I wrote: > > Here's an analogy I've heard: Imagine a statue the size of the entire > > United States. Imagine that this statue is incredibly detailed. You >can > > spend your whole life studying the details of one small area, maybe > > occasionally stepping back to get a bigger picture view. But the >further > > back you stand, the less detail you see. > > > > I think the point of this analogy is that there are a lot of different > > beliefs, a lot of different ways of believing, but maybe all beliefs (or > > most, or at least many) are simply describing details from different >parts > > of the statue.
Marvin replied: >The natural consequence of the metaphor, however, is that the God of any >given theism is just a way of describing one of these miniscule details. >To then project that God as a definition of the entire statue would be a >theistic fallacy, but that is what theists do as a rule in the >Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions. One of the biggest problem I have with current organized Christianity and many of it's supporters is that they say God is omniscient, omnipotent, and just sort of generally infinite or trans-finite, and but then they start putting in limits. I say, if S/He/It is infinite in any form, then there is no possible human, finite description that can encompass all of God. In other words, you are correct in saying that projecting a limited definition would be a theistic fallacy, but I personally don't buy into those limited definitions, and neither do many others. There is an old Celtic belief quoted frequently in modern stories that are set in ancient Celtic times; "Never mock the face by which someone finds God." It's a recognition that there are many names, many aspects, of God (or The Goddess or the gods or however you wish to refer to that which is divine), but they are all just aspects of an underlying whole. Modern ecumenicism of the type Dan describes seems to embrace this ethos to some degree. The basics of many religions are the same, they just vary in the details. The important thing is not the specific history of the religion, it's the spirituality of the individual. Reggie Bautista _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
