God and our 5 senses

[plum]

I posted a thread in the women's forum talking about physical senses and God... but I just don't think I'm making sense (my fault, i'm sure!)

http://christianforums.com/showthread.php?t=7243388

quite a few people have said they audibly heard God speak to them.. as in their ear drums vibrated and a signal went to their brains that interpreted the vibrations as sounds that formed sentences or words in English.

This caused me to wonder what you ladies think about our physical reality and the ways our bodies work.

Do you believe God can be observed with our 5 senses?
sound waves, light, matter, etc? something concrete?

why or why not?

I posted a few more time in the thread, if you'd like to read it...

Do you guys get what I'm asking here? And maybe you could help me think through these questions I'm having?

 

[JulySheMustFly]

God made us this way, why doesn't He use it.

I tend to wonder if He does but we've become so removed from the spiritual that we don't know that He is communicating with us. There's that whole Be Still and Know thing going on that I don't think we come anywhere close to right now.

but what I was asking is about seeing/hearing/touching/tasting/smelling God. If we could, there would be physical evidence of God in this time and place, would there not?

This struck me funny. I can imagine what Jesus smelled like, he was/is human but God . . .hmm . . . Would it be appropriate to taste God? I'd venture to wonder if we as humans can even communicate through taste or smell. Sorry that is slightly off topic.

anywho... i don't think i'm able to communicate very well about this. perhaps not many people share my thoughts or concerns, and that's okay...
i'm just not satisfied with the idea that we as humans (as he made us to be) are forced connect with God in such "inhuman" ways... in ways we can't explain or observe in any empirical manner. But perhaps people think that would make God "less God" if he stooped so low as to let us understand him in ways that fit our actual reality. Like that all ended with Jesus or something.

Thing is God did stoop so low as to let us understand him in a way that fit our actual reality with Jesus. God chose to limit himself in order to reconcile all of us to Him in a way we could grasp, touch, feel, smell, hear and yes quite possibly taste. I know it seems like a Sunday School answer but what ya gonna do? We are now asked to trust in the spirit of Jesus who did stoop low. We are forced to use part of our created selves that otherwise would not be used. Just cause we don't know how to use certain tools doesn't mean we weren't equipped with the tools in the first place. Now I'm not sure I'm saying what I want to.

You speak of signs and wonders, but I'm really focused on God himself, not signs of God... if there can be a distinction at all. Perhaps not?

So you're wondering of the difference between God in whatever form or visible shape He would take standing in front of you verses what He does? Am I understanding this correctly? I tend to think that what we do are us. So signs of God would be God. How else do you get to know someone that by observing how they interact with those around you or even better yet with you?


I didn't see or read the whole thread in WD jsut skimmed through the link in the OP.

 

[IndomitableAmy]

Do you believe God can be observed with our 5 senses?
sound waves, light, matter, etc? something concrete?

No, I don't. Not directly, anyway. I mean, you can talk about Jesus the Anointed all you want, but I'm not at all convinced that you could find concrete evidence, something measurable, that he was/is God... so even that wouldn't fulfill a "yes" to this question to me.

why or why not?

Because the wholeness of God is not something of the physical world, at least not as we understand it. Or, alternatively, God is too much of the physical world (and more, I think,) for us to be able to tell (with our senses) that God's there at all.

Simple answer (though not all will accept it): You don't measure spirit by concrete means (at least not directly.)

I figure whatever of God we can perceive directly with our 5 senses are but a shadow or reflection of even part of the whole. I honestly do not think our minds were set up for that kind of thing. I don't think we should seek the glimpses of God in the mirror but rather find him in our hearts, the hearts of others, and see evidence all around us. I think it is more true, but I can't explain more, at least not now.

 

[plum]

hehe my agnostic buddy and i were talking about this last night and he gave the simplest answer yet:


if God is that huge and that "omni" and we saw a part of him or heard his voice or smelled him... we'd probably explode.
our minds and bodies probably couldn't even process a speck of it without ceasing to exist from the overload.

 

[IndomitableAmy]

hehe my agnostic buddy and i were talking about this last night and he gave the simplest answer yet:


if God is that huge and that "omni" and we saw a part of him or heard his voice or smelled him... we'd probably explode.
our minds and bodies probably couldn't even process a speck of it without ceasing to exist from the overload.

Pretty much. Darn my rambling!

I figure whatever of God we can perceive directly with our 5 senses are but a shadow or reflection of even part of the whole. I honestly do not think our minds were set up for that kind of thing. I don't think we should seek the glimpses of God in the mirror but rather find him in our hearts, the hearts of others, and see evidence all around us. I think it is more true, but I can't explain more, at least not now.

Basically what I meant by that... whether or not I said it clearly.

 

[Im_A]

I posted a thread in the women's forum talking about physical senses and God... but I just don't think I'm making sense (my fault, i'm sure!)

http://christianforums.com/showthread.php?t=7243388

I posted a few more time in the thread, if you'd like to read it...

