Hello MooneyeMadison . Thank you for entering this month's contest.

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Grill a Christian  (13+) A writing contest exploring life, the universe, and God. Christian moderation-all welcome. #2327636 by LightinMind

As the official Judge of this contest, I have the following comments to offer for "WHO AM I?" 

Did you answer the question?

The basic question I was asking was were you a miracle or an accident, a product of material forces compelled by chance, or one of supernatural design? You focused your answer on the question of personal identity and purpose set in the context of a transcendent Creator intimately involved with the created order and Aristotelian perspective that read design and order in all things. So I think you did indeed answer the question in your unique way.

Use of quotes, proof-texting or AI - could I hear your voice?

You quoted from the bible and Aristotle in a way that integrated with your argument and expressed an understanding of what was being quoted. However, you did not seem to realize that these two models of understanding are contradictory. Your voice was trapped between these two perspectives and maybe pantheism also and I struggled to hear it.

How consistent was your argument?

You seemed to start your argument as an Intelligent Design creationist and end it as an Aristotelian or maybe a pantheist.

Aristotle believed the world is eternal and not created and that God did not set a beginning, indeed God is rather redundant in his natural philosophy and it was Plato that developed the notion of a personal and transcendent God for the Greeks. The Jews of course were already articulating that a thousand years before Aristotle was even born.

The Christian view is that only the transcendent God is eternal and that the universe has a beginning and an end. In that sense, we are special acts of creation, and the life that God has breathed into us distinguishes us from animals and mere participation in the materialistic drama of the natural order.

Your argument seemed squeezed between Aristotle and Christianity and you appeared to be still in the process of working both through rather than having picked a side. Since it took more than a thousand years for the church as a whole to work through the enduring power of Aristotle's model of understanding this is perhaps understandable. You integrated the two by suggesting that both considered there to be a purposeful design to the universe rather than it being merely random. But Aristotelian categorization of the natural order did not necessarily attribute that order and symmetry to God's creativity and continued sustaining of creation but rather regarded it as an intrinsic property of an eternal universe of which God was the Unmoved Mover.

Aristotle categorized the natural order in terms of inherent principles of motion, change, and purpose looking for causes. God is the ultimate cause, the unmoved Mover. But this notion of God is not of a personal and transcendent Creator. His God does not interfere and is more an abstract philosophical answer to conundrums raised by his real focus on the natural order.


My thoughts on the substance of what you said

You seemed to end your account by suggesting an almost pantheistic unity and oneness to being. You could have simply meant that there was a butterfly effect to every act of good or evil that vibrated throughout creation. However, the implication of your words suggested pantheism instead, this would then be a third position implicit in the text as Aristotle was not a pantheist as articulated above - as the universe and God were not identical to him.

I am not one with you though we may share a common bond in Christ. Nor am I one with the universe. Like all creatures I can see materialistic processes at work in my being yet I can also see supernatural ones born of my Creator. We are made in God's image out of the material of His creation. We are both a part of the universe and yet also reaching and aspiring to that higher unity that is a product of God's breath in us and His design of us in His image. We are a miracle beyond the understanding of those who reduce reality to merely natural forces and yet so also our lives are situated in physical bodies and in a natural order governed by clear and observable scientific laws. If God did not transcend the universe and if He lacked the personal care to reveal Himself to us the universe would be a very different place.

Aristotle's weakness is that he does not understand creation, the nature of God, or the true purpose of human beings as being to love and serve God. God created ex nihilo and existed before creation began. God is not some kind of abstract principle but rather warm and personal. Jesus incarnated and dwelt with us. His Spirit indwells the church today. Our purpose is not a product of natural causes but is found in a relationship with God that transcends time, space and energy-mass. It is God-focused not human-focused. Aristotle also had no conception of how sin and evil had corrupted things and broken the world and the need for redemption that entailed. He lacked theological depth and while his thoughts resonate with an atheistic naturalistic paradigm subscribed to by many today he is not being real about the nature of God, creation or indeed humanity.

On the one hand, we are material beings hurtling through the cosmos at thousands of miles an hour, our bodies a tumultuous storm of continual changes. On the other, we are beings centered in a relationship with God that is eternal and cannot be broken.
We are miracles placed inside creation that can reach outside it to eternity, souls with bodies and bodies with souls. We can be at peace and smiling while we take the rollercoaster of life.

Mechanical issues

There are a large number of mechanical issues, which implies that you did not just cut and paste this from an AI and that it was original work, but these need working on. This is where you lost stars.

While, intrinsically vast, complex, and purposeful, this Intelligence [intelligence] is merely a facet of the Supreme Creator - No comma after while and lose the capitalization of intelligence.

How could one possibly begin to understand such a, seemingly, unconceivable Source [inconceivable source] of Divinity?

Surely, we can not [cannot] claim to understand the beginng [beginning],

religiously, philosophically, ect..) - etc...

governed by this fundamental principal [principle].

If every subatomic particle of our being has a purpose [,] how could one possibly rationalize that our lives, as a whole, do not?

I am an energetic, spiritual, being,

The vibrational patterns, or frequencies [,] that we emit into the universe will either help or hinder, not only our self [ourselves], but the collective consciousness as a whole.


Thanks again for entering.
LightinMind

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My Philosophy of Rating and Reviewing  (E) How do I assess people's work when reviewing? #2259390 by LightinMind

My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!" .