the absolute
Absolute: unlimited, unconditional, unrestricted, undiminished...
In polytheism, the gods and their powers were balanced by each other.
As is nature (as far as we know).
Monotheism, which admits a single God, needs to make this God absolute, all-powerful, eternal, and in total control over ALL existing forces, since He created all.
The existence of a single force not dependent on God will imply the existence of at least one other entity inherent to or controlling that force, which contradicts monotheism.
So to have monotheism, we should have a God who is the absolute, meaning He is absolute in all domains, which is the case.
The absolute is an abstract construct to represent one of the two following abstract conditions.
1 - The purest abstract essence of a princople, characteristic or quality which cannot exist in life,
2 - The extreme abstract measure of a quality, characteristic or a principle which cannot exist in life.
The absolute, whether it is the purest abstract essence, or the extreme abstract measure, only exists in our mind, nowhere else.
The absolute is a mental construction, an abstract mental "model" of a characteristic, principle or quality.
Characteristics or qualities taken from life can be made absolute by easy abstraction, seen as a pure essence or extreme measure, but these easy abstractions can never be applied in their abstract form in finite life.
To be applicable in life, any principle, characteristic or quality should be applied with measure, which contradicts the absolute state of that characteristic, principle or quality.
There is no point in creating an absolute in your mind if your only desire is to make it interact as an absolute with life or nature, which are always finite.
The absolute does not exist outside our minds to have any interaction with anything outside our abstract minds, though its existence in our mind can make us wonder if...
Abstract constructs like the absolute or infinity are confined to the human mind alone.
Has anybody experienced or used an absolute characteristic or quality anywhere except in his mind?
Consequently, anything existing outside our minds can never be absolute.
Monotheisms create absolutes from characteristics (eternal, all-powerful) or qualities (good, just) of life because they have no choice.
The one God principle obliges God to be absolute, and monotheisms become trapped by the obligation to find a solution to make these absolute characteristics and qualities interact with life and nature, both finite. Their attempt to make a supposed non-absolute "image" or a non-absolute "shadow" of the absolute interact with life or nature is "well tried", but unluckily the absolute still cannot exist outside our minds to have a non-absolute image or shadow outside our minds...
If the absolute is complicated, then think of infinity.
Infinity also being an abstract construct, we can easily see the impossibility of applying it to anything in life. There is nothing infinite in life, not even the universe.
Infinity can only be experienced in the abstract mind.
The idea of an absolute creator being an abstract construct, can never interact with finite nature/universe.
Even in the mind, any hypothetical "interaction" absolute-finite will only be pointless and ridiculous, and make the absolute God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob "fight" finite Idols, dolls or human priests (in the mind)... Of course we can always write down these abstract "interactions", and "reveal" them as actual events...
And of course we can always count on religious faith to "transmute" these imagined events into real events, and validate them for all eternity by the statistical number of humans it succeeded in confusing...
So any interaction of the absolute with the finite can only be possible in the mind, meaning hypothetically, but can have no purpose. The outcome of such an interaction in the mind will always produce the same, inescapable result; the utter hypothetical pulverization of the finite, and the utter hypothetical domination of the absolute.
When an absolute, hypothetical conquering force interacts (always in our mind) with any non-absolute hypothetical object, even if the hypothetical object is the idea of the entire universe, the non-absolute object will be utterly (but hypothetically) conquered.
So any interaction of an absolute with a finite is:
- Impossible in life, and
- Pointless in our minds...
The absolute and the finite can never have any meaningful interaction; not in reality, not in imagination, not in the mind, not anywhere...
Maybe in "revelation"...
Once considered as "interactive", even if only in the mind, the absolute will distort every aspect of the real.
We can see it distorting everything in the minds of monotheists.
The kindest, most helpful monotheists I know, whom I respect and love, see themselves as sinners, simply because there is no other way to see oneself in comparison to "absolute" good. It is tragic.
