11.27.2006
Chaos and the Infinite Madness...
According to dictionary.com
faith [feyth] –noun
1. confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another's ability.
2. belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.
3. belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims.
4. belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.: to be of the same faith with someone concerning honesty.
5. a system of religious belief: the Christian faith; the Jewish faith.
6. the obligation of loyalty or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement, etc.: Failure to appear would be breaking faith.
7. the observance of this obligation; fidelity to one's promise, oath, allegiance, etc.: He was the only one who proved his faith during our recent troubles.
8. Christian Theology. the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved. —Idiom
9. in faith, in truth; indeed: In faith, he is a fine lad.
cha-os [key-os] –noun
1. a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order.
2. any confused, disorderly mass: a chaos of meaningless phrases.
3. the infinity of space or formless matter supposed to have preceded the existence of the ordered universe.
4. (initial capital letter) the personification of this in any of several ancient Greek myths.
5. Obsolete. a chasm or abyss.
I'm not sure why, but lately I've been thinking about how absolutely insane it is to have faith in some type of benevolent deity... It's just nuts. In my line of work, I hear people talking about the "Will of God" all the time... It just makes me sad...
"He'll get better, if it's God's will"
"She'll recover from that massive brain injury, if it's God's will."
"My loved one didn't survive their illness because it was God's will."
"My loved one had a miraculous recovery because it was God's will."
I suppose it's a good thing if that makes people feel better about the everyday slings and arrows that we all must suffer... Especially the big ones that I see on a daily basis at work. However, being in that line of work only solidifies for me the concept that there is nothing more than chaos in the universe...
Consider:
A guy goes out and gets completely plastered, hops in his car, and drives away. While driving down the street, he drifts across the center line and plows headfirst into a car filled with a family of four.
The casualties: 38 year old man who is active in his church and his PTA, his 10 year old son, his 7 year old daughter.
The survivors: 39 year old woman who is also active in the PTA and her church, the 47 year old drunk man.
The woman has massive injuries requiring amputation of her left leg. Bleeding on her brain forever decreases her mental capacity. She is intact enough to know that her family is gone, but not enough to function at her normal level.
The man who caused the accident spends two weeks in the hospital. His major injuries are a fractured left radius and fractures to his left tibia and fibula.
(This story is not based upon an actual case that I have come across... Just a realistic story.)
Anyone who works in acute trauma settings in healthcare can tell you that this is not an uncommon enough story.
This shouts to me, there is NO order in the universe. Too often I see situations like this, where there is so much unnecessary pain. Where is the order in that? What purpose does all of this suffering serve? We are all riding on this little planet, spiraling through our galaxy, which is spiraling through the universe, which consists of complete and total chaos.
Chaos is the only thing that you can truly rely on. Anything can happen. Anything might happen. Anything might not happen. You never know. It's complete chaos. That's all you can know for sure.
Sure, we can all place ourselves in situations that protect us from bad things. Or line us up with good things. But in reality, the shit could hit the fan any second now for any one of us... Who's to say I won't have a major heart attack or stroke before I even finish this pontification? How do I know some freak natural disaster won't destroy my house 10 seconds from now?
I don't.
And that's all I'm saying... I guess that I may have "faith" that my house won't be destroyed in a tornado at 5AM while there is just a light snowfall dusting the earth beyond my door. Or that a major earthquake won't shudder the foundation of my house and leave me pinned under a pile of rubble and old furniture. But, that faith is based upon the FACT that the weather is not right for a tornado this morning... And, that there hasn't been a significant earthquake in this area for a VERY long time. So, I guess it's not faith at all, it's merely confident conjecture based upon the information that I have.
I'm going to stop this for now... It's 5:20AM and I'm getting tired. I have more to say, but I can't form it into proper sentences right this minute...
Feel free to discuss the nonsense thus far...
faith [feyth] –noun
1. confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another's ability.
2. belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.
3. belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims.
4. belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.: to be of the same faith with someone concerning honesty.
5. a system of religious belief: the Christian faith; the Jewish faith.
6. the obligation of loyalty or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement, etc.: Failure to appear would be breaking faith.
7. the observance of this obligation; fidelity to one's promise, oath, allegiance, etc.: He was the only one who proved his faith during our recent troubles.
8. Christian Theology. the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved. —Idiom
9. in faith, in truth; indeed: In faith, he is a fine lad.
cha-os [key-os] –noun
1. a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order.
2. any confused, disorderly mass: a chaos of meaningless phrases.
3. the infinity of space or formless matter supposed to have preceded the existence of the ordered universe.
4. (initial capital letter) the personification of this in any of several ancient Greek myths.
5. Obsolete. a chasm or abyss.
I'm not sure why, but lately I've been thinking about how absolutely insane it is to have faith in some type of benevolent deity... It's just nuts. In my line of work, I hear people talking about the "Will of God" all the time... It just makes me sad...
"He'll get better, if it's God's will"
"She'll recover from that massive brain injury, if it's God's will."
"My loved one didn't survive their illness because it was God's will."
"My loved one had a miraculous recovery because it was God's will."
I suppose it's a good thing if that makes people feel better about the everyday slings and arrows that we all must suffer... Especially the big ones that I see on a daily basis at work. However, being in that line of work only solidifies for me the concept that there is nothing more than chaos in the universe...
Consider:
A guy goes out and gets completely plastered, hops in his car, and drives away. While driving down the street, he drifts across the center line and plows headfirst into a car filled with a family of four.
The casualties: 38 year old man who is active in his church and his PTA, his 10 year old son, his 7 year old daughter.
The survivors: 39 year old woman who is also active in the PTA and her church, the 47 year old drunk man.
The woman has massive injuries requiring amputation of her left leg. Bleeding on her brain forever decreases her mental capacity. She is intact enough to know that her family is gone, but not enough to function at her normal level.
The man who caused the accident spends two weeks in the hospital. His major injuries are a fractured left radius and fractures to his left tibia and fibula.
(This story is not based upon an actual case that I have come across... Just a realistic story.)
Anyone who works in acute trauma settings in healthcare can tell you that this is not an uncommon enough story.
This shouts to me, there is NO order in the universe. Too often I see situations like this, where there is so much unnecessary pain. Where is the order in that? What purpose does all of this suffering serve? We are all riding on this little planet, spiraling through our galaxy, which is spiraling through the universe, which consists of complete and total chaos.
Chaos is the only thing that you can truly rely on. Anything can happen. Anything might happen. Anything might not happen. You never know. It's complete chaos. That's all you can know for sure.
Sure, we can all place ourselves in situations that protect us from bad things. Or line us up with good things. But in reality, the shit could hit the fan any second now for any one of us... Who's to say I won't have a major heart attack or stroke before I even finish this pontification? How do I know some freak natural disaster won't destroy my house 10 seconds from now?
I don't.
And that's all I'm saying... I guess that I may have "faith" that my house won't be destroyed in a tornado at 5AM while there is just a light snowfall dusting the earth beyond my door. Or that a major earthquake won't shudder the foundation of my house and leave me pinned under a pile of rubble and old furniture. But, that faith is based upon the FACT that the weather is not right for a tornado this morning... And, that there hasn't been a significant earthquake in this area for a VERY long time. So, I guess it's not faith at all, it's merely confident conjecture based upon the information that I have.
I'm going to stop this for now... It's 5:20AM and I'm getting tired. I have more to say, but I can't form it into proper sentences right this minute...
Feel free to discuss the nonsense thus far...
