For What Are We Responsible?

We fight a battle for survival every day; and we win it little by little. But no-one has ever managed to win this battle completely and decisively. For some of us the battle is very easy, more often pleasent than un-pleasent. No-one can show us how it should be fought, we struggle through our own trials and errors.

There's no argueing philosophy with a man of action. We can not get through life by avoiding work. It seems that some battles need to be fought by someone. Quite often we trust not in our God more than superior firepower. Is it truely the most persuasive argument, "Do or be killed?" For many there is some noble cause worth dieing for. By submiting to an aggressor we think it does cause our loss of dignity. We want rights, and to be treated as soverign powers, independent and creditable. We insist, we demand, fair treatment and when its not forthcoming we complain. The right to life alone is most sacred, even if we must survive a life of hardship. Better endurance lends itself to better solutions, in a world full of combatants we win by outliving them.

When we do place our trust in Higher-Powers we need to cultivate a great deal of patience. It seems the best answer to violent conflict is simply to do nothing, wait and occupy yourself with a little game. If we could walk away from a heated argument, we can only get so far away. And then we must contemplate this ineffable companionship and our great interdependence; there is no divorce, no possibility of seperation. We may not choose to ignore our peers because the world is full of dependencies; otherwise we are neglectful of our own responsibility. But what demands can we really make? We often try to get away with as much as we can, we presume that one person may have superior authority. And if we believe thats true we often struggle to be that person.

If there were an authority above all men, its hardly offering to solve our problems for us. We can not complain about the means to an end, where we see no means employed. No one can tell the boss what problems are his responsibility, or how they should be solved. The best we can do is make a suggestion, and offer up our rationale. We can plan for the future we find most desireable, but it wouldn't be realistic to think some divine agency will guide is right to it effortlessly. Some of us even feel that some particular sort of future has been promised, and this possibility has been described in a variety of ways. More often than not the wicked should be punished and our oppressors permanently condemned to some seperate existance. You see we long for seperation, we think it the best solution. If only we could each choose our most favored companions, then we must hope to be chosen by them as well. But who can really decide where to draw the dividing line? Who knows best what is good for us in the long run? Perhaps there is a God who will judge between us, who loves some more than others and dispenses either honor or dishonor. And for what might a person be honored; we are often at odds over this in our faith. For what noble cause has been served, at personal risk and sacrifice. Those who have proven most effective at changing the world, whether they changed it for better for for worse should reap the greater rewards or punishment.

But just for a moment try to imagine a future Earth without punishment or rewards. There is no glory in all the works of humanity that dwells upon us, because all glory goes up to God. The one source of all inspiration, whether a man be inspired for good will or ill. The Arts of Humanity will endure forever and be scribed upon history and the memory of all things even if Life fails us. But it is life that we should really want, manifestation and everything that goes along with it. That is the promise of a ressurection, neverending life that mortality flees beyond the farthest horizons. None may be punished with death, we must endure that company long time. Because there is only one Earth, and its a small world such that none may escape it. There is no other world in the furthest reaches of the Universe that a man may inhabit, and therby gain a greater degree of seperation from his own community. Its a world where no-one can be bothered to lie about something that did happen, only the true story may prevail, it will be told and re-told. And if we can be judged, we judge one-another; if we can be forgiven that person must learn self-love.

But is the ressurection really a promise from some divinity with the power to make it real? Is that a possibility? Is that fated? Is it gaurenteed or conditional? The Universe itself is wonderfully strange and its hard to say what's possible here or to rule out one possibility. If we are willing to consider testamony as evidence, there is a considerable amount of evidence favoring divine powers. There may be a kind of super-nature underlying the fabric of reality that is easily overlooked because we suffer limitation in the ways we can observe this reality. There may yet be some subtle quality here, of which we do partake, that has never been measured or weighed. Observational evidence suggests that there really is an invisible world, invisible yet substantial and influential.

It shouldn't be hard for us to imagine one person, one personality. And still very easy to imagine a multitude of persons and personalities, because we can see that much evidence around us. Clearly there are, and have been numberous persons existant, inhabiting this place. But usually we imagine the limits of this great multitude can be defined by Humanity itself. If there is any purpose to the Universe we must be it, we give it purpose. Without the life of homo-sapiens this Universe should be rendered meaningless, a highly predjudiced point-of-view. And while we observe one another, its easy to imagine another intelligent personality beyond the scope of Humanity. Individually we human beings exert some influence over the material world around us, we are endowed with some kind of common power over reality. And we have imagined a person with more power and influence over this reality than we have. We have imagined a Creator for all this stuff, a person of superior intelligence and longevity. It couldn't possibly be true just because so many of us have believed in it. There is absolutely nothing within reality that could depend upon our beliefs and opinions, there are only factual events. There are events that we have not observed ourselves, some events that no man has ever observed because afterall some places are far distant and history is longer than Life itself. But our friend the Creator has some kind of life that does extend at least to the very beginings of creation. Inasmuch as we have discovered that this wonderful place does have some definate beginings, it's not by appearances an Eternal thing. Of course if the Universe does have a definate begining we can easily imagine it may have a definate end as well. There are few things that we have been able to apprehend with our senses that seem to last forever. Certainly some aspects of creation will last a very long time, far longer than a single human life-time, perhaps longer than the life of the species. If we try, we might be able to imagine an Earth and a Universe where Humanity has become extinct, we know of other species that have failed here, to be found no more.

While we are here, we are men and women of action; Life demands work from us. We can labor to make the Earth a more comfortable place to live, we have succeeded in this respect and may continue to succeed. Yes there are battles for us to fight, there are causes to be served. There are tyrants to be opposed; there are violent men to be vanquished. And we never cease struggleing for a little bit more even after life has become easy for us.
Its not a bad thing to have desires, to want better and more and higher-quality experience. It's not entirely a bad thing when the neccessities of life become convienient to most of us. We can spend some of our time in leisure and rest, life may be a stuggle or a battle but its not a constant battle. Occassionally there is a moment that we can enjoy. There really is no other purpose to life than simply to endure for as long as possible. Ideally we will discover that we ourselves last forever, something endures beyond mortal ends, the physical self is not the full story. A consciouness of personality that perhaps longs for its loss and a return to manifestation. To embrace Life once again, what sacrifices should we be willing to make for this boon? And if there is some sacrifice that we can make to assure this, can one person make it for all the rest? It would take a God to make such a sacrifice as this, human-beings are too feeble. And of course some people do believe that the sacrifice has already been made; salvation favors a friend to that Lord.