Listen to "Little alter boy" by Karen Carpenter and feel the tragedy for yourselves.
If absolute "good" hypothetically touches life (the "touching" is happening in our minds), then life will hypothetically cease to exist, because "good" cannot do harm, even to exist.
Herbivores will not feed, not to harm a single blade of grass and they will die, so will the carnivores, and so on.
"Good" will dominate all thoughts and actions and not a single other thought or action will be possible, even things relevant to survival.
Death will follow, which will be the only consequence of "absolute good" interacting with life (Always in our mind).
The only absolute characteristic that hypothetically will not totally dominate the finite it is interacting with, is absolute non-interaction...
Bad news for monotheisms...
The possibility of an eventual interaction between two absolutes (in our minds) is of no concern to us, because even if the monotheism presented God is absolute, life and the universe are finite. The eventual interaction of an absolute with another absolute is not applicable.
So the abstract construct of the absolute can only serve as an abstract model for whatever mental purpose, but never to interact with the finite.
So I am very curious to know the way that an absolute God model can be taken out of our minds... made real but always keeping Him absolute... and made to exist in and interact with our finite world... as an absolute...
This level of non-sense can only be humoristic, judge for yourselves:
An abstract construct that "miraculously" jumped out of the mind, started to exist as an absolute "somewhere" inside or "outside" our universe, created the universe, interacted with the created finite to form the human mind, the same mind that before being formed had already created the abstract construct which had already jumped out..., became the only God/Creator, made a contract of exclusivity rights with some of His creation, cursed some, incinerated some, utterly humidified some, felt jealous all alone, "repented" for doing things..., ...
Seriouisly...
Considering the absolute God and absolute good:
By making absolute good contained in absolute God, neither good nor God can interact with life or man, because neither of them can exist outside our mind.
The Genesis-Exodus is confused and is made to "wish" the impossible interaction absolute-finite in real life, which cannot take place, as much as a bronze-age "revelation" wants to.
To be able to exist in this or any finite universe and not exclusively in our brains as abstractions, the monotheism presented creator or monotheism presented "good" should not be absolute, but limited, should not be infinite, but finite.
This is the condition for them to exist outside our minds; to be finite.
But all characteristics by which the monotheistic creator is presented are absolute, even His being the one and only is conditioned by Him being absolute.
So the monotheism presented God and all His characteristics which were absolute to make Him the only one, now have to become finite by the necessity to exist somewhere outside our minds.
So what are the consequences of this necessary "downgrade"?
Only one of only two possible conditions becomed true:
- The monotheism presented God is absolute and does not exist outside our minds,
- The monotheism presented God is not absolute and does exist outside our minds, but not alone, and/or is not eternal.
Take your pick, there is no other possibility.
In both cases, the belief system called monotheism will lose all credibility.
Finally, "good" will become finite, hence a matter of perspective.
Considering the absolute God and evil:
If God is absolute and is the absolute creator of everything, and evil is never absolute but only created by disobedience to God (meaning going out of His demands and rules), then that creates yet another contradiction;
Does the space/possibility outside His rules exist?
If it does not exist, then no "evil" would be possible.
Since we experience "evil", then the space/possibility outside his rules exists.
If it exists, then by definition, the creator of all has created it.
We can only access that space/possibility using our key (our supposed free will), handed to us by the Creator.
So the entire universe is created by God, including the space of possible evil or unrighteousness, which we can access, using our supposed key.
This makes the monotheism presented Creator create the existing evil and give us the access codes...
... out of love...
If some still want to claim that the space outside His rules was not created by Him, then that makes the presented God non-absolute, because then He would not be the creator of ALL of creation.
Then man would have his part of creating to do in all of creation, and create nothing else but the opposite essence of God... simultaneously creating the "absolute" ironico-ridiculo-tragico-humoristic...
See how ridicule results from the "interactions" of absolutes (God, good) and non-absolutes (men, evil) in life?
