Monday, April 06, 2015
The whole shovel
Listening to Easter stuff on EWTN. Somebody was reading the Lord's Prayer "... lead us not into temptation..."
Whoa Nellie. I hadn't noticed those words before. Begging God not to lead us.
Though I don't have any sort of faith, I've been overusing the dualistic narrative with God taking one side and Satan taking the other. There's a simpler way of looking at it, and in fact the Old Testament uses the simpler way. Satan is an unnecessary entity.
When a nation is besieged by internally-generated evils like banksters and Google and Apple and Michael Mann and Al Sharpton, the Old Testament tells us over and over that these evils are God's sting operations. These are God's way of leading us into temptation so our uncontrolled tendency to do evil will destroy us.
A condign punishment, since our own constant use of stings to create crimes and wars is a major part of our uncontrolled tendency to do evil.
You could view the prayer as more of a self-directed wish. "Okay, big dude. I know you're trying to lead me into temptation, but I hope that our interactions (including my own will power) will keep me from succumbing to evil." This is clumsy. I'm sure better thinkers have come up with better formulations of this notion.
Emerson, of course, has already done it. His whole point is that everything, including God's actions, contains good and evil inseparable. You can't just pick up the handle of the shovel or the positive end of a battery. You have to pick up the whole tool and use it properly.
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Irrelevant footnote: Electrical terminology is already Emersoned. The positive end of a battery is the end that sucks.
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Irrelevant footnote: Electrical terminology is already Emersoned. The positive end of a battery is the end that sucks.Labels: 20th century Dark Age, Age of Stings
¶ 2:41 AM
