Don’t have a lot of time, as I’m about to head out to the job site, but here’s my two cents on this, based on the idea that though evolution may not “matter,” it is about Matter as such:
The propositions concerning evolution thus far, creationist or non, and forms thereof, all, in my opinion, miss the point and are based incorrectly on the existence or not of a traditionally understood anthropomorphic God. There are inherent flaws in those traditional and limited views. The primary one is that God is a person (?!?!?!) and that Creation is an objective existence discreet, though dependent, on that God. The second is that evolution is a process that appears to be moving “forward,” similar to the “arrow of time” idea, a concept that seems to bypass a possibility inherent in Eternality.
The idea that a God created, by whatever means, a universe in the remote, or not so remote, past, and is either maintaining or acting on it, or not, as an observer from outside it is plain balderdash. IMHO. On examination of the structure of experience, what seems to me to be the only reasonable conclusion is that God and the Universe are One. That means that evolution is not a chain of random events or a planned or guided sequence of engineered connections. It means that life is not the forms that appear to “posses” it. It means that Life Itself is a pressure of Creative exploration in Consciousness that continually always and everywhere attempts to demonstrate and experience awareness in every possible form and condition. That would include ALL of “time.” and ALL of “space,” thus answering the question of “Is there life on other planets?” The very form of that question is false. The question might better be “What forms or conditions of awareness expression and explorations is God constantly using to explore the Infinite varieties of form and perception inherent in Self?”
This has radical and vital bearing on the Nature of the idea of the “Son” of God, if you can bear to think about it, and its implications as to the tragic limitations of christianism pertinent to its sadly diminished ideas regarding “salvation.”
Dear Detales:
I suppose that I am to infer that God, through the mouth of Jesus, is a liar, and a deceiver, or a trickster, or con man. Or, I suppose that after 4,000 years of being taught about God, by God, starting with Jesus through the Disciples and early Church Fathers, we have all gotten it wrong. I suppose that we should throw down our errancy and embrace some other form or concept of God because someone on CAF figured out where we went wrong. I suppose St. Thomas confided directly to someone, at the end of his career, and spilled out how he believed that he, too, had gotten it wrong. So, at the end of his life Aquinas realized that God’s state was that of pure pantheism, or pure panentheism, after all.
For 4,000 years Christian man has been duped, blindsided by his own arrogance - thinking that Jesus was talking to them when, in fact, he wasn’t talking to Christian man at all. Jesus only
apparently made promises to Christian man. He made no pacts with Christian man. He delivered no revelations to Christian man. He told Christian man that He would not let him fall into error. He told Christian man that He would walk with him on his journey to the Light - but, that was but more deception. He told Christian man to follow His lead, and the lead of other Godly men, and He would save him from harm.
He revealed things about Himself that were, and still are, deceiving: unadulterated deceptions. He revealed that He is “infinite”, but, that He isn’t really. His essence includes an extraordinary participation in and with a “finite” universe, so how could He be infinite? Do the math. But, no matter. He’s used to deceiving; what’s one more deception?
From what I have read, I believe that God must be incapable of creating (and managing) a finite, but huge number of, minute things. Thus, He Himself must be a “composite.” He is a composite of so massive a number of nano-particles that we, Christian men, could not be told the truth because we could not fully grasp the consequences of that self-deprecating declaration. But, a great, great man wrote a book. And, this extremely insightful man found it out. Now, upon this man’s revelation of the “truth” to another man, an Advaitist man, we can now better understand God Himself. Perhaps . . . even better than He Himself can.
If He understood Himself to be the Universe; if He understood that He was nothing more than the “matter” of the entire Universe; if He understood that He is infinite, but, not in the real sense we mean from mathematics, He would be more likely to . . . what? To reconcile that He is not infinite? To reconcile that He is not the Creator? To reconcile that He is not absolute? To reconcile that He is not the one, subsistent
Being? To reconcile how He is going to explain this to us? Or, perhaps an “afterlife” is just a deception, too?
Detales, I think you are a well-meaning person, with more than a modicum of spirituality. In fact, I like you. But, if you continue to espouse the stuff above to Christians and Catholics, especially, all day, every day, unfortunately, you’ll continue to have a paltry conversion rate.
God bless,
jd
for Christianity?