Originally Posted By: kallog
What's reality, being and existance got to do with a good god?
You miss my point, completely.

Ever since I matured theologically--and that was decades ago--I have stopped thinking of "a" god, or "the" god, as if "he" is a male and a supernatural being, like a supreme Santa, one who takes up space and time within being and reality. GOD, for me encompasses total reality, which, using astronomy, astrophysics and all the sciences we are just beginning to explore.

BTW, even most theists--certainly not the sophisticated ones--who speak and write about God, do not think of him as a limited and human-like being, or one who looks like us.

One problem we have in theology is this: We keep using the kind of English that makes it appear that God is a person like us--one with all our bodily trappings. Such a 'god' is such an easy target for atheists.

As a unitheist, when I write the divine name I do not use 'god'or 'God', unless I am quoting someone. I make it clear what I am thinking, by the way I write it. I use two acronyms: G0D and/or GOD. Sometimes I will use both.

When I speak I always make it clear that I am not talking about 'a' god who is 'a' being. GOD/G0D is Being!

You say,"I think your ideas have merged into something so dilute they have no more meaning than common sense."


You are welcome to your opinion, as am I to mine. The only problem I have with common sense is this: ironically, it is not commonly used by many people. laugh

You say, "You (we) could just take God out of the equation and everything else would remain the same."


Yes, if you are you an atheist, you probably do so. So, practically speaking, do many theists, simply because they think of a human-like god they prefer avoid. And I do not blame anyone for making this mistake. All atheists and probably most theists have in mind a Richard Dawkins' definition of 'god' as a supernatural being (See page 31 of his book The GOD Delusion).

As a unitheist, I think of Divine Being as that which encompasses all that IS--from 0 to infinity.

G0D is like the 0 in mathematics. Does G0D-like common sense--the useful kind, that is--tell us that 0 makes no difference to mathematics and its use in calculating the nature and function of reality is of no value.

Similarly, I like to use the acronym GOD. Here, the O is the symbol of infinity and eternity. Again, using GOD-like common sense, would anyone say that O has nothing to do with reality or existence?

Nietzsche--the son of a Lutheran minister--was one of the first modern philosophers to write "God is dead". If he were a member of this forum, today, here is what I would tell him:

With due respect sir, the 'God' you write about never really lived. What is dead is the old theology and the old dying religions that came out of it. Let us give it a decent funeral. Then we can move on to a New Theology, one which sees GOD as spirit-based agape-love sown like a seed (G0D) in hearts of all people willing to have it there and to live by that which is Good, Orderly and Desirable and in moral and ethical service of each other.



Last edited by Revlgking; 11/22/10 07:39 PM. Reason: Always a good idea!

G~O~D--Now & ForeverIS:Nature, Nurture & PNEUMA-ture, Thanks to Warren Farr&ME AT www.unitheist.org