Greg wrote: > Allan, > > What is it you find theologically unacceptable, the idea that God is external to > the world, or the idea that God occasionally intervenes? > Primarily, I find there is insufficient evidence to sustain belief in such a God. This understanding of God may well have been sufficient with the old 3 tier understanding of the world. It was easy. With the sky as the dome that seperated the earth from heaven this God (or Gods as the case may be) was seen to control everything from his dwelling place. When things went wrong or people got sick it was because they had done something to offend God.
But we don't live in that world view anymore. We know that the sky is not a dome above the earth and that the earth is simply a speck of dust that exists in a gigantic universe that for most of us is beyond our ability to imagine. We also know that we are really only bacteria that are occupying that speck of dust and that at a micro level there are minute particles that come together to form not only us but all of the visible universe. It seems to me that we are left with two alternatives. (1), that there is no God - that everything exists purely as a matter of chance, or (2) God is something very different from what our ancestors imagined. I, like most people, still believe that there is something at the heart of creation and being that I call God but I cannot justify a belief in a sort of supernatural being who lives 'up there' as judge and controler of all that occurs 'down here'. But I can perceive that God is the source and ground of all being. I can believe that this something that I call God is the very energy (if that is the right term) that motivate or urges the whole of creation into evolving and being and becoming. So this God is not 'out there' or 'up there' controlling and judging, but rather, this God is 'within here' as the 'urge' the push to become, to be. This god does not and cannot be defined or confined to a particular revelation or experience of one tribe of people in a particular time and space because this God is present and part of all people, all life, all matter, all black holes and white dwarfs, as well as non-matter. (Something I cannot really comprehend, but you scientist type people tell me it exists) But this God is part of our human experience. This God is also knowable from within the limited consiousness that we humans hold. I believe that in the man known as Jesus of Nazerath we have seen an expression of God in his humanness that transcends our normal human conciousness and leads us to a fuller expression of God in our own humanity. Grace & Peace Allan > > ------------------------------------------------------ > - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] > - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) > See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm > ------------------------------------------------------ > ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------
