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Veratatis

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Veratatis last won the day on July 14 2013

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  1. Thank you, Soma. That actually does expand how I view God. I guess the part of theology that's common within progressive Christianity is the mystical side of it. I have amazement, wonderment for the complexity and wonder of the balance of the system that holds the universe together, but I don't imagine that it's conscious. Mysticism seems to assume that God is conscious, and there really isn't any way to prove or disprove that. To me, something that can't be proven or unproven is essentially a moot point with no real possibility of discussing it. I can't feel the compassion of the Sacred because I know that what I feel can be explained by the chemistry within my mind. It's the external forces of the universe that lead me to the belief in God, but my own feelings are subjective and I don't think that God plays a part there.
  2. As a whole, the question regarding the nature of God occupies more of my time than really anything else. As a child, it was a given that God was a personal, person-like being that existed apart from the universe, yet still interacted with it. Around the age of 16, this stopped making sense to me. I wrestled with this for a couple of years, settling into a form of Atheism. I have since thought of God in numerous ways, including the popular phrase of God being the "ground of being" that we all reside in. And I just.... Don't.... Get it. To me, when you invoke the word God, it implies a being or force that is NOT man-made. God as love doesn't work for me. Love can be explained by chemical means. The explanation of God as the "transcending spirit" that pervades the world also doesn't make sense, and is just as full of holes as the God of supernatural theism. My question is, why does God have to have human attributes at all? There seems to be an entirely different way of explaining God that isn't really touched on in any form of religion, conservative or liberal. The universe is hugely, complexly organized. There are planes which literally give objects mass. The universe is held together by a specific, organized system of laws, which cannot be broken. These laws can be bent, but never broken. The universe can be broken down and stored in information in bytes. Math functions exactly the same, when accounting for variables, in every corner of the universe, whether that be Earth, Neptune, or a galaxy 500 million light-years away. With this kind of predictability and organization, it makes sense to me that what could be called "God" is the sum of these systems and laws which give the universe its' existence and order. Could God be systematic, almost like a universal supercomputer? Does anybody else think like this?
  3. Thank you! Interestingly enough, it's a DoC church.
  4. Yes! I found a church not 10 minutes from my new place that states plainly on their website that they are a theologically liberal church.
  5. I would definitely like to join the UCC or Episcopal church, perferrably the UCC. And having a focus on Christianity is a must, which is the reason I'm avoiding the UU route. I am a universalist, but I feel most at home in Christianity.
  6. Well, I'm moving to a large metropolitan area soon, and I feel like I should find a new religious home. I was last in a Fundamentalist church, then became an Atheist for a couple of years. I'm not currently attending a church because there's really not a progressive church around this area. However, in the city I'm moving to there's a wide range of churches to choose from, and I want to start looking for a new place of worship. What churches would everyone here recommend? I don't want to go in blind looking for a new church.
  7. Good point. I'd agree that Spong is a bit ambiguous concerning his definition of God. I define God as "that which orders the universe". The universe is ordered, so God is the sum of what causes the universe to be so. I don't know if this is a consciousness or if God has will, but it is there. And clearly, the laws of the universe pre-date man.
  8. Thanks for all the welcomes, everyone. My main problem with the definition of God as love is that it's manmade. And as Spong once said, "I think religion is manmade, but I don't think God is."
  9. Hello everyone, I'm new here. I became born again at 16, struggled with several crises of faith for a couple of years, and was introduced to liberal theology roughly a year ago while taking a class on Jewish history and the history of the OT. My definition of God probably differs from most here, so I'll try to explain it. I don't believe that God is love, I believe that love is a sufficient word. To me, God is the sum total of all laws which bind this universe together. The same God which Einstein believed in. In a sense, I'm a pantheist. I take great value from Jesus' life, I'm convinced he wasn't God, and I'm unsure regarding the resurrection. I think the Bible is a collection of stories and history blended together by ancient Jewish and early Christian communities, and is not divinely inspired. I'm a musician and I'm fascinated with the prospect of space travel. So... Hi.
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