Silmarien
Existentialist
- Feb 24, 2017
- 4,337
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- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Anglican
- Marital Status
- Single
- Politics
- US-Democrat
1. I'm not going to go through all 20+ pages to this thread. But it would appear that there is a possibility that you believe that the [Christian God] is THE God, for which you believe? And by 'Christian God', you can almost fill in your own blank practically, as your interpretation and/or definition may differ. Yes or no? If yes, please proceed. If no, then please clarify that you are "a generic deist/theist, still trying to figure out which of the asserted Gods is THE God, or other?."
I've never really been a generic theist. I was at one point a panentheist, and I leaned towards pluralism. I thought that religious traditions were more or less various ways of describing the same thing--culturally contexted, but more or less interchangeable.
I still think that this is mostly true, and that the biggest difference between the various religious traditions lies in what they have to say about the relationship between God and the universe. At the end of the day, it's more like having a impressionist painting and trying to figure out which religion best describes it than having a bunch of "asserted Gods."
2. If the above answer is yes, I would assume you have not come to your current conclusion(s), merely upon a whim or a hunch. Hence, what piece(s) of evidence compels (you) that your asserted God is THE God? And once this is revealed, care to discuss what facets of those evidence(s) specifically does it for [you]?
This is why I don't think you can skip the first step of actually arriving at theism--the two questions are actually linked.
I have a fascination for ontological arguments and the question of what it means for something to actually be good. I think that many of the subversions in Christianity--God relinquishing power to serve humanity rather than rule it, for example--are a much more radical picture of divine goodness than can be found elsewhere.
I'm also interested in the various utopian philosophies out there--a lot of them amount to secular versions of Christianity (particularly Marxism). Where do they go wrong? Can they be truly corrected without a conscious return to theology? If you're a theist and your politics require correction from a religious tradition, you should be taking that tradition seriously.
There's more to it than just that, but a fair amount of my conclusions are based on a very complicated moral argument.
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