[Note: I wrote this draft some 5 years ago or more... it was stored on "MY Page" here, so decided to make it a Forum piece, today. It is incomplete...]
God Cares About the Role of Fear
You can see I am on a roll with this theme, of who (what) cares about the role of fear. It seems a basic way to bring the philosophical, theological, theoretical and practical issues of a big part of the Fearlessness Movement to the table. Inviting engagement in this discussion, one that societies do not generally partake in with any systematic seriousness, let's take a moment on "God Cares About the Role of Fear" (inspired by Terry Biddington, a Christian, and his latest Comment posting on his critique of "orthodox theology" as fear-based and that isn't leading much of humanity that follow such theologies down a good road). A similar dialogue took place with this basic critique on the blogpost "Education, Theology and Fear: Dialogue" (May 1, 2016, Fisher, Coyne, Beddington). Also, Desh Subba, a non-Christian, posted Aug. 8, 2016 a poster he made after reading much of the Bible and is out lecturing on it... i.e., a quote in Job 28: "The Fear of the Lord--that is wisdom." We have a theme here folks!
As a fearologist, I have long been interested in this theme of what "God" (however, that notion is constructed, verb in process, noun, merely as a projection of human consciousness that names such a divine entity, or whatever other meanings are out there) thinks about the nature and role of fear and that in relation to being a good human being living a sustainable and just life with all of Creation not against it.
Oh, yes, "God" has spoken lots, written lots... I'm playfully saying this in the sense that all human beings who have said a lot, written a lot, and taught a lot about God and fear (and still are) in a religious/spiritual context have obviously never agreed on any "one" truth about the matter, of what I'll call good fear management/education (FME). The literature across time and cultures is vast, and I haven't even specialized in studying this area, theology--it's overwhelming to tackle. And, yet, it is very important to consider to guide humanity into the challenging future--where, we are going to be facing a whole lot more fear in quantity and quality like never before as part of the cascading global crises.
All I know for sure... from my study of this FME in religious/spiritual contexts, is that God definitely cares about the nature and role of fear (FME). And, it looks like there are several of us on the FM ning who care as well. We have perhaps, a unique forum, space of dialogue, to "work through" some of the issues and maybe even discover something new that will be helpful.
A FEW DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES on How God Cares About Fear
a) Philosophy of Fearism (Subba)[1]
To make my brief start on this, it seems that from a philosophy of fearism (a la Subba's atheistic) perspective, it is just natural and cultural and the way it is that "God" would emerge via human motivations as a centralizing mystery, authority, creator of ultimate meaning and ethical direction, because humans were afraid. Subba says that is not the problem, and, in fact we ought to see that as beautiful and intelligent and part of the growth and evolution of our fledging species (Homo sapiens) barely on the earth and its long history but a few minutes of geo-biological time perhaps.
End Note
1. At this point, I'll keep this simple and not confuse my own views, as also a major contributor to the philosophy of fearism perspective.
Replies
The Elohim cares about fearlessness.
Nice. I am glad to hear this. In my researching 'voices' of support for this Fearlessness Movement over the years, I have found some great quotes. This one by Traksa is a new addition. "God is fearlessness," -Mahatma Gandhi. "Don't fear fearlessness," -14th Dalai Lama
Hello! When I replaced god with Elohim I was referring to our ET creators the Elohim.