Puzzling

We got a call this week from a friend who was planning her funeral. Again. The first time was maybe twenty years ago. Back then she asked me if I would play piano at her memorial service. I said yes, if she would sing at mine. Twenty years later, I don't play and she doesn't sing so we have to make other arrangments. 

That got me thinking of all the years we sang in choir and worshipped the God of love in a community of peace from which we could calmly contemplate an uncertain future and make a joke of planning for death. Thank God for such friends.

Last night we didn't watch the world News before bed. Sleep is more important than obsessing over tyrants using their version of God to justify murder.

This is me puzzling things out. Don't take it too seriously. I'm not pushing my beliefs. I might be suggesting that it's OK for ordinary folks to think about things rather than always trusting tradition, authorities and experts. While we are at it, we can be humble about our own thoughts. Various answers serve different people in different ways. I'm no philosopher. Puzzling is just how I pass the time these days since I don't play the piano.

'God' is a polyseme, a word with many meanings that continue to change in use. Those meanings are sometimes at odds with each other. There are two meanings that might make sense of the rest.

1. God is reality (existence, the way things are)
2. God is metaphysics (ideas about reality, worldview).

In ordinary speech, we assume that our metaphysics is an accurate account of reality, and we've got God figured out. God is likely something we hope for, such as love and providence, demanding only belief and obedience to secure the future. It's OK to think such thoughts. That's what a mind is for.

Nevertheless, reality is what it is, unintentional and careless except for what we sentient beings can manage. We are part of what's real. By this paradigm, we are part of God. Strange thought !

Such metaphysical puzzles put us in an uncomfortable state of cognitive dissonance, which you can read about in this Wikipedia article. It's complicated. Let's not get into that here.

Cognitive dissonance isn't all bad. It demands some effort to resolve, helping us learn better. Since we are all puzzled about such things, or should be, we might be less dogmatic, better friends with those who see things differently. We're in this mystery together.

So I won't dismiss a God who manages and loves everything if you will let me consider a God of evolving reality in which we participate as we learn to manage and love.

It is what it is until we mess with it.

Or that's what I'm thinking about the puzzle today.