Part I:
Well, when I really want to go to sleep early a big subject always gets stuck in my head. A favorite topic of my brain is religion. Here's how I see it.
God is the father and we are the kid. Now, say the father goes out and builds the kid this amazing tree house. As far as I see it he wants the kid to go out and enjoy it while it's there. Sure he'd like the kid to stop by and say how nice it is but he doesn't want the kid at his feet the whole time talking about how great it is. I see God the same way. Sure he likes prayer, but I don't see him requiring large amounts of it as some people think is necessary. He wants us to go out and enjoy what he has created us. Because someday we as the children will have to go back into father's house and the old tree house will be taken down. Prayers great, but don't spend your whole life in a church. I also don't understand some of the ceremonies. I know that many people are just used to them, you know, as a tradition. But I'd think God would like us to worship him in our own way, not just a certain way because what a pope decided that should be the way It's like thanking your dad with a Hallmark card, sure he'll like it, but I bet he'd like a personalized card better. I also don't get the pope (I'm not Catholic obviously, and I'm not trying to offend anyone, just my views) or the whole asking a priest for forgiveness. Isn't that like ruining your father's favorite chair and then asking your brother for you father's forgivness? Anyway, I just had to get all of this out of my head, feel free to agree or disagree. Like I said, I'm not trying to force my views on people, it's just my own interpretation.
Part II:
So I was up late tonight (or this morning, whichever you please to call it) and I was reading my Bible, half for class and half for the fun of it. I saw in the introduction to the New Testament that 400 years had passed since the events in the Old Testament. Now 400 years is a pretty long time and it got me to thinking, it has been around 2000 years since the NT events happened, and I think I have an explaination for this.
If you read my last note you know that I love using the father/children comparison when talking about God and us human beings. Now in the OT you have lots of interaction with God and people, I view it as this, the human race is still very young, very much in need of guidance. At this point in history we needed our Father's help more than ever, to get us started off on the right foot. Now we started growing up a little and God gave us our space, knowing that there are things we must do and learn on our own, just as a father knows when raising his children.
About 400 years pass and God see's that the human race is entering a little bit of a teenage stage, we feel as though we should be on our own, but we're not quite sure yet. Jesus is born and the human race recieves guidance once again from the Father, a kind of final guidance before humanity as a group must enter into it's adult life.
I believe that now the human race is in what I would call it's "Early Adulthood" stage of life. We believe that we are independant and able to do anything on our own. We feel invincible yet a little uncertain. This is why at this point in history there are more people turning away from religion than before. Just as children act like they don't need their parents anymore the human race is acting this way about God. Humans feel as though they surely have learned things on their own and can explain everything without the help of the Father (just take a look at the church of Scientology)
Humans use up natural resources, pollute the air, and ignore the consequences; just as younger adults party, drive fast, and also ignore the consequences. I'm not saying there is anything essentially wrong with this, as it's a natural process of things.
Someday, I don't know how many hundreds of years down the road, the human race will have matured into a sort of middle age. We will realize what love we have from our Father and embrace him once again. As children become parents will the human race realize that they must take responsibility over it's closest child, the planet Earth.
I will always strongly hold that Father/Child connection closely to my heart. To view the human race as one whole, as a person progressing down the road of life, explains a lot of things to me. Now I'm not saying that I'm 100% correct with all of this, this isn't my answer to everything. I am not standing on a mountaintop proclaiming that I know the plans of God. I just ponder on these issues and try to explain them to myself, and maybe even others, in the most simple way possible and I feel that by thinking and soul searching, that is the best way to get close to our Father.
