First things first. I do NOT claim to know the answer to this question; therefore this isn't a Christian hit-piece, nor some looney athiest rant. I am simply a human being who doesn’t have all the answers; and am not completely satisfied with the answers I've been provided with during the course of my life. There you have it. Does that help clarify my position? And just so we're absolutely CLEAR, I would much rather offend an athiest, than to offend a person of faith; so this isn't about impugning anyones beliefs - cherished or otherwise.
Now, that said, I believe God exists.
There you have it. I'm a God-believer. Problem is, this not only doesn't end the discussion; it actually complicates it. When I say I believe in God, I'm not necessarily referring to the time-honored traditional version that upwards of 84% of American's believe in. That not only makes me a minority, that makes me an ULTRA-minority; for I believe the majority of the remaining 16% don't believe in God at all. Not all, but most.
Confused? Don't be. Allow me to explain. What do most God-believers think that God is? Is God a bearded, white-robed man of benevolence, sitting on a throne in the sky, who is his own son, and concerning himself with the fates and actions of billions upon billions of culture-bearing primates which have resided for scores of thousands of years on the 3rd planet from our sun? Or might God simply be a harmonious, albeit abstract entity of some sort, which exists within all of nature? Who, or what is The Creator?
Anyone care to comment?
'Dub
What do you think about Prophecy ...telling the future? What do you think about spirits, haunting, ghosts, ect.
ReplyDeleteProphecy? Prophecy can best be defined as "knowledge revealed by God to Man"; therefore ones views on prophesy would seem to depend on how one personally views God. It has been suggested by some Realists that a prophets imagination is the Mind of God; but is no more of a traited gift than being tall, or being a poet. But that brings us right back to Square One: What is God? If God is an abstract force of some sort, which is within all nature; then it could be argued that each and every one of us are within God as well. And if that's the case, then prophets are merely humans whose minds are more prone to imagination, than intellect. They may be in tune with God; but they don't understand any more about God and nature, than those whose minds are more prone to intellect and abstract thinking. And spirits? Ghosts? Who's to say they aren't all part of the natural world; perhaps displaced energy set of from another dimension? I don't have the answers, but I seek them with an open mind; one devoid of the knee-jerk acceptance of customary superstitions whose purposes have long since been lost to antiquity.
ReplyDeleteDub'