*daylia*...your example of Mozart stretches the metaphor pretty far. The most obvious problem is that musicians can, and often do, interpret the instructions of composers pretty freely. Once a composer releases his 'creation', it either doesn't change at all (which 'God's' creation, the universe does), or it changes from outside influences, which reduces the relevance of the 'creator'.

The real importance of the "...proceeds as though he wasn't there." idea is that, despite no real indication FROM a creator as to how we should behave or think¹, we have built a complex set of doctrines...in fact, multiple sets of complex doctrines...all claiming to interpret the 'will' of this creator. The point has been made by others that most of these interpretations seem suspiciously to favor the interpreters.

1.(2000 year old parchment and subjective translation and interpretations of them are hardly clear directions)

We were supposedly given a mind capable of thinking and understanding, 'free will' to use that mind, temptations, and a set of rules to see if we could, in spite of our free will, live within the rules...but we are also, by definition imperfect, so that breaking the rules is almost universal-- thus we ALSO have a set of rules about how to regain favor after our failures...thru confession, prayer, punishment, contrition, etc., etc. And thru all of these complex, often contradictory 'sins' and 'redemptions', we never get direct guidance from the 'rule maker'.

To me, it just gradually became apparent that IF there were rules, and IF I had a mind capable of doubt, it would simply not be fair for a 'creator' to not remind me (us) now & then that he really, really means it!. As it is, my 'free' mind tells me that the absence of reminders casts doubt on the compelling force of the supposed rules.....NO...this does not mean that we are 'free' to do as we please and "do unto your neighbor before he does unto you", because there ARE rational reasons for not doing so. Society needs rules, but the rules need to be designed & adopted by the society, not imposed in awkward configurations from some interpretations of translations of problematical texts in almost forgotten languages from thousands of years ago.





.............(Bill...why don't you just write a complete book and get it all out in an orderly fashion, and quit piling all this on THESE poor folks?)
...............(Oh, I really should, but I needed to start years ago, and I'm torn in too many directions...and besides...they asked!)