Open letter to god-in-the-tiny-box (agnostic, believer, theist, Commandment)
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The author who you are in agreement with says he cannot be in relationship with a god who failed to stop the holocaust because such god is too small and weak.
Did your god stop the holocaust? If not (and we know it didn't), then how is your god any bigger than the one Christians follow?
It would seem NO GOD stopped the Holocaust, unless you have documents with a different outcome.
What Mark said was the TOO SMALL GOD did not stop the Holocaust. This is where comprehension plays a REALLY BIG ROLE in understanding...sorry, that was a REDUNDANT phrase---comprehension and understanding (no pun there?)
I believe the point being missed is that the TOO SMALL GOD (if you say this is the one christians follow, I did not say that) is or has been portrayed by MEN in the OT and into many parts of the NT as being shallow, jealous and insecure as the Too Small God always resorts to manipulation, punitive actions and what at times even appears to be bribes--to get mortals to capitulate to his will.
The too small god has been painted as an all encompassing god, hell bent on watching mortals suffer for their in ability to comply and every now and then the too small god inflicts great disasters and allows epic portions of DEATH AND PLAGUE to sweep across the earth (Holocaust for example) because too small god is still trying to figure out how to reel humanity in--but too small of a god NEVER seems to show his approval for the great acts and deeds we mortals have accomplished.
Too small of a god always seems to be looking, waiting for the next opportunity to apply a smack-down, but never does too small a god ever use POSITIVE REINFORCE to encourage us--it is always PAIN and SUFFERING that seems to be the choice of too small a god..
But I digress, the point made earlier in regards to COMPREHENSION--it is not a matter or YOUR god, MY god, their god---which one is tougher and can beat the snot out of the other gods--Lord knows he has beaten the crap outta us for too long--it is about who God really is.
The third paragraph might be read as the TOPIC of the essay---
"Honestly, if you were a bigger god this would be so much easier. If you were bigger, you could take the questions and I wouldn't be so worried about hurting you."
How many of us have come through the "church" and have been told DO NOT QUESTION GOD as if to do so were to just ask for spontaneous annihilation.
And so we learn through out life that QUESTIONS are BAD, and AUTHORITY is always right.
But with too small a god, we are now in a precarious situation--why does a god who lead Israel out of Egypt and parted the Red Sea, so quite when it comes to global genocide?
Why is a god who built an ship that withstood a global flood so quiet when it comes to pedophilia and serial killers?
Why is a god who kept shadrach meshach and abednego safe in the fiery furnace silent about the plight of the homeless, hungry and poor?
Why are we told we should NEVER ask such questions? Why are we told to NEVER question out fate or our faith?
This is what creates a too small god--FEAR and INSECURITY--
YES we have created a too small god in our image and we have ascribed the very same attributes that we have towards him and made him just like us--we both FEAR each other, are JEALOUS of each other, accept the idea we will never understand each other--
We even treat our neighbors (when we are not justifying who is an is not our neighbors) the way we perceive the too small god treats us--with that James Dobson TOUGH LOVE crap--
LOVE IS NOT TOUGH--LOVE IS GENTLE--
But some how we need to see too small god a a TASK MASTER, and that justifies our attitudes towards others on this earth.
IMAGINE, if we could look beyond this too small god and BOLDLY APPROACH a God who not only wants our doubts, our questions and insecurities, but actually has been waiting for us to do so..
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
And what do we suppose His will is??
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
So if one still wants that too small god, they are welcome to him--wrap him up in a neat little bow and carry him where ever they go. Jesus said I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, but I am pretty sure that did not mean we were to box him up and put him in our pocket--
A too small god in a box is never seen, never heard and above all never questioned. If no one sees what we have in the box, are we really doing his will?
When too small god is allowed out of the box, others SEE, others HEAR, and OTHERS may come to understand this--
"... everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Yes we can, and many of us have created god in our own image--but we CANNOT wield this created persona like a weapon against others, nor can we impose our values that we have accepted into others lives.
Your complaint is that a god which failed to stop the holocaust and hunger is a "god in a tiny box" and not worthy of following.
I asked you if your god stopped the holocaust and hunger? Later you admitted it did not, so it leaves me wondering how your god is any bigger than that one you insult.
Last edited by Finn_Jarber; 10-29-2015 at 08:50 AM..
Your complaint is that a god which failed to stop the holocaust and hunger is a "god in a tiny box" and not worthy of following.
I asked you if your god stopped the holocaust and hunger? Later you admitted it did not, so it leaves me wondering how your god is any bigger than that one you insult.
C-O-M-P-R-E-H-E-N-S-I-O-N
If only people would Try it, it does wonder for denial and ignorance....
so you are saying Too Small a God is real? And the Too Small a God is whom you follow?
