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Politics : Should God be replaced? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: booters who wrote (362)	8/11/2000 10:22:34 AM
From: Solon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28931

What do you mean by 'He is all of existence'? To me, saying something is everything makes it meaningless. If he is the good and the bad, the up and the down, then I cannot move towards him. We cannot gravitate around him. This is more than I'm able to get into here and now. I'm talking more about a divine unity that gives importance to everything that exists because we are in relationship with everything, and through those infinite relationships, we have, in fact, a self interest in everything. We use empathy and awareness to identify with others, and with other things, and our consciousness allows us to expand our self as it were. Even a relationship of indifference is still relationship. One person relates to a cornfield with indifference. The manner in which we relate will define our relationship. Another recognises it as what will allow his family and community to survive the coming winter. He will act with nurturing and respect, because through awareness the corn has become a matter of self interest. I believe that all things are a matter of self interest, and that awareness (as in the above example) informs the understanding of the relationship. I do not mean intrusiveness--not ever. I mean a recognition of an underlying truth and (I believe) an underlying unity. I'm sleepy and should not be getting into this just now. Please consider it as just some free association mental notes... BTW, my personal conception of a pantheistic and monistic Universe is not necessarily the one I would vote for as something that would meet the best interests of society.

To: booters who wrote (362)	8/11/2000 7:35:57 PM
From: Solon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28931

If you choose to use parables as the bible, then you will have those who believe Jesus stood by the river bank and pulled countless fish from his lunch bag and fed the masses. It was an easy trick. I've done it myself. You secrete your catch in a huge container of water which you bury under the sand. The next step is to utilize a false bottom in your lunch bucket. The rest can be done either with an assistant down below or with a telescopic pick. The Great Randi caught me doing this once, and effectively finished my career as a Messiah. A few miracles always give undue credibility to a new religion, and it is the best way to get the values and tenets of your new religion accepted without even the pretense of thought. Unfortunately, I wasted my great magic on small fish; someone else will need to perform the actual miracles. (Still a serious topic. Just taking a stress break) :) Obviously, I am not suggesting this was where Jesus got the extra fish. Only that considering his choices, he was perhaps unimaginative. Something exotic (and normally available only from another country) would have been nice, as well as impressive...