02-22-2008, 12:00 AM
Hi Lightly,
"My involvement with this sort of activity has rendered me incapable (for better or worse) of appreciating the philosophical integrity of any gods, to include the specific deity "God".
Perhaps my stubborness in this regard could be understood in that context. Have you scanned that thread?"
Yes, I read it. Very interesting and the reason I refered to praying to the "oversoul" of deer.
"In this thread, I imply that societies may be classified acording to their food source, and that their gods reflect how they eat."
Or any other need for that matter. There are other ways to classify such invisible entities. That is religion. And it is man's need, in my opinion, to find an invisible cause for what happens in the visible world. And to try and influence that cause to their benefit.
Religion is man reaching up to God, (or gods)
Christianity is God reaching down to mankind. It was a turning point in history in which the creator was made approachable to mankind. Believe that or not. It is the basic elements of that belief system. But it has to do with the availability of the One.
Before this change mankind's contact with the creator was limited to prophets and angels. Little "pieces" of the big picture. Messengers. And also spirits of a different "sort or sorts" having to do with hunter/gatherers and farming and types of plants and forces of nature etc.
Those entities are still available to those who are interested in dealing with them, I have no doubt.
"For instance, in the Vedic paradigm, reality is seen as a contimuum of energies descending from the pure abstract down to the levels of sub matter."
That view of reality is in agreement with the Qabala and Bible. In fact that is the story of creation.
Man is actually created at least twice in the story line and there is light before there is a sun, moon or star to carry them. Four worlds Emanation, Creation, Formation and Making. Not too different from Plato's doctrine of "Forms".
"In the Biblical way of thinking, God existed before creation, and God must be considered to be outside of, and detached from, his creation.
That may be a key phrase for understanding God, and gods in general. "detached from his creation".
God is unmanifest. Spirit. To be contained within manifestation is of course impossible. If it can be contained it could not be God.
"Consider for a moment that God may be (but not "is")a creation of mankind. If that were the case, we could reasonably expect God to reflect the conditions of mankind.
For instance, God would be warlike, should he be created by a warlike society."
That is the Old Testament. The Old Covenant. Written in a way that could be understood by those reading it.
A "flawed" or one-sided idea of God. To be corrected when the time was right.
"Here, you see an accusation that God (as we know him today) is a product of a post agricutural society.
A agricultural society is at least one step removed from "The intent of creation" as rows of irrigated wheat are not natural.
The society that produces that wheat would be expected to have gods which have power over agriculture."
Again a partial idea of God. But take any single individual within that agricultural society and they would also have an individual idea of what God is.
And some would actually contact Him and some would recieve further revelation of Him. We take the idea of a creator as far as we like and that applies to hunter/gatherers and Christianity and so called modern religions. Which is why we have Shamen and mystics and such. Some people are not satisfied with the status quo. They need to know more.
Bob
"My involvement with this sort of activity has rendered me incapable (for better or worse) of appreciating the philosophical integrity of any gods, to include the specific deity "God".
Perhaps my stubborness in this regard could be understood in that context. Have you scanned that thread?"
Yes, I read it. Very interesting and the reason I refered to praying to the "oversoul" of deer.
"In this thread, I imply that societies may be classified acording to their food source, and that their gods reflect how they eat."
Or any other need for that matter. There are other ways to classify such invisible entities. That is religion. And it is man's need, in my opinion, to find an invisible cause for what happens in the visible world. And to try and influence that cause to their benefit.
Religion is man reaching up to God, (or gods)
Christianity is God reaching down to mankind. It was a turning point in history in which the creator was made approachable to mankind. Believe that or not. It is the basic elements of that belief system. But it has to do with the availability of the One.
Before this change mankind's contact with the creator was limited to prophets and angels. Little "pieces" of the big picture. Messengers. And also spirits of a different "sort or sorts" having to do with hunter/gatherers and farming and types of plants and forces of nature etc.
Those entities are still available to those who are interested in dealing with them, I have no doubt.
"For instance, in the Vedic paradigm, reality is seen as a contimuum of energies descending from the pure abstract down to the levels of sub matter."
That view of reality is in agreement with the Qabala and Bible. In fact that is the story of creation.
Man is actually created at least twice in the story line and there is light before there is a sun, moon or star to carry them. Four worlds Emanation, Creation, Formation and Making. Not too different from Plato's doctrine of "Forms".
"In the Biblical way of thinking, God existed before creation, and God must be considered to be outside of, and detached from, his creation.
That may be a key phrase for understanding God, and gods in general. "detached from his creation".
God is unmanifest. Spirit. To be contained within manifestation is of course impossible. If it can be contained it could not be God.
"Consider for a moment that God may be (but not "is")a creation of mankind. If that were the case, we could reasonably expect God to reflect the conditions of mankind.
For instance, God would be warlike, should he be created by a warlike society."
That is the Old Testament. The Old Covenant. Written in a way that could be understood by those reading it.
A "flawed" or one-sided idea of God. To be corrected when the time was right.
"Here, you see an accusation that God (as we know him today) is a product of a post agricutural society.
A agricultural society is at least one step removed from "The intent of creation" as rows of irrigated wheat are not natural.
The society that produces that wheat would be expected to have gods which have power over agriculture."
Again a partial idea of God. But take any single individual within that agricultural society and they would also have an individual idea of what God is.
And some would actually contact Him and some would recieve further revelation of Him. We take the idea of a creator as far as we like and that applies to hunter/gatherers and Christianity and so called modern religions. Which is why we have Shamen and mystics and such. Some people are not satisfied with the status quo. They need to know more.
Bob