Do you guys get what I'm asking here? And maybe you could help me think through these questions I'm having?

when you said, "do you guys get what i'm asking here?" i'm guessing that means the male sex can respond correct?

honestly i don't know what to think. we know many people who say, God speaks to them to be in mental wards now because medically and scientifically they have been proven to suffer from schizophrenia. so has communication from God become a mental disorder?

one problem i have with it, is our sense can be manipulated so much by our own doing that i would find it hard to believe it is geniune but just a way for the human to feel justified/fulfilled in his/her spiritual life. kind of like thinking, because i feel it, then it must be real. but yet, in your example of people saying "God spoke to me", i have the same ears, and i've had the same desire to hear God directly communicate to me/guide me, yet i heard nothing, so why does God play the favoritist with whom God communicates? iow, it doesn't add up to me because one, we can manipulate how we feel in various of manifestations, and two, everyone has the same abilities to listen or to feel, and yet only a select few actually get "blessed".

it would make sense tho in a way that God would communicate through our senses. if we are God's creation, then why wouldn't the chemical reactions that happen in our body be used as an instrument for God to communicate to His/Hers/Its creation? yet even that there is hard for me to believe because those chemicals can be proven that it doesn't take some divine being to create, so it would be just as possible that the chemicals are overreacting in the person's body and mix in personal conviction and beliefs, it would be easy to just believe, "God is communicating with me."

just my .02

 

[Protinus]

I don't know what you mean by "what do you ladies think". But I do think that the greater sex must have a greater role in how we minister our Church. Please go to Liberal Catholics and see what I mean but I don't want to derail.

When I'm fishing at night, sometimes for hours, and I pick a strike just right and I set the hook...I toil and frantically pay out line just to reel it in more...coursing the shoreline to fight the fish...and I pull in a beautiful 16 lb striped bass, I feel God is present. I am so exhilarated and I see this beautiful fish...and as I revive her and release her, I think I know about the senses that you are talking about...but in my limited way.

 

[DailyBlessings]

Have you ever read the Gospel of John, by itself as a book? One of the things I have noticed about it is that it references the senses, especially sight, quite often in reference to Christ. To believe in Christ is to see him, and vice versa. I think that God is in front of us and around us at all times, and we have only to learn to see him. I have seen and felt God in many things, and many people. When faith acts in our hearts, our eyes and ears are opened in a new way, so that we might "taste and see that the Lord is good", as the Lutheran Eucharist service puts it.

 

[Protinus]

Have you ever read the Gospel of John, by itself as a book? One of the things I have noticed about it is that it references the senses, especially sight, quite often in reference to Christ. To believe in Christ is to see him, and vice versa. I think that God is in front of us and around us at all times, and we have only to learn to see him. I have seen and felt God in many things, and many people. When faith acts in our hearts, our eyes and ears are opened in a new way, so that we might "taste and see that the Lord is good", as the Lutheran Eucharist service puts it.

it is my favorite gospel...most transforming, most sensual, most spiritual, most knowing.

 

[DeanM]

Awesome thread!

I am looking forward to reading it again when I'm less sleepy, and maybe even post some thoughts.

For now, I'm just amazed by this conversation. Really neat stuff!

 

[Tube Socks Dude]

The man whispered, "God, speak to me"
and a meadowlark sang. But, the man did not hear.
So the man yelled, "God, speak to me"
and the thunder rolled across the sky. But, the man did not listen.
The man looked around and said, "God let me see you."
and a star shown brightly. But the man did not see.
The man shouted, "God show me a miracle."
and a life was born. But, the man did not notice.
So, the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God, and let me know you are here."
Whereupon, God reached down and touched the man. But, the man brushed the butterfly away .........and walked on.

 

[plum]

I don't know what you mean by "what do you ladies think". But I do think that the greater sex must have a greater role in how we minister our Church. Please go to Liberal Catholics and see what I mean but I don't want to derail.

i'll do my own derail, then.
i don't understand what you're saying. Did you not notice the original thread was in the Women's Forum? Hence me calling them "ladies"? and what does a "greater sex" (uh....right...) and ministering to our church have to do with the thread? help me out, because one of us is off in left field, and it could be either.

 

[LovebirdsFlying]

Tube Socks Dude said it best.

 

[Kris10leigh]

I think about this from time to time and I agree that in this day and age few of us every pause long enough to hear God. If I can be silent, calm and still and really settle my brain (which is darn near impossible for me), then maybe I could catch a whisper of God. Sometimes I think the wind rustling through me is God. Sometimes I think He's speaking to me through Goose Bumps. Ever have moments like that? It's like your body telling you, yep you're on the right track. Could that be God? I don't know.

But I think God is all around us all the time and we just can't see Him. I also believe in Ghosts who I believe are all around us all the time, but we can't see them.

 

[Carol64]

Can we see, touch, taste, smell or hear God? I would say no because God is Spirit.

 

[plmarquette]

the aroma of christ .... a physical manifestation of a scent of the lilly of the valley and the rose of sharon ... as if some one close to you had on too much calogne .... except there is no one near you , but the aroma is ...... Jesus is standing by you as you praise and worship God ....