You’ve heard it before: “Is God the same as Allah?” or “Is Allah the same as the God of the Bible?” You’ve also probably heard both simple ‘yes’ answers and possibly simpler ‘no’ answers. My response would be to answer with a question: “Is ‘god’ the same ‘god’ as ‘god’? Words are incredibly slippery little… Continue reading is ‘god’ the same ‘god’ as ‘god’?
Tag: god
good creator
The world is a dance in which good, descending from God, is disturbed by evil arising from the creatures, and the resulting conflict is resolved by God’s own assumption of the suffering nature which evil produces. C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, 72 Evil as the absence of Good is a suitable description, but better… Continue reading good creator
the (w)hole in our confession
Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind & strength Love your neighbour as you… Love your self. Love of God, neighbour and self are all interwoven. I’ve been thinking lately about confession, which – like love – occurs in relationship. Protestants often are quick to give reasons why they don’t confess to a… Continue reading the (w)hole in our confession
barth on theology
I read this and especially liked these points: Theology, in light of the greatness of God, is best characterized as human “sighing” and “stammering” —regardless of its sophistication, expansiveness, or insight: “Now we have only a dim perception of him, the living God. There can be no talk of knowing him, of ‘having’ him. What… Continue reading barth on theology
dancing goddess
I saw a bumper sticker the other day that read: “the goddess is dancing” The car probably belongs to an adherent of one kind or other of ‘new-age’ spirituality. But I caught myself and stopped short of easy dismissal-ism. I asked myself, “Hey, cannot a Christian in a sense say the same thing?” After all,… Continue reading dancing goddess
sex & identity
The ‘proper’ basis for the personal identity of any given human is a hard thing to derive… if you’re limited to the tools of, say, science. Science wonderfully (and tragically in the case of murder, hate, discrimination, etc.) describes what humans ‘do’ (human doings), but not what/who humans ‘are’ (human beings). I’d want to affirm… Continue reading sex & identity
had to be chance?
chance & necessity | random & planned | chaos & order | freedom & determinism The phrase ‘by chance’ refers to an event/result happening without compulsion or determination – we say the situation/result ‘did not have to be that way’. The phrase ‘of necessity’ refers to an event/result happening according to compulsion or law –… Continue reading had to be chance?
god brain
John Cleese.
uncreated thing
Those who hold that all things (the universe/multiverse/whatever) began to exist and were created (by an ultimate Creator or First/bottom Cause), and those who hold that all things (the universe/multiverse/whatever) ‘have always existed in some form/state’ agree on (at least) one point… …namely that there is indeed an uncreated ‘thing’ which cannot be questioned, caused,… Continue reading uncreated thing
‘big question’ essays
Cheers to Bryson for directing me to an essay, which I discovered was one over several over at The John Templeton Foundation. The essays are comprised answers to ‘big questions’ from a variety of perspectives – theist, atheist and agnostic. They make for interesting reading whatever your beliefs are. Two of the ‘big questions‘ essays… Continue reading ‘big question’ essays