Hello again,
two further qeuestions, please.
1) Should mankind pray like the jews do and only praise/worship god or is it ok to ask for personal things (isn't it "overbearing")? E.g.: Why pray for a special person. Why not pray for whole mankind?
2) Is God almighty? When yes, how can you explain evolution? Why does God need such regulation/circumstances? It rather appears to be an experiment. Is God maybe limited himself?
—Simon, Germany
Dear Simon,
In response to your second question:
There is obviously a power and an intelligence far greater than we can even comprehend which created the vast universe. Somewhat like a scientist or an inventor creating a mechanism, God has created the universal mechanism. Through observation, we begin slowly to at least appreciate some of its aspects.
One of them is “order.” From geological strata to the complexities of the human system, there seems to be order and patterns which are operative.
There also appears to be a cyclical nature to many of the universe’s functions: the cycles of the seasons, of the movement of the planets and their satellites, of the grow, decline, and transformation of everything from flowers to civilizations. Birth, evolution, decline, transformation.
Is God in charge of the whole show?
Think of a father with a young child of two years old. Relative to the child, the father is “almighty:” he has the strength, the experience, the power, the authority to direct the child or force the child to do anything he wants. But does a wise father do so? He knows that while he must protect the child, he also must permit it to have the experiences necessary that it become in time a wise father. So the wise father uses his wisdom more than his power.
Is God limited by His creation?
Think now of a symphony orchestra, each person playing his own instrument as he follows the musical score. The score is given, how the musician plays it is up to him. And, to a great extent, to the orchestra conductor, who tries to bring out the best in each musician and create a harmonious blend of them all.
Is the majesty of the composition circumscribed by the way in which the players perform and the conductor guides them? Admittedly, Mozart or Beethoven can be badly performed. But that performance in no way diminishes the splendor of the piece.
In a deeply esoteric sense, however, creation itself is a limitation of. Just as one of Mozart’s symphonies does not express the entirety of his genius, so the creation does not express that vastness of God’s infinite consciousness.
Most practically for us, we want to discover which is our instrument and how to play it well, all the time loving the Composer and remaining in awe of His majestic music.
