Posted on 03/16/2009 4:29:12 PM PDT by GOPGuide
Love, G-d
But in the NT he has his body and appears physically with Elijah and Jesus, right?
-April Lexington
That's what it says.
I applaude D'Espagnat for stating that ""There must exist, beyond mere appearances … a 'veiled reality' that science does not describe but only glimpses uncertainly. In turn, contrary to those who claim that matter is the only reality, the possibility that other means, including spirituality, may also provide a window on ultimate reality cannot be ruled out, even by cogent scientific arguments."
I subscribe in part to Spinoza's view of God, that God and Nature are two names for the same thing, but find it impossible to agree that God does not have a personality. If God created the Universe, He must have created it from Himself - thus everything is in fact a part of God. That He created Mankind proves God has a sense of humor, and by extension - a personality.
There was a need for reconciliation with God after the Fall, therefore the creation of Christ was a necessity. This does not violate the Principal of Plurality. But, man's predilaction towards complex religions does violates the Principal of Parsimony. Thus I'm forced back to Spinoza and a simpler, more naturalistic relationship with God.
Call me what you will, but God knows me quite well and I think He approves of His creation.
Maybe that’s why the name of the largest church in Christianity for a thousand years — the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople — is “Holy Wisdom” in Greek. (This is a title ascribed to Jesus Christ.)
As an aside, may I say that my personal belief is that those who thoroughly believe that there is no God, based on their examination of three-dimensional space and one-dimensional time, are essentially cheating themselves of the sense of wonder, by so limiting themselves. (As an analogy, suppose all that you could ever perceive of someone was a photograph, and you turned down the possibility of meeting her or him because a flat black and white thing that doesn't make any noise can't be very interesting, now can it?)
We know that Heaven transcends time, because of the promise of eternal life God Who resides there. And yet there must be some sort of time, because there is music in Heaven. Music is melody and harmony in time. The Prophet Isaiah spoke of the angelic host singing "Holy, holy, holy". So there must be a sort of time, or else there would just an unchanging musical tone.
Things I think about!
Moses definately died. His death before Israel entered the land was declared in Torah.
Enoch was caught-up, and his writings indicate vast knowledge of the workings of the solar system, but I am unaware of anything more (which doesn't preclude anything), Elija also was caught-up, but there is nothing to indicate that he had any special revelations to pass on. Scripture seems to indicate that his disciple, Elisha, was able to see the heavenly hosts.
Genesis 1:26
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our likeness....”
Us? Our? = The Holy Trinity
Father: The Creator - visible in Human Creative drive
Son: Physical form of The Word made flesh
Holy Spirit: The super-natural interaction of The Word between the Father (creator) and the Son (creation).
Seems to me this likeness is strikingly observable via the human comprehension of beauty - especially beautiful music; as music incorporates elements of all three aspects of the Trinity. Mystery made comprehensible.
>>He made himself known at a time
Time and time again...
>>and place and to a people first.
...to a people who spent many years wandering in the wilderness because they refused to listen, acknowledge, and obey.
>>Is it possible to investigate/analyze/understand the indescribable?
Why is beautiful music beautiful?
I think the comprehension beauty is rooted in being created in the image of our Creator.
>>But the speed of light
The concept of speed is dependent upon constant progression of time.
What happens to speed if time is not constant?
It’s all relative ;-}
As I've heard some state when speaking about the chorus of "holy, holy, holy", it will be in response to each movement of and revelation from, the Lord. Everyone witnessing such, angels included, can hardly contain themselves from crying out "holy!".
I've been blessed to have briefly experienced this very thing in the first person. No, I wasn't necessarily "transported to heaven" or some-such (for those out there who will not be able to help themselves from leaping towards conclusions) but had simply asked to be shown about an aspect of Him.
I was quite surprised to have been answered, shown in the spirit/given revelation quite immediately. I did not at that time cry out loud, "holy!" but it took some effort to stay outwardly quiet, and not blurt out that particular adjective.
The river of grace proceeding from beneath the throne, is all that the book alludes it to be and more. Words cannot adequately describe..."holy" will have to do, for now.
>>A god of one’s own creation is not so fearsome.
“Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”
We’re presently on final approach to the apex of the cycle; the part where “and thinking themselves wise, they became fools...”
And around and around we go.
>>how many dimensions of time are there?
Time is just a progression of state-change. So the answer to your question would be dependent upon the states, and state changes, present in those other (alleged) dimensions.
Personally, I think the manufacture of additional dimensions is a mathematical crutch which props up a framework of knowledge that’s missing a critical component - understanding the nature of Space itself.
And for precisely this reason, it would be nonsensical to paint it with the figure of a personal God or attribute to it specific concerns or commandments. "
Not to sound "trite", but as a theorist (at least in physics) it is the "unknowable" that drives the pursuit of man to offer multiple theories to bring it into the realm of the "knowable". Sometimes explanations are based on heretofore "unknown" concepts...most rely on the manipulation of current "knowables". To those in the pursuit, any "painting" is not "nonsensical".
So...why is it "nonsensical" for the, as yet, most intelligent entity on this planet to attempt to describe an "unknowable" "God" with any attributes that satisfies it.
If someone wishes to offer hypotheses as to the nature of God, setting aside if he wishes any purported revelation and taking as his point of departure only what limited view we can get from physical observations using the scientific method, I have no objection to that and such ideas may be interesting and provocative.
My objection was to the logical fallacy in someone on the one hand conceding that the physical observations leave us at best with only a veiled glimpse of whatever the underlying reality of God is, and yet on the other hand purporting to state conclusively that the idea of a God which can have a personal relationship to mankind or a God which has created man within a moral context is “nonsensical” and something merely “painted” by mankind itself, when it would appear from his own precepts that there is not enough information as to the nature of God to make a definitive pronouncement conclusively excluding that possibility.
I once had a distinctive perception for a brief moment of time, almost analogous to seeing a glimpse of something that one's soul can only instinctively recognize as "of God", yet impossible to describe. The only thing I can even say is that there HAS to be something outside of 3D+1T, which is all that we are capable of perceiving. In fact, the very fact that God created man in His own image and His own likeness in the Universe as we know it, indicates to me that -- in the unending glories of Creation -- three dimensions is the smallest possible number of physical dimensions to make it all happen; not that there aren't a higher number He could have worked with.
My basic point was that I feel sorry that there are so many, including some in science, who drive themselves to despair over the seeming absence, in 3D+1T, of what they are seeking. Why limit the search so?
yitbos
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