"The Tao that can be spoken is not the real Tao." Some guy named Lao Tzu said that on another thread a couple of weeks ago, and I thought it was pretty good.
An array of great teachers and mystics teach that God can be approached only through intuition, which they regard as not some spooky faculty but as a way of "knowing" that transcends rational (i.e., dualistic, "this vs. that") thinking.
To say something like, "I cannot believe in a God who would allow the Holocaust" is an example of the syndrome of insisting that God must fit into our little box. We have no idea what our reality may look like to a transcendent being with the perspective of eternity. If there is a transcendent God, we know only what he chooses to reveal about himself within the context of our reality.
In his famous novel Solaris, Stanislaw Lem tried to make the point that if we ever encounter an alien intelligence, we will likely never have any idea as to what it is doing or why. It will be truly alien. (The Russian film of the novel captures this very well, whereas the Hollywood version turns it into ... well, typical Hollywood with George Clooney.) This is true of God as well. Even if we are convinced that he exists, we have to always keep in mind that his ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8).
This is one of my great disappointments with many Christians. The God they insist upon is indeed too small, too human and entirely too un-mysterious. The Book of Job captures this very well. Job's well-meaning friends offer all the standard, pat, "religious" explanations for Job's misfortunes. Job insists these explanations don't fit his circumstances and that he is truly puzzled by what is happening. God appears on the scene and says that only Job has spoken rightly - i.e., you have no idea what I am doing or why, you cannot comprehend my ways, and you must simply trust even though you may not like it.
"The Tao that can be spoken is not the real Tao." Some guy named Lao Tzu said that on another thread a couple of weeks ago, and I thought it was pretty good.
An array of great teachers and mystics teach that God can be approached only through intuition, which they regard as not some spooky faculty but as a way of "knowing" that transcends rational (i.e., dualistic, "this vs. that") thinking.
To say something like, "I cannot believe in a God who would allow the Holocaust" is an example of the syndrome of insisting that God must fit into our little box. We have no idea what our reality may look like to a transcendent being with the perspective of eternity. If there is a transcendent God, we know only what he chooses to reveal about himself within the context of our reality.
In his famous novel Solaris, Stanislaw Lem tried to make the point that if we ever encounter an alien intelligence, we will likely never have any idea as to what it is doing or why. It will be truly alien. (The Russian film of the novel captures this very well, whereas the Hollywood version turns it into ... well, typical Hollywood with George Clooney.) This is true of God as well. Even if we are convinced that he exists, we have to always keep in mind that his ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8).
This is one of my great disappointments with many Christians. The God they insist upon is indeed too small, too human and entirely too un-mysterious. The Book of Job captures this very well. Job's well-meaning friends offer all the standard, pat, "religious" explanations for Job's misfortunes. Job insists these explanations don't fit his circumstances and that he is truly puzzled by what is happening. God appears on the scene and says that only Job has spoken rightly - i.e., you have no idea what I am doing or why, you cannot comprehend my ways, and you must simply trust even though you may not like it.
Yes, I can relate to that which I bolded.
And the rest of your thread.
Similarly to the first sentence, there is a practice called Centering Prayer, in which you set a time, say 20 minutes, to begin with a chosen word that is your invitation to God to enter and then sit in silence and don't consciously say prayers but just let any thoughts go which may flit by and not concentrate on them. It is based on the idea that "the first language of God is silence".
Nothing earth-shattering happens during this time. You may feel a bit of a jolt when the bell goes off and you find yourself back in reality world, but rarely does anyone claim to have received some great revelation during the silence. But the practice deepens your spiritual connection over time.
I'm sorry...I really don't get a lot of good valuable religious insight from Huffington Post.
Having said that, I do find it interesting that the guy that is telling us to take our God out of the box is the same guy that has very specific demands on HIS god.
The idea of god is as big/small as humans imagine it to be. As there is no evidence that one actually exists the human imagination can create it in their own image.
I'm sorry...I really don't get a lot of good valuable religious insight from Huffington Post.
Having said that, I do find it interesting that the guy that is telling us to take our God out of the box is the same guy that has very specific demands on HIS god.
It's a typical Huff-Po article:
"Your god sucks, he couldn't even stop the holocaust. My god is much better"
IMAGINE, if we could look beyond this too small god and BOLDLY APPROACH a God who not only wants our doubts, our questions and insecurities, but actually has been waiting for us to do so..
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
And what do we suppose His will is??
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
What about God who wants and is worthy of praise, submission, reverence? That doesn't fit the man centered theology that you promote.
..and as far as the 'new' command...it's a summary of the law (ten commandments) that you despise. Judge not others for there reading comprehension...
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