--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: > > Well, I thought it was spiritual, anyway. Be warned. > > I admit to having been a spotty reader of the evolution vs. creator > thread, but its very presence seems to have precipitated a Darwinian > mutation in me and caused a question to spring into my mind. It was > kinda simple, only three words. But then I thought about those three > words and realized that it posed a question I don't remember having been > discussed before here on Fairfield Life. So I thought I'd pass it along > for group perusal: > > Does God evolve?
Good question. My answer is yes but I see God as a human invented concept to explain things we don't understand, so maybe I'm taking an easy road. Meditating psychoanalyst Erich Fromme had a neat theory about the evolution of God's role. It's a basic parallel between our personal development and our mythological life. He saw the prevalence of mother God figures in hunter-gather societies as indicating our total dependence on nature. Farming communities developed patriarchal Gods with rules and regulations that mirror the second stage of child development in breaking from the mother and learning how to deal with the world. His final religious stage is something like Buddhism where the two elements are integrated and we become free thinking, independent and mature. Which is what happens to the mentally healthy when childhood is done. Obviously he didn't think much of most societies as a neurosis is basically an inability to let go of one or other parent figure, or in this case God. And until man learns to spiritually grow up we'll stay a barbaric and dysfunctional society. He also claimed meditation was the next step in human evolution, which is what got me wanting to learn in the first place. I wish I was proof of his theory..... > > For the purpose of this question, you may define the second word of the > question any way you want. If you think of God as a hoary-bearded Old > Testament dude, does He evolve? If you think of God as more formless and > personality-less and call Him/Her/It the Absolute, does that evolve? > Substitute any euphemism you wish for "God," even the Unified Field, and > whether or not you consider He/She/It sentient or non-sentient. The > question remains: does He/She/It evolve? > > Have fun with this. I have been. >
