CowPi Journal

Comments

1. Hi Mark,
   Do you care to elaborate a bit on this?
   Karen

   ∼ πλ · 15 April 2004, 6 pm · by Karen H. ¬

2. Everyone has an image or an idea (and for some, a fantasy) of what God is. Some people have false or distorted images of God. Like the policeman god who determines what is right or wrong; the accountant god who tallies up all the good and bad things and if the good outnumbers the bad, you go to heaven; the aspirin god who fixes everything when things go bad; the gimme-god; the mountain-top god who just sits alone and watches humanity without any interaction; and the catechism god who is the pat answer to all questions, but involvement with him demands no personal commitment. (Ever notice how most attacks by atheists on the belief in God are attacks against false images of God?)

   When people get past these false images, they can begin to understand what Jesus is?

   On another level, any human idea of what God is, is by definition, limited. God is infinite and our attempt to label or define Him limits Him.

   Plus, Christian mystics like St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa of Avila, Thomas Merton, and many others describe a phase called the dark night of the soul where our images of God no longer work. One feels lost, dried up, as if in a desert. Nothing that one tries seems to work. Ones imagination or intellect will not work. The mystic learns to let go of their images of God. At this point, the mystic learns to depend completely and wholely on God.

   ∼ πλ · 17 April 2004, 11 am · by Mark ¬

3. Hi mark,
   How is anyone going to know what god is like, how are you to know, it how the individual interprets the bible its an individual task, and when you read the entire then talk to god you let me know. I am glad that you have your own opionin and so should everyone but never say if someone else is wrong or right in their own.

   ∼ πλ · 17 May 2004, 7 am · by katie ¬

4. Katie — Nothing in the original post or in the above comments are based on any particular interpretation of the Bible. The original post is a comment on the nature of human beings.

   Humans have a major tendency to setup expectations about things (including about God). These expectations can and often do get in the way of the true nature of something. It colors, distorts, interferes with the true reality of the something. When we learn to put aside our own expectations and learn to experience the something for what it is, then we can learn something about its true nature.

   ∼ πλ · 17 May 2004, 11 pm · by Mark ¬

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