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No, it's not that there are parts that I can understand, and parts that you can understand, and they are different parts, but that there are aspects of God that we, as substantially different beings, simply cannot understand.
One example would be God's eternal nature -- many people say things like "how can God have no beginning? How can he always have existed?" because everything that we know, from ourselves to the universe to abstract things like ideas, all have discrete beginnings and, we assume, will have eventual endings. But God doesn't, he just is. Always was, always will be. God has no relationship to the concept of time -- because he is eternal and external to this reality, everything, past, present and future, exists in the moment for God.
FlyersFan
AfterInfinity
Frankly, I see a lot of discrepancies between Jesus and God in the Bible.
It's hard to find God in the Old Testament. A lot of it is myth and folklore and people claiming to have a directive from God ... but in reality they are mass murdering and raping and using God as an excuse to do so. The New Testament is a separate book for good reason. It is capable of standing on it's own very well.
Study Buddhism and find out.
Have you seen a comparison of Jesus teachings and Buddahs? Very similar. Christianity kind of looks like a cross between Buddhism and Judaism.
AfterInfinity
Stop pretending to have the first inkling of an idea what a god is all about. You aren't fooling anyone who doesn't want to be fooled.
Well, nice to see that you're back to your old cranky, arrogant self who thinks that he knows everything.
Yes, there are things that we can know about God, and they are rooted in what has been revealed to us through scripture, experience, and reasoned through both cataphatic (positive) and apophatic (negative) theology.
The fact that you are willfully ignorant in matters such as philosophy and theology does not mean that everyone is.
AfterInfinity
Sticks and stones, my friend, sticks and stones...incidentally, I find it quite interesting that you would rather attack my integrity and knowledge base than actually address a single point I have raised in this thread. Quite interesting indeed.
You claimed that anyone who said that they had full knowledge of God was full of it, and I agreed -- citing Augustine's Doctrine of Incomprehensibility.
You then attempted to extend that doctrine to say that neither I, nor anyone, could know anything about God, which is obviously invalid.
No, a deist couldn't know anything about their brand of god, but I am not a deist, I am a believer in a religion that says that God has revealed some aspects of himself to us, and through that revelation, and through positive and negative theology, we have some knowledge of God, because he is comprehensible, in part.
Because in that tiny bit, there's still hope.
As long as there is a glimmer of hope, people still look for a future. That's the one thing you miss out on. The glimmer of hope for some people. That's all some people have in this life, is a glimmer of hope.
Yes, I would stake my life on that tiny bit, because in that tiny bit is still hope. I think it is really cruel to remove hope from people, not matter how small it is.
AfterInfinity
One thousandth of infinity is still infinity. This means that no matter how much you claim to know, it's still too much for a human being.
Prezbo369
Hmm, this 'God' is unfathomable and unknowable to us mere mortals so he sent us a vague and easily misinterpreted series of books so we could then learn all it/he/she thought we needed to know about it/him/her?
Hasn't worked out very well, you'd expect more from someone/thing claiming to be omniscient...
If God is good, and you know that God is good, then you know something about God -- where does infinity come into it?
AfterInfinity
reply to post by adjensen
If God is good, and you know that God is good, then you know something about God -- where does infinity come into it?
I don't know that he's good. I don't even know that he exists. If he does, its in a form that can't touch this reality without breaking it.
There is no hope in natural universe.
AfterInfinity
reply to post by adjensen
If God is good, and you know that God is good, then you know something about God -- where does infinity come into it?
I don't know that he's good. I don't even know that he exists. If he does, its in a form that can't touch this reality without breaking it.
windword
reply to post by WarminIndy
There is no hope in natural universe.
I disagree with you Indy. I think there is hope in the natural universe, and that we are all connected in life as well as afterward. We are connected to each other's pain and we are becoming better with each other. We all rise together, albeit at different rates.
The spiritual is part of the natural universe, and God is manifest through the natural universe.
Reincarnation is "training wheels", so to speak, for eternity. We aren't ready for eternity. We need to sleep and dream. We need fresh starts and new mornings with a boldly rising sun. The natural universe is our inheritance. It's ours for eternity. This is where our hope comes from, the future.
edit on 25-10-2013 by windword because: (no reason given)