I have had so many thoughts and questions going round in my brain lately I don't even know where to start! or how to express it in a post...! I'll give you 4 areas of my current thoughts and would love to hear other peoples opinions on it!
1) So... has anyone watched 'What the bleep do we know?' by who knows or 'Everything is Spiritual' by Rob Bell? I'm interested between this scientificy / quantam physicsy link to spirituality.
2) Has anyone read 'Conversations with God' by Donald Walsh???? who is this God he speaks of?
3) I'm currently reading 'Sex God' by Rob Bell, and I'm quite loving the slant he puts on Sexuality and Spirituality together.... this has come through some more casual research I'm doing into the whole Christian Sex before marriage and general christian approach to sexuality.
4) Does such a thing as absolute truth exsist? absolute spiritual truths I'm talking about.... ( as opposed to gravity...) if so what do you think they are? I'm looking to create a list and am struggling to get to one!
Quite booksy based I know...but any discussion on the general topic is welcome.
bring it on....
Amy
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8 comments:
I love the post, and I'll try to "Bring It" shortly... By the way life is good up here, really busy, I have been going away quite a bit for work. Coming South soon might see if we can link up.. Cheers, J
That last comment was Jared not me!
OK...
1) have watched both 'what the bleep' and 'everything is spiritual' and they were both profoundly interesting. to be honest they both gave further confirmation thoughts i already had, but also both gave me knew ideas that have really sparked my imagination and helped me thing about god, prayer and the spiritual part of me and the universe. i have found it really hard to hold onto notions of the spiritual realm that seem to me to be based on metaphors and simplistic (or old fashioned if you will) understandings of the way the universe is. for example, the devil being an individual who has demons who do his bidding, and angels who have wings who will come and protect us, and if we pray with enough fervour god will hear us etc... it has really affected my ability to pray (i just feel like a fraud) and relate to others who see miracles around every corner. but both of these films have given me new and plausible (scientific, logical, reasonable) ways of thinking about the spiritual realm, and i find it so exciting. i really do think that we are all connected and that god is everywhere - to put it very simply. 'string theory' seems to be a very interesting concept that i would like to know more about, and quantum physics seems to have a lot to say about where god might be hiding. it seems god is very, very near.
2+3)haven't read these two books, googled 'sex god' and will def read it when some one lends me a copy...must say, casual research in to sex before marriage sounds a bit risque (but fun), anything we should know about??
4) i totally know what you mean!! i have the problem that i tend to disect anything that looks like a truth until it doesn't look like one anymore. but on my non dissectible list would be - Jesus was fully human and fully god (but i don't know how); Jesus died and then walked around again before dissapearing (somewhere, who knows where); there is a principal force (mover, originator) that exists (in a form i will never completely understand) that is good and loving. there's my 3 for now.
mabe we need a basic intro to quantum physics from someone...
1) Yes must do more research into quantum physics... an easy to read book on it would be good.... doess this exsist? It's pretty mind boggling stuff. But to me prayer and this quantum physicsy idea of just believing something and it will become reality - seem pretty linked - is this what prayer really is? ( I'm meaning prayer in the sense of asking or wanting something to happen as opposed to just communicating with God). I don't know of 'string theory' will have to look it up...
So do you still pray? What is the practical outworking of these thoughts on your relationship with God?
3) hehe - no nothing to know about really. I really liked Sex God and if no ones lends you a copy I can send you up my copy to read... Has some really good points about the connection between spiritualtiy and Sexuality - and doesn't actually adress the actual crux of 'Sex before marraige' as such....
4) This is aninteresting list...I think my number 1 is your third one...
Have been pondering the whole Jesus was fully God and Human thing.... so do you think there is a possibility that Jesus was the ultimate of what we might be if we were at our best? being that we are made in his image....could we all potentially be like Jesus? I read a quote that sticks in my mind.. 'The Glory of God is man fully alive...' what does it mean for us to be 'fully alive?' is that to be like Him?
