Are we remembering our imagination?

If a friend is trying to help you with an incident you're suffering with, he might ask you: "Can you see it now?" And when you reply that you can, he might say to you: "Well it's not happening now - I don't see anything of the kind!" but you might be embarrassed by that fact. So, when he asks you again, and you say no, what if he responds by saying: "Well if you can't imagine it now, how can you be sure that it really happened?"

What he's done for you is to question the reality of what you saw to recast it as a memory - a memory of your imagination perhaps, but one that can be kept without troubling you.

Endless Evaluation

For example, we live with the seemingly endless accusation that God cursed the sacred creations we were to die. Would it help to give the power to create to those who make the claim? We think not. Plain speech fails because it’s offending to some, but professionals do the same to reach multitudes by hiding behind their own jargon. To be sure of a defense, nothing works as well as careful examination of our own behavior.

Unless we've had some success in the resolution of problems like these, we'll be of little use to those who suffer a similar fate, including God. There is no escape from these judgements without the uncertainty we've found here. So we find freedom by working with others who've also struggled to find that these duties are imposed by the examination of our own conscience.

Obedience to the Unenforceable

Where there is no law which determines our course of action, yet we know we are not free to choose to do as we would. When taking action, or refraining from harmful activity stems from our conscience nearly as strongly as law and is assumed as a duty, or a personal commitment.