Burl

No. Jordan Peterson's lecture series is based on allegory and archetype, but it is not a bible study. Plenty interesting, though. Books differ. Song is entirely allegorical but proverbs is not. Revelation is a vision. The David and Goliath story was thought to be historical, then allegorical or fictional, but recent documents on period chariot warfare is making that story read as history again. The best place to start might be Jesus' parables. They are all allegories describing the kingdom of God, and there are study guides for those. My advice is to work to discover the context and perspective of the authors. The books had human authors and redactors, and they were preserved for a reason. Treating everything in the bible as allegory is the same error as assuming inerrancy. Starting with preconceptions is poor form.

Jan 21, 2018 Mark 1:14-20 (MSG) 14-15 After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee preaching the Message of God: “Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.” 16-18 Passing along the beach of Lake Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew net-fishing. Fishing was their regular work. Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions. They dropped their nets and followed. 19-20 A dozen yards or so down the beach, he saw the brothers James and John, Zebedee’s sons. They were in the boat, mending their fishnets. Right off, he made the same offer. Immediately, they left their father Zebedee, the boat, and the hired hands, and followed.

Jan 14, 2017 John 1:43-51The Message (MSG) 43-44 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. When he got there, he ran across Philip and said, “Come, follow me.” (Philip’s hometown was Bethsaida, the same as Andrew and Peter.) 45-46 Philip went and found Nathanael and told him, “We’ve found the One Moses wrote of in the Law, the One preached by the prophets. It’s Jesus, Joseph’s son, the one from Nazareth!” Nathanael said, “Nazareth? You’ve got to be kidding.” But Philip said, “Come, see for yourself.” 47 When Jesus saw him coming he said, “There’s a real Israelite, not a false bone in his body.” 48 Nathanael said, “Where did you get that idea? You don’t know me.” Jesus answered, “One day, long before Philip called you here, I saw you under the fig tree.” 49 Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi! You are the Son of God, the King of Israel!” 50-51 Jesus said, “You’ve become a believer simply because I say I saw you one day sitting under the fig tree? You haven’t seen anything yet! Before this is over you’re going to see heaven open and God’s angels descending to the Son of Man and ascending again.”

Explains a lot. Philosophy and theology are arts, not sciences. They are aligned with painting, poetry and music. The goal is to put emotion and experience into form so that it may be shared with others.

The whole point of philosophy is to ask novel and increasingly more complex questions. Answering life valued questions and reducing them to their lowest common denominator is looking through the wrong end of the telescope.

At twenty paces!

Dawkins is an atheist incorrectly reducing pantheism to a tautology. He even says pantheism and atheism are synonyms, which is ample evidence he does not know what he is talking about. The Gaia hypothesis is a true pantheism. We are but cells in the all encompassing, sentient deity of Gaia. Definite not synonymous with atheism.

But I have a spiritual relationship with you . I did not say this person was incorrect; only inadequate. He has a piece of the puzzle. God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are always present as well. Bricks are a combination of the clay created by God being modified by mankind's free will to be a co-creation. Not unlike grain being co-created by mankind's free will into digestible bread, or rapidly spoiling grape juice being co-created by mankind's free will into wine.

Inadequate in terms of Christian panentheism. A better illustration would be God as a collective consciousness connecting individuals through a web of spiritual relationships. The Holy Spirit of the Trinity.

Pantheism posits a supreme being composed of the entirety of reality. This supreme being can willingly alter itself by creating disasters or plucking people out like stray nose hairs.

I guess it depends on what pantheism one is talking about. If god is no more and no less than the sum total of existence, my first question would concern life and death.

December 31, 2017 Luke 2:22-40The Message (MSG) 22-24 Then when the days stipulated by Moses for purification were complete, they took him up to Jerusalem to offer him to God as commanded in God’s Law: “Every male who opens the womb shall be a holy offering to God,” and also to sacrifice the “pair of doves or two young pigeons” prescribed in God’s Law. 25-32 In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name, a good man, a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel. And the Holy Spirit was on him. The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died. Led by the Spirit, he entered the Temple. As the parents of the child Jesus brought him in to carry out the rituals of the Law, Simeon took him into his arms and blessed God: God, you can now release your servant; release me in peace as you promised. With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation; it’s now out in the open for everyone to see: A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations, and of glory for your people Israel. 33-35 Jesus’ father and mother were speechless with surprise at these words. Simeon went on to bless them, and said to Mary his mother, This child marks both the failure and the recovery of many in Israel, A figure misunderstood and contradicted— the pain of a sword-thrust through you— But the rejection will force honesty, as God reveals who they really are. 36-38 Anna the prophetess was also there, a daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher. She was by now a very old woman. She had been married seven years and a widow for eighty-four. She never left the Temple area, worshiping night and day with her fastings and prayers. At the very time Simeon was praying, she showed up, broke into an anthem of praise to God, and talked about the child to all who were waiting expectantly for the freeing of Jerusalem. 39-40 When they finished everything required by God in the Law, they returned to Galilee and their own town, Nazareth. There the child grew strong in body and wise in spirit. And the grace of God was on him.

Ghosts would be a historic example of an afterlife seperate from the people's concept of god, and it occurs in most cultures and religions.

I am not aware of anyone who takes pantheism seriously so I am not the best person to ask. Believers in Gaia could probably answer your question.

Theism assumes a god which exists outside of our observable materialistic existence. The inclusion of the suffix theism is an excellent clue. Polytheism, pantheism, panentheism &c are clearly theisms. Deism is highly theistic as it affirms the classical biblical idea of god as a sapient, supernatural omnipowerful being. Panentheism is a theism which believes life and humanity is wholly within god but that god is not limited to earthly existence. Paul affirms the idea of Christian panentheism, and I personally find panentheism expressed as the Holy Spirit to be satisfactory.

Theist/atheist is a distinct division. What you confusingly describe as "shades of gray" are at best subcategories; not a continuum between extremes. Philosophy and reason do not work the way you describe, which muddles thought instead of clarifying it. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism/

I insulted an atheist? Apologies then. Nothing wrong with being atheist. The fact that the definition of atheist is someone who is not a theist is definitional, not a label. The word athiest means 'one who is not a theist. The words are like the words empty and full. Only one kind of empty but infinite variations of full. Lots of variation in theism though. That is where all the significant variation lies.

An agnostic is one who seriously weighs the possibility of a theistic god but is not yet convinced. If he cannot consider a theistic god to be a possibility he is an atheist. Atheist literally means non-theist. Sometimes an athiest will call himself an agnostic out of social cowardice. Darwin was a good example of that, but now that athiesm is socially acceptable (even more acceptable than theism in most circles) there are not too many real agnostics around. Atheists need a pride flag to wave like the gay rainbow flag. Maybe just waving a stick with nothing on it would be appropriate. There is nothing wrong with being a proud atheist, but if one feels the need to use sophistry and weasel-words to avoid the label they must be having some sort of inner conflict. Or perhaps a revelatory experience of grace?

December 24-25, 2017 Luke 2:1-20The Message (MSG) The Birth of Jesus 2 1-5 About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant. 6-7 While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel. An Event for Everyone 8-12 There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God’s angel stood among them and God’s glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.” 13-14 At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises: Glory to God in the heavenly heights, Peace to all men and women on earth who please him. 15-18 As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. “Let’s get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us.” They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed. 19-20 Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they’d been told!