Panentheism

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steed_ford

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Panentheism (not to be confused with pantheism) is the belief that god is both the universe and is outside (transcends) it. God doesn’t create out of nothing, it creates out of itself, and the universe is a manifestation of god. To me that’s the only possible way to explain god’s nature.

As for the whole father son and holy spirit thing, that has never made any sense to me. I don’t believe in Jesus, I really think that the biblical Jesus is an invention. I used to believe that he existed, but a few years ago I read some stuff that totally convinced me that he didn’t.

en.wikipedia.org

Panentheism - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Welcome to CAF.

Did you have a question or something about this that you wanted to discuss or is this just an informational posting?
 
I thought it might lead to an interesting discussion about different peoples’ view of god and its nature.
 
Well, your primary reason for writing off Christianity is flawed. There is more evidence (from non-biblical sources) not only that Christ existed but that his life is accurately depicted by the Evangelists than there is for practically any other historical person of such antiquity.
 
steed_ford said:
God doesn’t create out of nothing, it creates out of itself, and the universe is a manifestation of god. To me that’s the only possible way to explain god’s nature.
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I don’t buy this myself. Forgive me if I’m using these words wrong, I’m just thinking here and haven’t had any formal training. But here’s what I see: If God created everything out of himself, then the universe would be of the same substance as God. The substance of God is inherently incorruptible (as corruption is opposition to God, and an opposition between God and his substance makes little sense).

I’m pretty sure there’s some corruption around though, so I think we have a contradiction. You could argue that the universe is not corrupted and that things are perfect, but I’d have a hard time buying that.

You can probably guess from the “Catholic” tag by my name what belief system I subscribe to.
 
I’m curious why you dismiss something as wrong because you don’t understand it. Not only does Christianity acknowledge that God is beyond our understanding, but to quote Frank Herbert, “The Universe is always one step beyond logic”, in other words the universe itself is beyond our understanding. Am I to understand you don’t believe in that either?
 
steed_ford said:
Panentheism (not to be confused with pantheism) is the belief that god is both the universe and is outside (transcends) it. God doesn’t create out of nothing, it creates out of itself, and the universe is a manifestation of god. To me that’s the only possible way to explain god’s nature.

As for the whole father son and holy spirit thing, that has never made any sense to me. I don’t believe in Jesus, I really think that the biblical Jesus is an invention. I used to believe that he existed, but a few years ago I read some stuff that totally convinced me that he didn’t.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panentheism
Click to expand...
I just want to know if you drive a mustang!!! 🙂

Your friend
Sufjon
 
Hi, nice to talk to you! Though I’m not interested in Panentheism in terms of doctrines and such - it has a few too many theological holes in it to appeal to me - I am interested in learning about your beliefs as a panentheist, and hope to be able to chat about it more. 🙂

BTW, rejection of Jesus because he isn’t a historical character isn’t a good reason, because there’s an abundance of evidence for his existence - more than any other religious figure in or before the first century with the possible exception of Paul.
 
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