I want to meet God

[ROB]

Yes,!.

I want to meet God,!. The tree that glows bestows the moles. Sardis happens to the Gnomes. They are there--they are everywhere. I want to meet God. He promised me a new life.

Though ages fought on Scotland's lot. Many multiply the pye. None can reach the third-eye. I apologise Kings and Lords. This ancient heart of gold must die,.

:)

[Peachy Nietzsche]

I met God using Cartesian doubt, Kabbalah, and dextroamphetamine as an aid.

God projects himself as a mortal being for the purpose of existential stability; due to omnipotence, his subconscious expectations literally form reality around him.

If you dissect the semantics behind all thought and mental processes, it is revealed that "the will to live" is the innate motive behind all action. All action ultimately boils down to eating, sleeping, reproduction, and homeostasis -- and anything else is merely practicing those things or developing a means of enhancing them.

The only way for God to avoid nihilism (a blatant understanding of the mechanics of the mind and their meaninglessness/simplicity), which would cause existential instability (turning existence into a solipsistic Hell - knowing that nothing around him actually exists and is a product of his imagination), is to willingly forget that he is God, and view himself as mortal.

If we look at monotheistic mythology using Jungian psychology to relate the mythology to unconscious archetypes, we can view "angels" as projections of God's own psychological archetypes. The angel "Lucifer" being the projection of God's pride, whilst the Archangel Michael being a projection of God's humility, love, and faith. The "Great War in Heaven" could then be viewed as God's cognitive dissonance when humility and pride tried to be present at the same time -- in Judeochristian mythology, the "war in heaven" ended with 1/3 of the angels (the ones who followed Lucifer) being cast down to Earth; this supports the concept that in order for God to mitigate cognitive dissonance and nihilism, he had to view certain aspects of himself as mortal.

Knowledge of an inherent nihilism to existence is highly present in Judeochristian works, namely the Old Testament book Ecclesiastes (which translates to "Teacher") - the first chapter of which is "Everything is Meaningless".

[Diebert van Rhijn]

Knowledge of an inherent nihilism to existence is highly present in Judeochristian works, namely the Old Testament book Ecclesiastes (which translates to "Teacher") - the first chapter of which is "Everything is Meaningless".

It actually reads vanity. Or vapor more literally. Vacuous might even the better translation in my opinion.

What I like about Ecclesiastes is the term "vanity of vanities". That's it's empty and meaningless that things are empty and meaningless. Added to that is then it's also all "vexation of spirit" which is often translated with "chasing after wind". But this is strange because the Hebrew word relates often to the spirit or breath of God or Man. It's more like desiring life or even desiring desire. A philosopher could not complain about meaninglessness since he couldn't philosophize without creating meanings in that process, he's first and foremost meaning giver and aware of the giving. It's more like working towards a certain disposition beyond words but through reason.

[Peachy Nietzsche]

Knowledge of an inherent nihilism to existence is highly present in Judeochristian works, namely the Old Testament book Ecclesiastes (which translates to "Teacher") - the first chapter of which is "Everything is Meaningless".

It actually reads vanity. Or vapor more literally. Vacuous might even the better translation in my opinion.

What I like about Ecclesiastes is the term "vanity of vanities". That's it's empty and meaningless that things are empty and meaningless. Added to that is then it's also all "vexation of spirit" which is often translated with "chasing after wind". But this is strange because the Hebrew word relates often to the spirit or breath of God or Man. It's more like desiring life or even desiring desire. A philosopher could not complain about meaninglessness since he couldn't philosophize without creating meanings in that process, he's first and foremost meaning giver and aware of the giving. It's more like working towards a certain disposition beyond words but through reason.

That's interesting, I guess I've never looked into the translations too deeply; I just took the scholar's word for it (whoever wrote the footnotes and introductions for the NIV of the Bible) - where it says the writer's (be it Solomon or a later author) title is "Teacher" from Hebrew "qoheleth"..

[Diebert van Rhijn]

It's always a struggle between academic translators who think in terms of accessibility for the masses while the majority of subject scholars think in terms of context and origin. And with the latter you'd see a preference for various terms, even "absurd" or "enigmatic". They all agree "meaningless" does not make sense in any wisdom tract. It's like translating the Tao Te Ching starting lines as saying the Tao cannot be spoken or named and then having the same author continuing putting it all into words with the greatest amount of effort and skill. It just won't make sense and therefore such isolated phrases need to be understood as attempting to address a complex issue in a poetic and highly ironic short form.

As for this particular scripture, there's a lot to say for reading it as "everything is breath" or "everything is spirit" with double meaning intact. And certainly that everything is always changing like the wind as the text keeps going on about. It's heavily influenced by the Greek school of the Stoics and likely the original text was written by a Jewish-Hellenistic thinker immersed in some Persian melting pot of culture and thought. It's still somewhat of a mystery how the text could end up as it is in the Bible which is generally more promoting a linear interpretation of time and events. Sometimes religious texts look to me like an ark where despite the encapsulation and mindless reverence, some truths have flourished and endured the passing of time.

