Who's God

["Citizen Kane" <rosebud905@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> In support of Helen's comments to Joe, there are two primary messages in 
> the Old Testament and the New Testament regarding the eternal existance of 
> God.
> Helen is right when she suggest that folks should actually READ the Bible 
> before coming to a conclusion on many of these topics. This is a daunting 
> task and as a result many just skip the reading and form their own opinions 
> based on (a) what they remember reading (b) what they remember being taught 
> in a house of worship (c) pseudo religion picked up from the movies, books, 
> etc.
You're correct that this discussion shouldn't be about hearsay, nor should 
it be about JUST reading the Bible--it's necessary to understand what you're 
reading in this book. The Bible was written by (sinful) men, whether or not 
they were inspired by God, and it's limited for this reason.  This 
limitation means we can't say that it's any more correct about the nature of 
God or finding a way to him than the writings of Maher Baba, for example, or 
even Pete Townshend. It all depends on your point of view and how you want 
to structure your beliefs.

Different books of the Bible were written in different historical periods 
and express the religious thought of the times, besides including more than 
a bit of Jewish history. It's not that God changes from the Old to the New 
Testament, but that the writers' requirements changed from the need for a 
God to lead in tribal warfare to a God who offered an afterlife and was 
forgiving of sins under the Roman domination.

What the Creationists want to take as fact is general and metaphorical 
enough to cover a lot of plate tectonics and asteroid impacts, as well as 
the theory of evolution. That's always advisable for religious leaders who 
aren't sure of their facts. Experts say the Book of Numbers (though dull) is 
a marvel, as it seems to be an extremely accurate oral ancestry that was 
eventually written down.

As it turns out, I've read Steven Hawking's book that Joe mentions. Hawking 
is a colossal intellect, BTW, a physicist who is affected by Lew Gherig's 
disease and has nothing to do but sit and think. Hawking proposes that there 
is no Moment of Creation and that the Big Bang is a mere pop and fizz in the 
fabric of a reality without any boundaries. He mentions that this has 
ramification regarding the concept of God, but one thought that occurs is 
that reality itself might be God. Eastern religions don't see any separation 
between God and Man or God and the world, after all--they believe we are all 
a part of God and need to look for Him inside ourselves rather than 
elsewhere.

Maher Baba's philosophies fall into this category, I gather. Doesn't he 
teach that we should look for the One Note inside ourselves, and not expect 
it to come to us from outside? This may also be the Spirit that Jon is 
talking about in his discussions. Do you mean the Holy Spirit of the 
Trinity, Jon?


Kane

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