----- Original Message ----- From: "Greg Crawford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'insights-l'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, August 14, 2004 2:59 PM Subject: RE: Praying for Rain
> >Yes. And I at no time suggest that God is limited in time and space and to > >only existing within the universe. The point is that I don't so much see God > >as "a being" but "the essence of being." > > OK, that is a little clearer for me. I think I can distinguish between such a > God and say, my understanding of Paul Davies suggestion that the material > universe is somehow predisposed to develop in a particular way that includes > living beings, consciousness and intelligence. Such a predisposition does not > exist outside of the universe itself, because it is an aspect of it. > My simple brain has trouble comprehending existence outside the universe, but I have to believe that something brought about the big bang. I have no problems with the idea that everything that has come into being as we know it now exists in that something which is predisposing it to develop in a particual way and I call that something God. > But what is the difference between "being" and "essence of being"? I have this > image from childhood that essence is something you put into a cake recipe and > that essence is something distilled from another thing, like flavouring. What do > you mean by essence in this context? > I guess I see essence as as the motivating factor or force within all of life (creation) that urges us 'to be'. Metaphors can often mean different things to different people. Another metaphor that I think Matthew Fox uses is that God is like ground water. It mostly remains beneath the surface, occaisionaly comes to the top as a spring but does most of its work unseen. It can also be reached by digging deep into the earth. 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 ------------------------------------------------------
