Chat
01-27-2016, 06:15 AM
Nanny, no, I was not attacking you, nor how you have described the bot runs. But for the uninitiated here, simply calling the bot runs "puzzles," while true, may lead some to forget the far greater purpose and deeper meaning of this "Experiment." I would never want anyone to leave this forum thinking that we are all part of some giant cosmic "game" (such as puzzles are normally seen and used for). What has been ordained since the foundation of the world, is not a game, but a longstanding romance between the Creator and creation.
I wrote above, "To tap into the mind of God, there is wonderful knowledge, but there is painful knowledge too. Such was the Tree in the Garden: the Knowledge of Good *and* Evil. There is a beautiful side to Evil, as there is an unsafe side to Good."
God knows exactly what happened at the moment of original sin, and one might conclude, the Cross sacrifice to redeem such sin was in His heart from the very beginning of time (the magic "deeper still" which C.S. Lewis described).
The story of Job instructs us that Satan and his demons cannot run rampant, independent of God. Satan is, and remains, a creation of God, just as we are. We are also told in Scripture, that God will not allow Satan to tempt us beyond what we can bear. It is a deception in fact of Satan, within the Church, to think of him as an independent being, wholly powerful apart from God, with the ability to destroy God some day, if he wanted to. Believe me, Satan does want and believe he has such power, but if he had such power to destroy God, he would have done so already. (He tried at the Cross, but was foiled in the Resurrection.)
No, there is a far greater purpose in the Biblical story than an ongoing and undetermined battle between God and Satan. Ongoing yes, undetermined no. If it were ever possible that Satan could win, we are all lost forever. But Satan does gain power by what we willingly give him, succumbing to his temptations and fears. God will never force us to react to Satan in a certain way; that would be a negation of free will, and if God is to have an eternal Bride, that Bride must have the free will to reject God. Free will is how we can then notice the beautiful side to Evil, and the unsafe side to Good. And then come full circle to seeing God's purpose from the beginning of time.
I wrote above, "To tap into the mind of God, there is wonderful knowledge, but there is painful knowledge too. Such was the Tree in the Garden: the Knowledge of Good *and* Evil. There is a beautiful side to Evil, as there is an unsafe side to Good."
God knows exactly what happened at the moment of original sin, and one might conclude, the Cross sacrifice to redeem such sin was in His heart from the very beginning of time (the magic "deeper still" which C.S. Lewis described).
The story of Job instructs us that Satan and his demons cannot run rampant, independent of God. Satan is, and remains, a creation of God, just as we are. We are also told in Scripture, that God will not allow Satan to tempt us beyond what we can bear. It is a deception in fact of Satan, within the Church, to think of him as an independent being, wholly powerful apart from God, with the ability to destroy God some day, if he wanted to. Believe me, Satan does want and believe he has such power, but if he had such power to destroy God, he would have done so already. (He tried at the Cross, but was foiled in the Resurrection.)
No, there is a far greater purpose in the Biblical story than an ongoing and undetermined battle between God and Satan. Ongoing yes, undetermined no. If it were ever possible that Satan could win, we are all lost forever. But Satan does gain power by what we willingly give him, succumbing to his temptations and fears. God will never force us to react to Satan in a certain way; that would be a negation of free will, and if God is to have an eternal Bride, that Bride must have the free will to reject God. Free will is how we can then notice the beautiful side to Evil, and the unsafe side to Good. And then come full circle to seeing God's purpose from the beginning of time.