Good and bad are simply consequences of scarcity. Why introduce abstract factors and distort reality?
The universe is finite, even if we do not yet know "what lies beyond".
Should we simply admit currently not knowing "what lies beyond", or should we be arrogant enough to claim knowing, and answer by the entity that we have defined in our minds to be both absolute and infinite?
Living in accordance with absolutes distorts our perception of reality, and renders us incapable to deal efficiently with it.
Absolutes simply cannot be used as absolutes in life.
I can perfectly understand the need of using the absolute as a factor of "simplicity" in the strategy of monotheisms to propagate by the simple people.
But using the absolute will always cause errors of appreciation of events by a dramatic oversimplification.
Using the absolute will result in the abandon of all measure and the vital interdependence of all things.
The measure of knowledge of life is the knowledge of the measure of this interdependence.
The absolute will make the simple folk think that they now have the highest form of knowing or understanding, since they will think that now they can know the "essence", the "purest form" of everything important, but in reality what they know will be the simplest, unusable form of something which they need to adapt and integrate in the puzzle of interdependent forces called life.
In reality, the principles like Good or evil, or whatever characteristic or quality that reflects them, are totally inapplicable in real life without knowing the extent or measure by which they are to be considered or dealt with.
Nobody can live his life using the absolutes in his head to deal with reality. It will never work.
Instead of seeing simply a temporary or correctible wrong behavior due to whatever reason, the absolute will make us judge the "eternal being" of the person as un-improvable, "unrighteous" or evil.
That is why in the Genesis-Exodus, it is the one God (or His supposed representative) who judges individuals or communities as "wicked" or "righteous", rendering our thinking processes obsolete.
In a world of scarcity, all of us will always make "mistakes", big or small, with varying degrees of consequences on others.
Most of our "mistakes" teach us or make us adapt or evolve in our awareness, be it on the spot, sometime later, or a lifetime later.
Is our life so absolute, that the "highest being" should judge us as deserving incineration for absolute evil?
In polytheism, the gods and their powers were balanced by each other.
As is nature (as far as we know).
Monotheism, which admits a single God, needs to make this God absolute, all-powerful, eternal, and in total control over ALL existing forces, since He created all.
The existence of a single force not dependent on God will imply the existence of at least one other entity inherent to or controlling that force, which contradicts monotheism.
So to have monotheism, we should have a God who is the absolute, meaning He is absolute in all domains, which is the case.
The absolute is an abstract construct to represent one of the two following abstract conditions.
1 - The purest abstract essence of a princople, characteristic or quality which cannot exist in life,
2 - The extreme abstract measure of a quality, characteristic or a principle which cannot exist in life.
The absolute, whether it is the purest abstract essence, or the extreme abstract measure, only exists in our mind, nowhere else.
The absolute is a mental construction, an abstract mental "model" of a characteristic, principle or quality.
Characteristics or qualities taken from life can be made absolute by easy abstraction, seen as a pure essence or extreme measure, but these easy abstractions can never be applied in their abstract form in finite life.
To be applicable in life, any principle, characteristic or quality should be applied with measure, which contradicts the absolute state of that characteristic, principle or quality.
There is no point in creating an absolute in your mind if your only desire is to make it interact as an absolute with life or nature, which are always finite.
The absolute does not exist outside our minds to have any interaction with anything outside our abstract minds, though its existence in our mind can make us wonder if...
Abstract constructs like the absolute or infinity are confined to the human mind alone.
Has anybody experienced or used an absolute characteristic or quality anywhere except in his mind?
Consequently, anything existing outside our minds can never be absolute.
Monotheisms create absolutes from characteristics (eternal, all-powerful) or qualities (good, just) of life because they have no choice.
