Back Freedom & Serving God 24th Aug 4005

FUNDAMENTALS - GOODNESS & SERVING GOD

The first principle is a belief in ONE ABSOLUTE REALITY, and that this REALITY can be judged on an absolute scale as to whether it is GOOD or BAD.

A world which is GOOD is one where each life is flourishing, finding what it needs to survive and develop, and thus living in harmony with other lives around it. Where this proceeds we can say that the world approaches the state of Heaven.

A world which is bad, finds a clash between what a Life expects or needs, and what it receives, and thus there is discord and misery.

We can imagine GOD as the conscience of the world, willing for the world to be Good, but knowing that we can only be fully alive if we ourselves are free to help create the world we live in.

This creative freedom comes with a responsibility to use it well. In other words we have a duty to actively serve God, and to please him. This we can do by trying to improve the state of the world to the best of our abilities.

We can of course serve God in all our contacts with our fellow men in our daily lives. However also we have a duty to look to the functioning of the wider society, and the welfare of the whole of humanity to the extent that we can have an influence upon it.

FREEDOM - Needed for a life to flourish

If we are free then it means that the world is open to us to travel through. Our minds may roam throughout the 'intellectual space' already created by others, and may seek to augment it with its own fresh observations. In other ways also we are free to roam through all the possibilities of the world until we can find what it that is good for us. This may be for food, for companionship, for protection, for love, for a chance to help others etc.

The opposite of freedom is captivity. This means that we are restricted in our movement so that we cannot reach all the possibilities of the world. The chance then is that we will not be able to find what is good for us, and will live unfulfilled lives or worse distressed or painful ones.

FREEDOM - Needed to serve God.

To serve God also we need to be Free.

Serving God well is helped by a good 'Cognition' - a good mental map of the world , and a good 'Character' - our all-round personality.

Thus to serve God well, we need to be free to develop our Cognition and Character, and also help others to do the same.

Initial development of Cognition and Character happens to us as a child. Adults - whether individually or collectively - need to be free to help steer the development of their children's Cognition and Character in a direction which will be Good for them and for others in future years.

As Adults also, individually and collectively, we need to be free to develop our capabilities.

When developing our Cognition about the world we rely very much on others to help us. Many of us read papers or books, watch TV, or discuss views with others. We are very much helped if we are free to think any thoughts and speak any words. We are very much helped if we can trust that others who are presenting ideas to us our similarly free to speak any words, and are honestly trying to explain the situation to us as best they can.

Gaining a good understanding of the world is very important when trying to decide how best to serve God. If we mis-understand the nature of the world then we will inevitably mis-understand the action that needs to be taken.

Similarly our ability to take the right action may depend on our character. For instance if all our lives we have no experience of taking difficult action then when the need arises we may be overwhelmed by what is required of us and fall short. If we have been conditioned to be only obedient in work, and passive during our entertainment then when active intervention is required our minds may not be able to comprehend.

Thus we need to be free to develop our character. Thus free collectively to create situations in which our indvidual characters can be tested and developed.

However what in a society in which Lucifer is Lord? Then surely he would not wish the population to serve God well. Surely he would control people's thoughts and speech, keep the truth quiet or tell untruths to mystify and confuse them. Surely he would control people's relations with each other and prevent such situations arising which they need to develop their character. Surely he would want a population who are HELD CAPTIVE, not one which is FREE?



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