At 09:54 AM 6/27/03 -0700, Stevertigo wrote:
| I know at least two people who have experienced gods,
and
| more than two who survived the Shoah. In both cases, I'm basing
| this on direct personal report.
|
| (One of the two mentioned above is now a serious follower of the
| gods in question; the other had an idle conversation, enjoyed the
| garden as the god invited him to, and hasn't changed his life in
| any way.)
I take issue with the above --for its expression that God as an idea or a
concept is dead. This tends to come from a natural rejection of dogmatism
and puritanical/evangelical/fundamental views (those that contradict reality
and sense) -- and in that sense its an attitude with which I identify with
highly.
*HUH?* I report that a friend had an encounter with a god, and is now
worshipping that god, and you think that this means I think that god is
dead?
But its all too typical in AmSociety to deal see God as
a leftover relic of
a primitive humanity. The primitive "hand of God" notion -- playing with
humanity like a bunch of toy soldiers -- is indeed a relic, but a relic of a
misinterpretation. The monotheist idea of "all is of one " is equivalent to
the eastern traditional ideas where "all is one". The meaing of "God"
--
"that which cannot be named" -- regardless of the the time, is quite an idea
to wrap a human mind around. Its the idea of something thats too ... to fit
into an idea.
That is *one* idea of God, an idea within the monotheist tradition. That
isn't the god either of my friends spoke to. Their experiences are as
real as any.
--
Vicki Rosenzweig
vr(a)redbird.org
http://www.redbird.org