Thursday, May 10, 2007

Or What's a Heaven For?

The original name of God, the 4 Hebrew letters yud-hey-vav-hey (YHVH) is very special. We have long since lost the ability to pronounce it and instead use words like Adonai, Yahweh, or Jehovah. I am happy we have lost the ability to name God. In being able to name something, we are given power over it. If you think of all the stories like Rumpelstiltskin, Betelgeuse, and others that exist in other cultures, you will see what I mean. God has always been above definitions. In Exodus 3:13-15, we are told the story of Moses at the Burning Bush talking to God.

Moses said to God, 'So I will go to the Israelites and say, 'Your fathers' God sent me to you.' They will immediately ask me what His name is. What shall I say to them?'

"I will be who I will be" replied God to Moses.
[God then] explained, 'This is what you must say to the Israelites: 'I Will Be sent me to you.' '

God then said to Moses, 'You must [then] say to the Israelites, YHWH the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, sent me to you.' This is My eternal name and this is how I am to be recalled for all generations.


[http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?action=displayanchor&pentid=P1595#P1595 accessed May 10, 2007]

Humans are thirsty for Knowledge. This might be Knowledge about God, Truth, Beauty, basically any Ultimate Idea. We are, of course, starting with the premise that these things exist, which is a pretty big presumption. The difficulty with the search, I have discovered, is that once we define an Ultimate Idea (and in my mind, all these Ultimate Ideas represent the same thing), it ceases to be Ultimate. Definitions are limiting and they give us power over the thing named. Ultimate Ideas are limitless and omnipotent.

At this point, one might ask why bother searching if the answer can't be found. My answer to that existential question is that the end does not justify the means, but the end is the means. The more we learn, the more we realize there is to learn. Perhaps that is why the universe is expanding.


"Don't search for answers, which could not be given you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer..." Rainer Maria Rilke

"A man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?" -Robert Browning

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Jennifer Wiebe
I read that you like D&D, I'm looking for a few D&D people who know the basic rules pretty well. I am developing a game and I am not as familiar with D&D as I would like to be.

if you are interested in helping me out, or just answering a few questions from time to time, please IM me my yahoo IM is frostcomics and my AIM is frostcomics2

Thank you for your time.