"God and the Meaning of Life"

Originally posted by FreakyKBH
[b]He is able to do so but desists, since as he states in the paper he thinks both are relevant to the discussion at hand.
Not sure what you mean.
We're limited to his limitations?

That’s perfectly consistent with the possibility that there are others that are irrelevant; or even the possibility that there are others that are relevant but of wh ...[text shortened]... the word "cosmic," protestations notwithstanding.

It's as though he is playing with a rover.

Well, thanks for your two cents. I feel sort of cheated, though.

Originally posted by LemonJello
Well, thanks for your two cents. I feel sort of cheated, though.

Well, of course you do, dear.

Don't let that disappointment keep you indoors for the rest of the day, by any means.

Get out and play with the other boys, LJ.

Originally posted by vistesd

My “agnostic theism” is very loose. Along the lines of Teihard de Chardin’s “Either there’s something afoot in the universe, or there’s not”. I am open to the possibility that there is, and choose to at least pursue that possibility—but I do not know, and hence am agnostic.
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Are you the kind of agnostic who says "I don't know if God is there. Maybe someone else knows." ?

Or are you the kind that says "I don't know if God is there. And no one else knows either." ?

Originally posted by sonship
Are you the kind of agnostic who says "I don't know if God is there. Maybe someone else knows." ?

Or are you the kind that says "I don't know if God is there. And no one else knows either." ?

I am the kind of non-Christian who, on some gut instinct level, feels that there is a God, as I have told you many times, but that you have yet to give me any convincing reasons to believe He has revealed Himself to you or, indeed, that you have offered me any convincing reasons to believe any of the claims that you and your fellow Christians make about the significance and meaning of Jesus Christ's life, many of which I find preposterous.

Originally posted by sonship
[b] My “agnostic theism” is very loose. Along the lines of Teihard de Chardin’s “Either there’s something afoot in the universe, or there’s not”. I am open to the possibility that there is, and choose to at least pursue that possibility—but I do not know, and hence am agnostic.
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Or are you the kind that says "I don't know if God is there. And no one else knows either." ?[/b]

Well, either God does not exist in which case the question doesn't arise or God does exist and self-awareness is a fairly basic ability one would expect in a God. I think you'd have a difficult time showing that anyone can have infallible knowledge of God and since the knowledge is fallible it's consistent to be agnostic about it.

Originally posted by DeepThought

I have imperfect knowledge of my father. But we have a loving relationship.

When two people walk together in love and one is more mature than the other, the more mature one can go along with the less mature one. The less mature one can usually only go more and more along with the more mature one as the less mature one grows.

If you are a dad and you have a child, you can go along with the child.
But if you speak to the child certain things, they will not be comprehended well by the child. The older can go along with the younger.

This is how it is with my heavenly Father. In love and understanding He communes with me. As I grow in that spiritual life communion with Him deepens, expands, and is enriched.

Paul writes this too. But he does say his knowledge of God is "through a glass [or mirror] darkly" rather than infallible. Yet at the same time he is assured that one day he will know God even as he is known by God.

"For now we see in a mirror obscurely [not infallibly] , but at time face to face; now I know in part [not infallibly] , but at that time I will fully know even as also I was fully known.

Now there abide faith, hope, love, these three, and he greatest of these is love." (1 Cor. 13:12,13)

What an utter adventure - growing into the full knowledge of God.
Indecently, this is a corporate matter also. As our sense of Him grows vertically our sense of Him also growshorizontally towards the other members of the household of faith.

Originally posted by sonship
I have imperfect knowledge of my father. But we have a loving relationship.

When two people walk together in love and one is more mature than the other, the more mature one can go along with the less mature one. The less mature one can usually only go more and more along with the more mature one as the less mature one grows.

If you are a dad and yo ...[text shortened]... sense of Him also grows[b]horizontally towards the other members of the household of faith.[/b]

This is incredibly well said. Bravo.