a conscious decision

  Voltaire said, " If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him." I don't remember where I read that but it stuck in my head. It came to mind again this morning after reading a posting on Facebook. This posting involved a prayer that was purported to have been said before a session of a state senate. In that prayer, as in most prayers, the word Lord was repeated several times. It is something I have noticed. I wonder why we say, Lord this and Lord that over and over throughout the prayer when we all know who we are praying too. Know what I mean? There's no doubt about who we are addressing, so what's up with that? 

 Well it's my thinking that we need to put a name to something that has no name. That's where the Voltaire quote enters my thinking. Each of us realize that God does exist, although some refuse to admit to that, and feel the need to talk. It would just be awkward talking to ourselves, so we talk to God. God is our conscience. And it is my thinking that our conscience is formed by the culture in which we are raised. There are many articles written by theologians regarding conscience and God and forming the correct moral opinion on any given topic. I read one about informed conscience and learned conscience. The author felt that informed conscience is just what the name implies, what we are told is right. Learned conscience is adopting or rejecting all, or portions, of your informed conscience. I can see that. I'd say that could be called growing up. We should adjust our conscience accordingly. Life does have a learning curve. In recent years we have taken to calling seniors, mature. That isn't always the case but that's another blog. 

 The older I get the more I find myself thinking about such things. I have to say I'm beginning to doubt the existence of a reward beyond death. At the least the idea that I will know that I have died and am enjoying the rewards of a pious existence. But that doesn't negate the necessity for God. In fact I'm thinking expecting a reward from a God for doing what is correct is a bit counter intuitive to the whole concept of God, of goodness, in the first place. Is doing right always a conscious effort? A conscious choice? I don't believe it should be. Have we, as Voltaire suggested, invented a God to satisfy our need? A God that will confirm our choices as correct. For Christians the answers are in the Bible, in other religions it's a different text. All those texts serve the same purpose, provide guidance, encouragement and hope for the future. Indeed hope beyond death.

 A good number of these blog are nothing more than me thinking out loud. I do my best thinking out loud, something my school teachers didn't understand. I do believe in discussion, an open mind to new ideas. Others are sometimes confused when I don't immediately adopt their ideas and call me bull headed and other less than favorable names. Thing is that doesn't mean I'm not listening. It simply means I have decided what I feel is right. I don't think you can be "right" by surrender. That is to say, by giving the alternative or popular answer. One does not gain peace of mind, a clear conscience, by an informed conscience, rather a learned conscience. In short, you do have to decide upon the answer at some point. When you decide upon the answer, you know the answer. How do you know? You simply ask yourself. Isn't that what you are doing when talking to God? You are looking for confirmation of the answer. 

 All of this leads us to another question. How do we determine what is "good" and what is bad? Is good and bad based in conscience? Yes, you'd have to say it certainly is. Social conscience is the driving factor there. Social conscience is informed conscience. If it is the majority decision, it must be right. That's the thinking. When our nation was formed it was formed on learned conscience. That's what the founding fathers attempted to delineate in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The bill of rights concerned itself with the rights of the people. Subsequent amendments further clarified points of law, deciding what is right and wrong. Those amendments were influenced by social conscience, not necessarily learned conscience. And yes, there is a big difference. Also the reason why I do believe this nation needs to turn back to God. In God we trust! Who is God? "If he did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him." We need an electorate that votes with a learned conscience, not an informed conscience. That was the belief the founding fathers had when they created our Republic. It is what they expected from the people. Today the issue is misinformation. The way to correct that is to talk to yourself, or your God, and then decide.