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Yale Online Ot&nt Bible Class


glintofpewter

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Posted

I'm busy (10 days until my wedding), but this is very cool. Thanks, Dutch.

Nick,

 

Where are your priorities? :-)

 

Congratulations on the upcoming event!

 

George

Posted

Nick,

 

Where are your priorities? :-)

 

Congratulations on the upcoming event!

 

George

 

Thanks :) (and thanks to you too, Dutch)

 

As for where my priorities are, it's in keeping myself & my fiance sane for the next 11 days :ph34r:

Posted

A big thanks, but I'm kinda like others here, so little time! I'm still wading through the Evolutionary Christianity tapes as well as following up on several other things I've found here...

 

An idea for possibly a new thread is playing around the edges of my consciousness, I'm trying to gather up all the bits and pieces and put them into some organized form, on how to reconcile belief in a non-theistic God concept with what we may experience as a personal relationship, and what seems to us to be incidents of aparant supernatural and divine intervention. It is something I've had to wrangle with my own self, in my own faith walk, and feel I'm pretty clear on it, but haven't tried to put it into words to present it to anyone else yet.

 

Right now, have a few pressing home, work, and personal business projects to get caught up on. The timing in my finding this site was pretty amazing, as I had only several days before sufferred a pretty scary incident of heat exhaustion, trying to get too much done outside before the heat gets worse...That pretty much laid me out for over a week, which gave me a lot of time to play in here in these forums. So now, I'm knee deep in everything let go for over a week while I mainly sat and lay down close to AC vents and fans. I don't have the stength I used to already, with Chronic Fatigue/firbromyalga, the added heat sickness didn't have far to knock me to get me plumb down.

 

Jenell

Guest billmc
Posted

An idea for possibly a new thread is playing around the edges of my consciousness, I'm trying to gather up all the bits and pieces and put them into some organized form, on how to reconcile belief in a non-theistic God concept with what we may experience as a personal relationship, and what seems to us to be incidents of aparant supernatural and divine intervention. It is something I've had to wrangle with my own self, in my own faith walk, and feel I'm pretty clear on it, but haven't tried to put it into words to present it to anyone else yet.

 

That would be interesting, Jenell. I'm kinda "mixed nuts" on the issue also. On one hand, I no longer envision God as an old man sitting on a throne above Jerusalem or in outer space, exacting his will upon humanity with or without our prayers of supplication. Most of my prayers are prayers of thanksgiving.

 

On the other hand, yes, I still experience God as a person. I have a sense of being addressed, a feeling of a personal relationship, an awareness that God is "other" but still with me.

 

So I don't know if I'm a theist or not. Theism usually defines God as a personal being, but that can come off as some sort of divine genie who grants our wishes if we do or say the right incantations. At the same time, and maybe become *I* am a person, I experience God as personal. Maybe "trans-personal" would be a word that worked for me in that while I often experience God as a person, God's self or presence or "glory" is not limited to personal characteristics.

Posted

I'm kinda "mixed nuts" on the issue also. On one hand, I no longer envision God as an old man sitting on a throne above Jerusalem or in outer space, exacting his will upon humanity with or without our prayers of supplication. Most of my prayers are prayers of thanksgiving.

 

On the other hand, yes, I still experience God as a person. I have a sense of being addressed, a feeling of a personal relationship, an awareness that God is "other" but still with me.

Bill,

 

I don't think everyone is equipped psychologically or socially to deal with this tension. It often, IMO, gets resolved in accepting an unambiguous solution. This is one reason that I try to be tolerant of fundamentalist Christians. I don't think that everyone can deal well with uncertainty, ambiguity and this tension between the head and the heart.

 

I think this solution is expressed in the words of the old hymn, "On Christ the solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand."

 

George

Posted

George,

 

I agree. Tolerance of ambiguity, uncertainty and confusion is a learned skill. How do we develope that skill? What role does religion play in that development? Or, does relgion sometimes stunt development?

 

Myron

Posted

George,

 

I agree. Tolerance of ambiguity, uncertainty and confusion is a learned skill. How do we develope that skill? What role does religion play in that development? Or, does relgion sometimes stunt development?

 

Myron

Education I think it the best hope.

 

Religion? Hmmm. Perhaps it can play either role, development or stunting. It can help lead us to think about the big picture, what life is about, is there a purpose to our lives, what is that purpose, etc., etc., etc.

 

Religion does not inherently entail morality, but it can be a moral force for good.

 

George

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