning off that which does not serve is the way, others think optimizing what is working best is the way, some work to raise ceilings, others raise floors.
For me, I think the first move has to be to acknowledge that there is something at all.
We are all that something.
We are all inextricably connected.
When we make choices about the best way to move forward, we need to do so with that whole in mind.
If there is a God, that, to me, is what is in God's mind.
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