The one God principle obliges God to be absolute, and monotheisms become trapped by the obligation to find a solution to make these absolute characteristics and qualities interact with life and nature, both finite. Their attempt to make a supposed non-absolute "image" or a non-absolute "shadow" of the absolute interact with life or nature is "well tried", but unluckily the absolute still cannot exist outside our minds to have a non-absolute image or shadow outside our minds...
If the absolute is complicated, then think of infinity.
Infinity also being an abstract construct, we can easily see the impossibility of applying it to anything in life. There is nothing infinite in life, not even the universe.
Infinity can only be experienced in the abstract mind.
The idea of an absolute creator being an abstract construct, can never interact with finite nature/universe.
Even in the mind, any hypothetical "interaction" absolute-finite will only be pointless and ridiculous, and make the absolute God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob "fight" finite Idols, dolls or human priests (in the mind)... Of course we can always write down these abstract "interactions", and "reveal" them as actual events...
And of course we can always count on religious faith to "transmute" these imagined events into real events, and validate them for all eternity by the statistical number of humans it succeeded in confusing...
So any interaction of the absolute with the finite can only be possible in the mind, meaning hypothetically, but can have no purpose. The outcome of such an interaction in the mind will always produce the same, inescapable result; the utter hypothetical pulverization of the finite, and the utter hypothetical domination of the absolute.
When an absolute, hypothetical conquering force interacts (always in our mind) with any non-absolute hypothetical object, even if the hypothetical object is the idea of the entire universe, the non-absolute object will be utterly (but hypothetically) conquered.
So any interaction of an absolute with a finite is:
- Impossible in life, and
- Pointless in our minds...
The absolute and the finite can never have any meaningful interaction; not in reality, not in imagination, not in the mind, not anywhere...
Maybe in "revelation"...
Once considered as "interactive", even if only in the mind, the absolute will distort every aspect of the real.
We can see it distorting everything in the minds of monotheists.
The kindest, most helpful monotheists I know, whom I respect and love, see themselves as sinners, simply because there is no other way to see oneself in comparison to "absolute" good. It is tragic.
Listen to "Little alter boy" by Karen Carpenter and feel the tragedy for yourselves.
If absolute "good" hypothetically touches life (the "touching" is happening in our minds), then life will hypothetically cease to exist, because "good" cannot do harm, even to exist.
Herbivores will not feed, not to harm a single blade of grass and they will die, so will the carnivores, and so on.
"Good" will dominate all thoughts and actions and not a single other thought or action will be possible, even things relevant to survival.
Death will follow, which will be the only consequence of "absolute good" interacting with life (Always in our mind).
The only absolute characteristic that hypothetically will not totally dominate the finite it is interacting with, is absolute non-interaction...
Bad news for monotheisms...
The possibility of an eventual interaction between two absolutes (in our minds) is of no concern to us, because even if the monotheism presented God is absolute, life and the universe are finite. The eventual interaction of an absolute with another absolute is not applicable.
So the abstract construct of the absolute can only serve as an abstract model for whatever mental purpose, but never to interact with the finite.
So I am very curious to know the way that an absolute God model can be taken out of our minds... made real but always keeping Him absolute... and made to exist in and interact with our finite world... as an absolute...
This level of non-sense can only be humoristic, judge for yourselves:
An abstract construct that "miraculously" jumped out of the mind, started to exist as an absolute "somewhere" inside or "outside" our universe, created the universe, interacted with the created finite to form the human mind, the same mind that before being formed had already created the abstract construct which had already jumped out..., became the only God/Creator, made a contract of exclusivity rights with some of His creation, cursed some, incinerated some, utterly humidified some, felt jealous all alone, "repented" for doing things..., ...
Seriouisly...
Considering the absolute God and absolute good:
By making absolute good contained in absolute God, neither good nor God can interact with life or man, because neither of them can exist outside our mind.
The Genesis-Exodus is confused and is made to "wish" the impossible interaction absolute-finite in real life, which cannot take place, as much as a bronze-age "revelation" wants to.
