Wednesday, August 8, 2012

The Daily Choice


A Serious Way to Begin the Day

Was it Albert Einstein who said that our reason knows practically no limits except how to change the human heart?  If he did not say it, then he should have.  We as people remain our biggest enigma and problem.  What a painful reminder of the anguish of humanity as we landed on Mars and had another massacre at the same time—let alone the other headlines of senseless slaughter.

No question.  The landing on Mars was a tremendous technological achievement.  Somehow, the contraption picture below made a safe landing and will transmit pictures and information for several months.


 

 Yet, at the same time, we saw the same pictures on the television of the mass shooting in the Sihk Temple.  Has anyone else recognized the most tragic part of the event?  There is far less coverage, not the non-stop news cycle for it as there was for the Aurora massacre. Have we grown numb to it?  Is such violence no longer as real to us?  

The biblical story of the Garden of Eden helps to explain the gap between what we know and what we cannot do for ourselves.  The Adam and Eve story can be understood for all Religions for explaining the source of violence in the world.  Instead of living within their limits and boundaries, so to speak, they choose to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  They sought to become their own gods. We can choose to live as God’s creation, within the limits of being human beings to further humanity.  Or, we can be gods in our own right and take the lives of others. 

This week we saw the triumph and tragedy of our humanity.  As God’s creation, we furthered humanity with the Mars landing.  Being false gods, we saw the tragedy of taking human life in another massacre.  

Everyday sets the choice before us.  The followers of any world Religion can serve humanity as members of creation.  Or, we can choose to be godless except for ourselves and perpetrate massacres in many forms.  

That’s a serious way to begin any day.
That’s the real choice of being alive.  

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