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Sarah Palin's Word Salad of the Day, With Extra Satan

241
CuriousLurker2/23/2012 11:38:38 am PST

re: #208 Interesting Times

It’s defended through all that “potter and the clay” crap* - namely, that because God has all the power to make people take whatever form and purpose he wants, they have no right to complain about their lives, fate, anything - all they can basically do is say the “you’re in charge God, so do whatever” prayer and be done with it.

*I did a search for “free will” on this page, and by fantastic coincidence, it was nowhere to be found.

Omar Khayyam went through a stage where he was questioning the whole free will/sin concept, with many of the poems being part of the “Potter’s Row” series in the Rubaiyat. Unfortunately, he never mentioned how (or even if) he resolved the apparent paradox. ;)

When, bending low, God moulded me from clay
Incontrovertibly my life was ordered:
Without his order I abstain from crime.
Why should I burn then, On His Judgment Day?

That sin is irresistible, He knows;
Yet he commands us to abstain from sin.
Thus irresistibiity confounds us
With prohibition:—’Lean, but never fall!’

The clay from which this human form was moulded
Forewarned a hundred wonders for me; yet—
Could I be worse or better than I am
Who was, even before he fashioned me?

On every path I take, your snares are spread
To entrap me, should I walk without due care.
Utter extremes acknowledge Your vast sway.
You order all things—yet You call me rebel?

If sinfully I drudge, where is your mercy?
If clouds darken my heart, where is your light?
Heaven rewards my practice of obedience;
Rewards well-earned are good—but what of grace?

You, always cognizant of every secret;
Who succour all flesh in its hour of need,
Grant me repentance, grant me mercy, too—
You who forgive all, you who punish all.

Ordaining every cause for life or death,
Guarding this tattered robe we call the Sky,
Say, am I sinful? Are you not my Master?
Who sins when you alone created me?

Our Guardian chose our natures. Is He then
Delinquent when he treats us with disorder?
We ask: ‘Why break the best of us?’ and murmur:
‘Is the pot guilty if it stands awry?’

—From The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam (Graves & Shah translation), Verses 82-88, 92 [Much better than the Fitzgerald translation, IMO]