by Flemming Funch
Euan Semple says:"Some of us believe that God exists, if at all, in all of us. That we are all godlike and have the potential to be at one with the wholeness of experience if we could just get out of our own way.
Others believe that God is elsewhere, a presence outside of our experience which controls all that we do, who will look after us if we do the right thing.
This split drives everything, organisations, society, the web.
We give up responsibility to that force outside ourselves or we take responsibility for ourselves. We conform to socially agreed stereotypes or work out what makes us happy and follow that; we trust the structures set up by others or we trust ourselves; we are drawn to client server or peer to peer, Microsoft or Apple, indoors our outdoors, death or life.
Herendeth the lesson" I'm hearing, and I think it's true. It seems so simple. But so easily we get lost. I would also expand it to say that it isn't even about God, as many who believe there is no such thing will still put the control outside themselves. The key thing, I think, is whether or not I feel that life has something to do with *me*. I.e. whether or not I feel that my choices really make a difference, and I have a reason and a responsibility to make things good. Versus whether I feel powerless - an insignificant and expendable cog in a huge machinery - and I just do what I can get away with, grabbing up every little advantage I can carve out for myself.
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