To be able to exist in this or any finite universe and not exclusively in our brains as abstractions, the monotheism presented creator or monotheism presented "good" should not be absolute, but limited, should not be infinite, but finite.
This is the condition for them to exist outside our minds; to be finite.
But all characteristics by which the monotheistic creator is presented are absolute, even His being the one and only is conditioned by Him being absolute.
So the monotheism presented God and all His characteristics which were absolute to make Him the only one, now have to become finite by the necessity to exist somewhere outside our minds.
So what are the consequences of this necessary "downgrade"?
Only one of only two possible conditions becomed true:
- The monotheism presented God is absolute and does not exist outside our minds,
- The monotheism presented God is not absolute and does exist outside our minds, but not alone, and/or is not eternal.
Take your pick, there is no other possibility.
In both cases, the belief system called monotheism will lose all credibility.
Finally, "good" will become finite, hence a matter of perspective.
Considering the absolute God and evil:
If God is absolute and is the absolute creator of everything, and evil is never absolute but only created by disobedience to God (meaning going out of His demands and rules), then that creates yet another contradiction;
Does the space/possibility outside His rules exist?
If it does not exist, then no "evil" would be possible.
Since we experience "evil", then the space/possibility outside his rules exists.
If it exists, then by definition, the creator of all has created it.
We can only access that space/possibility using our key (our supposed free will), handed to us by the Creator.
So the entire universe is created by God, including the space of possible evil or unrighteousness, which we can access, using our supposed key.
This makes the monotheism presented Creator create the existing evil and give us the access codes...
... out of love...
If some still want to claim that the space outside His rules was not created by Him, then that makes the presented God non-absolute, because then He would not be the creator of ALL of creation.
Then man would have his part of creating to do in all of creation, and create nothing else but the opposite essence of God... simultaneously creating the "absolute" ironico-ridiculo-tragico-humoristic...
See how ridicule results from the "interactions" of absolutes (God, good) and non-absolutes (men, evil) in life?
Good and bad are simply consequences of scarcity. Why introduce abstract factors and distort reality?
The universe is finite, even if we do not yet know "what lies beyond".
Should we simply admit currently not knowing "what lies beyond", or should we be arrogant enough to claim knowing, and answer by the entity that we have defined in our minds to be both absolute and infinite?
Living in accordance with absolutes distorts our perception of reality, and renders us incapable to deal efficiently with it.
Absolutes simply cannot be used as absolutes in life.
I can perfectly understand the need of using the absolute as a factor of "simplicity" in the strategy of monotheisms to propagate by the simple people.
But using the absolute will always cause errors of appreciation of events by a dramatic oversimplification.
Using the absolute will result in the abandon of all measure and the vital interdependence of all things.
The measure of knowledge of life is the knowledge of the measure of this interdependence.
The absolute will make the simple folk think that they now have the highest form of knowing or understanding, since they will think that now they can know the "essence", the "purest form" of everything important, but in reality what they know will be the simplest, unusable form of something which they need to adapt and integrate in the puzzle of interdependent forces called life.
In reality, the principles like Good or evil, or whatever characteristic or quality that reflects them, are totally inapplicable in real life without knowing the extent or measure by which they are to be considered or dealt with.
Nobody can live his life using the absolutes in his head to deal with reality. It will never work.
Instead of seeing simply a temporary or correctible wrong behavior due to whatever reason, the absolute will make us judge the "eternal being" of the person as un-improvable, "unrighteous" or evil.
That is why in the Genesis-Exodus, it is the one God (or His supposed representative) who judges individuals or communities as "wicked" or "righteous", rendering our thinking processes obsolete.
In a world of scarcity, all of us will always make "mistakes", big or small, with varying degrees of consequences on others.
Most of our "mistakes" teach us or make us adapt or evolve in our awareness, be it on the spot, sometime later, or a lifetime later.
Is our life so absolute, that the "highest being" should judge us as deserving incineration for absolute evil?