Equivalent Trade

I read that fellows of Hermes Trismegistus believe that Divine Providence is The Mind, and all the exist are thoughts of The Mind (still confused as to how that works) Are we referring to the same thing here?

I'm not sure if we are. But as for how divine powers would work... I think it's simply that for a lot of religions, people believe that deities prefer to try to work in small ways through people due to free will. However, I can see where a deity just up and creating something out of the blue would be a bad idea as well.

So instead, they might implant ideas in the heads of living sentient creatures and hope we interpret things the correct way, and find a way to make it ourselves.

Oops! My bad.

Not sure about other species, but somehow that doesn't seem to work out too well for ours. The Dark Ages illustrates just how much liberty we take on interpretations...

That's true. However, I think that if a deity were to try to make something new, they'd have to be careful about how they went about things. After all... interpretation is still better than simply having a deity go "Here, do this right now", and not having a choice in the matter at all. I mean, there goes free will.

At the same time, I think that everyone would freak out if a deity just went and... created something. That would knock the balance of things off-kilter, at least I believe so. And they'd need to destroy something in order to restore said balance. But how do you completely destroy something that could be in the minds/hearts of millions of humans and animals?

You know, there is an old Japanese anime called "Serial Experiments: Lain" that touched on just that. The concept is somewhat similar to "The Matrix", everything is linked through a network, delete a collective memory and something cease to exist.

Perhaps our existence is just a "froze moment" in a sea of infinite possible existence. Like images drawn in the air with moving lasers.

Damn, I really need to switch to decaf...

I've heard of that anime; sometime I should really go and check it out. Anyway, I think that deleting something permanently from the world would be very difficult- and very messy. Here's an example:

Let's say I'm playing a video game-the Sims 2, for this example- and I decide I want to add a mod into the game so I can do something that the original game doesn't come with. It's a particular mod that, once installed, is integral to your playing with your Sims because it shows up in their memories. Let's say you delete this mod later on, and you try to boot up the game as per usual with that one single change. Surprise! The game crashes, because even though the mod or item is gone, it's in the memories of several of the Sims and in the gameplay. You'd essentially need to reinstall the entire original game to get things to work right.

I imagine it'd be sort of like that. What if this deity decided to delete radios? They'd have to get rid of tons of memories- history books, people's memories, actual events of people listening to radios. And what about all the inventions that came after radios due to its invention? Those would need to be deleted as well, and so much of our lives center around such electronics.

Instead, I could imagine a deity trying to suggest to a person or group that radios are evil/are no longer useful, and that it's time to get rid of them. A possible crusade might begin to get rid of them. However, while the radios may no longer be used, their memory is still there. We had them, we know we did, but we believe we no longer want them. The "game" can continue on peacefully.

Sort of a silly analogy, but I hope that explains what's going on in my head right now.

That's actually a very well illustrated point:) I see what you're saying.

Perhaps there can be a way to do that, but not immediately, over time. Let's say I add a collective memory that a word is holy, and will be terrible sin to speak it, teach it or even mention that it exist. Over time, its existence will become forgotten.

Even that would be messy, though. That's like how people have, in the past, attempted to ban books or behaviors. In order to properly ban something, someone has to know what it is that's banned. Which means that at least one person at a time will know of the taboo word or behavior... and therefore, it won't entirely be forgotten. You'd have to weed the word/behavior out of every history book made, but you can't ever be sure that every single publication will have been fixed. Besides, it's human nature to be curious- if it's taboo, then there will be a group somewhere determined to know/remember what it was.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but like I said- it'd be messy to do, and you're right- it would take a very long time and a lot of patience to manage.

One of the reasons I glad that I don't have "Universal creation and management" on my resume LOL! (Btw, Lain is flat out boring for about half of the episodes, then totally mind blowing for the other half)

Hahaha, yeah, it looks like a pretty hard, thankless job all around, doesn't it? And thanks for the heads up on the anime- I'll keep that in mind!

The best way to experience karma is to have a major spell backfire, no?;)

I find it odd why anyone would be willing to lose control of his or her life just to avoid responsibility. But somehow most humans do that (does that make us freaks?)

and here im called the freak because i take great care and try very hard to see to it that my actions are honorable ones so that i dont suffer from the return of it to me. obsess and stress over everything before i make a move, nitpick everything to its core so i know exactly what im doing and if its going to harm anyone in any direction.. is it defense or is it vengeance? is it right or is it wrong? am i acting from anger or is it justice?? the constant questioning is a daily thing.. but thats just me ..;shrugs;..

Some of us are willing to live with that burden, because we do care:) Like one of my favor authors Scott Cunningham wrote: "Walk lightly...breathe deeply...harm none and discover the wonders that magic has to offer"

its nice to know im not the only one out there who lives by the Law.. not just some of the time, but ALL the time.

one of my favorite quotes..

"The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be; and if we observe, we shall find, that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice of them."~Socrates~