5) Have you ( anyone) read Velvet Elvis? ( Rob Bell is my latest respectable Christian author I'm working through his books ;-)...)
Amy
Here is my attempt at a list for question 4:
God is Love, the more we understand love and act out love to self, others and earth, the more we understand God.
Jesus fully man, fully God (wow!), walked the earth, died, did a comeback tour then said “catch ya latter” (sometime) to his mates.
We are gifted with “free will”
Now for some guessing:
There is no Hell – as least no physical place where human souls will spend eternality in pain and suffering.
God created the universe over billions of years and our best mechanisms for understanding this is the “big Bang” and evolutionary theories. To me these theories are so miraculous that they can only be made sense of with a loving God actively creating at every stage. The miraculous nature of these scientific discovering makes me personally see God as a even more loving, intimate and creative being than without these understandings.
God does not know everything – now I need to qualify this one. I believe God to be all powerful and knowing, out of time etc., however I guess that God’s knowledge only extends to the possibilities of what could happen. That God either self-limits or something.
God may be able to see each created being and based on the genetic makeup the like social environment that person will grow up and know the probable outcomes, (probably God even has hopes and dreams for us). However, I believe that having free will means that we get to surprise, delight and sadden God at times and I like to think that God gets a kick out of surprises.
I think that God empowered and made us jointly responsible for the redemption of the earth (post fall). That God working through us and we in “love” have a daily opportunity to effect a positive difference in the world through our interactions with others and this earth. That this is God’s great work on earth, that’s not to say I don’t think God is coming back etc. (Idon’t have much of a clue about the “end times”), I just think we have a role on this earth now.
Re: Item 1
Check out Sir John Polkinghorne, a well recognised physicist and ordained Anglican minister. He has written many books and articles on the link betweeen Science and Faith. For instance I found the following podcast really interesting. (to listen paste the following link into your podcasting software)
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/podcast/podcast.xml
Episode 20/04/2006 "Quarks and Creation"
Re: Item 4. I reckon the absolute vs relative truth debate is an issue of faith. To say that I believe in absolute truth (which i do) i'm saying that i believe that we live in an ordered universe governed by definable laws - both physical (eg gravity) and moral (ie about right/wrong). Science is based on the premise of absolute truth, otherwise observations (eg gravity) would not be explainable.
If I was to define a list of moral absolutes it would probably look very much like the ten commandments:
Murder is wrong
Stealing is wrong
Worship of anything other than God is wrong.
Incidentaly i find it helpful to think of the 10 commandments as a guide to right living in God's ordered universe rather than Him wanting to limit our freedom.
Hope this helps :-)
Ben.
The weblink seemed to get cut in half. Hope this works
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/
podcast/
podcast.xml
Thanks Ben, will listen to the podcast for sure. I have to say though that while I would reluctantly agree that our universe is ordered and is governed by laws etc, it's probably the "definable" bit that I struggle with, especially in term of the moral. Sure, I agree that there is held in the mind of God a knowing of all that is right and wrong, but it seems to me that the understanding of morality that humans have developed is largely cultural and has infinite gray areas. For example "Murder is wrong" - well, yes of course, but are all murders equal? No, there are many situations in which killing another human being is deemed justifiable. And then there is the growing body of research into the brain, genetics, mental illness, post-traumatic stress etc in relation to violent crime. All I'm saying here is that I, and I suspect many others, can't help but reject absolute statements because the gray is so overwhelming. However, I believe God accounts for all this within the "divine order" of the universe.
A bit rambly, sorry.
Just finished "Sex God", (thanks for letting me borrow it Amy). Thought it was good, I like the way he words things. A few points I liked was:
We have the opportunity to bring Heaven or Hell to any relationship or situation.
Sex is marriage, and we need to give and receive our partner's physical, heart and soul for a relationship to be whole and healthy (light to those around them etc.)
Good marriages is up lifting to those around them and gives an example of "oneness" that is God's desire for people. J
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