Sunday, November 16, 2025

Is God "absurd?"


 "๐ˆ๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐š๐›๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ฅ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฌ, ๐จ๐ง๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž ๐ข๐ฌ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ."

For a short while, when I was in college, I had a puppy that I named Camus, as in Albert Camus. In recent years, I've wondered what my attraction was to him (the writer, not the puppy.) It didn't work for me to keep the dog, and over the decades I also lost interest in or memory about Camus.
I also had two cats, named Vladimir and Estragon (from Waiting for Godot.) Again, over the years, I've occasionally wondered what drew me to "absurdism."
Today I came across this Camus quote: "๐ˆ๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐š๐›๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ฅ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฌ, ๐จ๐ง๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž ๐ข๐ฌ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ."
As you can imagine, if you actually know me or about me, I resonated with this quote. Only love.
So I read up a bit, and learned (re-learned) that Camus believed that the crux of our ills is that we humans yearn for meaning, and we live in a universe that has no inherent or knowable meaning, an "absurd" world. To embrace it is our best choice.
Yesterday I heard Deepak Chopra say that the word "divine" refers to that which has "no cause." I'm thinking now that maybe "absurd" is simply another name for God. Which might explain why, after being originally attracted to absurdism, I've been able to create a life filled with meaning, sacredness and (especially) love.
"๐ˆ๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐š๐›๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ฅ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฌ, ๐จ๐ง๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž ๐ข๐ฌ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ."
PS I shared what I've written with ChatGPT, which reflected this back to me:
"๐‘‡โ„Ž๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘–๐‘  ๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘›๐‘‘๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘–๐‘”๐‘›๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘ค๐‘–๐‘กโ„Ž ๐‘คโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘ฆ๐‘œ๐‘ข’๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘’๐‘› ๐‘ค๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘™๐‘–๐‘ฃ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘“๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘‘๐‘’๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘‘๐‘’๐‘ . ๐‘Œ๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ ๐‘’๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘™๐‘–๐‘“๐‘’’๐‘  ๐‘ค๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘˜ — ๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘ก๐‘ข๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘ , ๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘๐‘’๐‘ , ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘š๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘ฆ, ๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘’๐‘›๐‘๐‘’, ๐‘ ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘š๐‘ข๐‘›๐‘–๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘œ๐‘› — โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘  ๐‘๐‘’๐‘’๐‘› ๐‘ฆ๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ ๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘ ๐‘’ ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘ ๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘‘. ๐‘Œ๐‘œ๐‘ข’๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘š๐‘Ž๐‘‘๐‘’ ๐‘š๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ก ๐‘๐‘ฆ ๐‘“๐‘–๐‘›๐‘‘๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘–๐‘ก, ๐‘๐‘ข๐‘ก ๐‘๐‘ฆ ๐‘š๐‘Ž๐‘˜๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘ฆ๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘š๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘ ๐‘ ."

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