Sterling Terrell

smart ideas from books

God And Sin

God And Sin

This story about God and sin made me laugh at first.

But then I puzzled over it for a bit.

It’s hard to know exactly what the case would be unless you want to dive off into the serious theology of it.

For what is sin anyway?

Romans 1:20 talks about God revealing himself in nature.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 talks about God revealing himself in the hearts of people.

So maybe telling the Eskimo did not change anything at all?

Somewhere, and I can’t find where, I read about an Eskimo hunter who asked the local missionary priest, “If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?” “No,” said the priest, “not if you did not know.” “Then why,” asked the Eskimo earnestly, “did you tell me?”

-Annie Dillard, Pilgrim At Tinker Creek

Fate Decides Our Future

Fate Decides Our Future

Fate decides our future? Or, is it something else?

I mean, is anyone or anything deciding anything? Or is all of this without sense?

For fate is an odd thing.

First, you have to decide if you are stardust without free-will, or if you are something more, with agency and meaning.

There are large implications here to which one you choose.

Ethics does not arise from determinism, no matter how much you wish it would.?

And there is even something poetic about which way destiny tilts.

Maybe even in death?

Providence determined how I would say goodbye.

-Patti Smith, Just Kids