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Does God Evolve?


Neon Genesis

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Neon,

 

From a post I entered on another thread.

 

God wanted to know God's self. To know one's self requires relationship with (an)Other. For Boehme what we call evil, pain, bad is the "friction", the difficulty, of moving from potentiality to actuality. God opened God's self up, split (Boehme and I part ways soon also) into God becoming and creation becoming. Becoming is an evolving process: there is no original anything except God's desire to know God's self. God is becoming something new; creation is becoming something new, together. What the two together value is evolving. Many today say that the highest value is "love' and so it is that as God becoming and creation becoming roll everything up into the next moment we move toward love.

 

 

Take Care

 

Dutch

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If God created evolution but all of creation is created in God's image, does that mean God also evolves since evolution would also be in God's image?

 

 

It seems to me, that all of form is created and in addition to having a beginning and end has a concept we call evolution or evolving. That created thing in form has a formless essence that to me is the substrate or source of that creation. In that respect, creation and evolution are to me one and the same and evolving but the essence of that creation or God is unchanging and experienced as complete already. In my view, it is not necessary for form to exist for there to be the formless. Therefore, while God and creation are One, God does not equal creation nor is God evolving. The story and drama is happening in the concept of time but it is only one of many stories and that which enables the story is unchanging and remains the same in spite of our concept of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

 

Just my own experience and view,

Joseph

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Does God evolve or does our understanding (view) of God evolve? How do we know the difference?

 

I read some time ago in anthropology that our image of god(s) reflects the type of society we live in. Hunting and gathering societies typically have animal images of their gods. Clan societies (political/social grouping by family relationships) have ancestor gods. Agricultural societies have anthropomorphic images of the gods. And, the more hierarchical the society, the more hierarchical the pantheon of gods will be. The point is that our image of the gods is strongly influenced by the structure of our society.

 

George

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Does God evolve or does our understanding (view) of God evolve? How do we know the difference?

It seems to me, only our understanding evolves. Perhaps we know the difference when we experience God rather than thinking about God?

Joseph

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A few years ago I wrote a statement of faith that began with these words: God is coming into being; a present hope and a future reality. I developed these ideas from my understanding of process theology. I think of God as being "below the radar" most of the time. My hope is that God's power will become more evident over time. I attribute the more popular notions about God, such as immutability and omnipotence to a flawed understanding of the nature of time and the human tendency toward impatience.

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  • 3 weeks later...

If God created evolution but all of creation is created in God's image, does that mean God also evolves since evolution would also be in God's image?

 

I would certainly hope so.

 

I believe that we have evidence that the G-d in our mind has evolved at least.

 

I was raised in a fundamentalist household, so the notion of G-d being subject to The Creation was not within my limited understanding. I had a vision of G-d as this ancient, cobweb-covered old man sitting on a chair made of granite (I'm not kidding), so; evolving? Nah.

 

When I discovered that I was half Jewish, I embraced the notion of religion as an evolving thing and not a static condition never to be changed. So, whether or not G-d evolves isn't terribly important to me. I guess if I still believed that Jesus was G-d, and therefore at the same time human, it would have greater resonance.

 

NORM

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If God created evolution but all of creation is created in God's image, does that mean God also evolves since evolution would also be in God's image?

 

This is one of those questions that can only have meaning if the conditions, hypothetical or assumed, are accepted as truth. There are two kinds of truth, logical and empirical.

 

Logical truths are a priori (necessary, certain and universal - anyone would deduce the same results as in 1+1=2 or if A=B and B=C then A=C).

 

 

 

Empirical truths are a posteriori (uncertain, dependent on senses which can deceive us). Seeing is believing but we don't always see what is actually happening as anyone who has ever watched a magician perform an illusion knows is true when he learns the trick.

 

Since the conditions set forth "If God created evolution but all of creation is created in God's image" are not a priori knowledge isn't discussion of the question "does that mean God also evolves since evolution would also be in God's image?" all moot and a meaningless exercise in mind or word games? What knowledge will be learned?

 

 

In my opinion, the greatest scandal of philosophy is that, while all around us the world of nature perishes - and not the world of nature alone - philosophers continue to talk, sometimes cleverly and sometimes not, about the question of whether this world exists. They get involved in scholasticism, in linguistic puzzles such as, for example, whether or not there are differences between 'being' and 'existing'. (Popper, 1975)

 

If we knew the truth about reality and the relationships or connections of time, consciousness, matter and energy we would be able to deduce logically the meaning of god and how the concept evolved. We have a long way to go to know the truth but with the exponential explosion of information that has been occurring since the beginning of consciousness the answers may be clear in a relatively short time when compared to the formation of this solar system.

 

Stephen Hawking wrote the following final thought in his book, "A brief History of Time – From the big bang to black holes", regarding the grand unification theory.

 

"If we discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable by everyone, not just by a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason - for then we should know the mind of God."

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I used to be very sure of who God was and what God did and did not do. Now I'm not so sure. :D

 

When I look around me and see creation evolving, yes, it is tempting to say that God evolves with it. But I would rather err on the side of caution and say that my understanding and experience of God has evolved. I no longer hold to the small God concepts of my youth. God is, for me, much bigger. But I suspect that it is I who have changed, not him. :)

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