[Bobo]

"Qoheleth" can be translated as teacher.

What is often translated as vanity of vanities is "havel havalim".

[Diebert van Rhijn]

What is often translated as vanity of vanities is "havel havalim".

After some consideration I think it's mostly a clever play on the word "breath" with meanings of whisper, puff, brief, life, nearly nothing. And think of the way such double construct is used for one of the names of God: elohiym elohiym = god of gods. This means that it's not just another slightly higher ranked god but whatever it is the gods bow to or are created by. It cannot have a statue or face like the others because it's not like that.

The same way one can perhaps understand any "vanity of vanities". It's the distinct and utter futileness of all "things being futile". A whole different order of meaninglessness than just having no meaning. This is an important distinction because otherwise it would sound like a type of nihilism not really found in the context in my view. But enough with the bible study!

"Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind." - Ecc 4:6

[Bobo]

The text start talking about the words of the teacher talking about meaninglessness, "words" are also considered meaningless in the text:

1:1 The words of the Teacher,[a] son of David, king in Jerusalem:
1:2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”

6:11 The more the words,
the more meaningless,
and how does that profit anyone?

5:7 Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore fear God.

Even if wisdom is considered better than folly, it is meaningless because:

3:20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.

2
Wisdom and Folly Are Meaningless

12 Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,
and also madness and folly.
What more can the king’s successor do
than what has already been done?
13 I saw that wisdom is better than folly,
just as light is better than darkness.
14 The wise have eyes in their heads,
while the fool walks in the darkness;
but I came to realize
that the same fate overtakes them both.

15 Then I said to myself,

“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
What then do I gain by being wise?”
I said to myself,
“This too is meaningless.”
16 For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;
the days have already come when both have been forgotten.
Like the fool, the wise too must die!

More on meaninglessness:

Toil Is Meaningless
2
17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. 20 So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. 21 For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. 22 What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? 23 All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? 26 To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

6
1 I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on mankind:
2 God gives some people wealth, possessions and honor, so that they lack nothing their hearts desire, but God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them, and strangers enjoy them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil.

4
Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:

1 I saw the tears of the oppressed—
and they have no comforter;
power was on the side of their oppressors—
and they have no comforter.
2 And I declared that the dead,
who had already died,
are happier than the living,
who are still alive.
3 But better than both
is the one who has never been born,
who has not seen the evil
that is done under the sun.

4 And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Meaninglessness cannot be comprehended, and god is not meaningless:

3:4 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

3:15 Whatever is has already been,
and what will be has been before;
and God will call the past to account.

16 And I saw something else under the sun:

In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

17 I said to myself,

“God will bring into judgment
both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
a time to judge every deed.”

3:21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?
3:22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

[Diebert van Rhijn]

The text start talking about the words of the teacher talking about meaninglessness, "words" are also considered meaningless in the text:

Yes, "much dreaming" and "many words" are idle and vain (or like a vane). Of course not his own because he bothered carefully selecting and writing them anyway. This is why the translation "meaningless" is considered very bad. It's just not what is actually written but it's dumbed down by translators living in a nihilistic age swallowed by shallow, nihilistic readership.

It doesn't take a genius to see the preacher is talking about the nature of everything, which is empty and can at best be described as perceived changes.

[Bobo]

The third verse set the tone on how emptiness is going to be dealt:

Empty emptiness, all is empty.
"What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?"

I read the resolution coming from god, or empty wisdom and empty joy, but not directly from emptiness and not as a resolution.

[SeekerOfWisdom]

Hey ROB, I'm here, nice to meet you.

[ROB]

Forgive me.
I'm not outdated. The reality of it is-
My ancestors were given a tool to which they all took a blow. To the face of death. Imortal values. Like* your not all in a plane of thought b t u.

[ROB]

/" Shame on You God" is all I kept saying today.

[Unidian]

Smoke some Keishas, dude. You'll meet everybody.

[ROB]

You ever read The Pilgrim's Progress?

[Unidian]

I actually missed that one.

[ROB]

Unidian,

The fate of man does not rest on one human being.

When, I was a kid. The words, weren't as brilliant and consequential. I guess.

[Pincho Paxton]

I meet God every time I brush my teeth.

[ROB]

What-
If, Lichen, the material world/Materialism ended in a piece of "'Note" Paper..?
The materialistic God, the Hebrew God, just...placed It/Innobize int-

How He created the world in 7 Days.

Have I? No. He used the phrase, '" Let'/s create man in our own image!',

This was all documented. Hence, we are like Him, Pincho Paxton.
A loving God in return bringeth life.

[ROB]

Hence; we are sinners.

No. Pr.

[ROB]

So, what created the Universe?

The Sun...

[Dan Rowden]

I'm sorry, Rob, but you're out of here, I asked you to post coherently and you either won't or can't. Either way, you can't stay.