Theology

[Serial_Apologist]

For my part, I see intelligence as an emergent property of universal evolution, rather than an immanent property, i.e. matter did not always think but has evolved to do so in, for example, the form of Homo sapiens.

Yes I think I go along with that completely.

[Serial_Apologist]

I think the message from the exchange of the 10 year olds is that it’s a simple matter of faith, and if you don’t have that then heaven is not an option.

Is anything ever a simple matter of faith?

I rather think just leaving the house is a matter of making a heap of assumptions amounting to faith - and while that's a long way from even thinking about heaven, it's in the same order of calculation. The kind of life we live today with obligatory multiple choices, tends to reinforce insecurities about the efficacy of our inner processes, including the capacity for making wise judgements - doubts which have been embedded by religion or its moral and ethical after-effects into our self and by extension social expectations. This filtering process has conveniently replaced old religious certainties and their associated obligations (to God and to our fellow beings) with uncertainties, which (lo and behold) just happen to match up with those built into the system we live under that (re)produces the wealth and resources the way it does and then distributes them unequally the way it does. The resulting tendency is towards resignation and deferment to people who take on or are bequeathed responsibility for decision-making and running things, and the chronic escapisms consequent on the subconscious realisation that we are made to abrogate responsibility in favour of expediency and fitting in with social expectations accordant with maintaining the status quo, keeping them and their system in power.

It often seems we have forgotten these things we (or some of us) learned in the 1960s and fed into the way we understood our histories, surrounds, contemporaries, and politics, and it's only now that some people are beginning to piece these things together again in the search for that comprehensive, verifiable picture to guide a different kind of future.

[DracoM]

[MrGongGong]

I overheard a short conversation between two youngsters today, prompted by the cancelling of church services. Something along these lines:

A. Why can't God protect people going to church?

Because God doesn't exist

B. Maybe God loves people and doesn't want them to catch the virus.

See above

A. If God loves people, why has he allowed the virus in the first place?

See above

B. Umm. Maybe God is helping people to fight against it.

Some people believe in God and are working very hard to stop this, some people don't believe in God and are also working very hard to stop this
It matters not a jot whether you believe or not BUT to some people it helps them get through the chaos.

A. Is he helping old people not to die?

NO, people need to do this

B. If they die they go to Heaven don't they?

No, "heaven is a man-made idea"

A. I don't really believe in God.....

Sensible
BUT some people do and use it as a motivation to do good things, build beautiful buildings, write wonderful music and help people
though the existence or not of "God" doesn't make these things happen OR even more likely

There are some wonderful people who DO believe in God who are really doing good in the world. There are also some wonderful people who don't who are equally doing good.

IMV

[Vox Humana]

It must be a very peculiar God who invented a world in which animal life is sustainable only by killing and eating other forms of life (except for the most primitive forms that exist on nutrients). I think Tolkein was rather perceptive when he referred in passing to a race cursed with eternal life. Why anyone would want to live for ever beats me. The thought of a perpetually changing eternity fills me with dread, but so does the thought of a static eternity. Anyway, I don't want to go to heaven because it will be full of priests. And I don't want to go to hell because it will be full of organists.

[MrGongGong]

And I don't want to go to hell because it will be full of organists.

And tambourines ?

[Vox Humana]

And tambourines ?

Won't they be in heaven along with the drum kits?

[MrGongGong]

Won't they be in heaven along with the drum kits?

Nope

[jonfan]

Is anything ever a simple matter of faith?

Yes it is, to quote Jesus. I. In order to believe in the Christian God you don’t need a degree in theology. God is love. That’s it.

[MrGongGong]

Yes it is, to quote Jesus. I. In order to believe in the Christian God you don’t need a degree in theology. God is love. That’s it.

It's a real shame that there are lots of folks who call themselves "Christians" who are anything but
There are some who really are followers .....

[ardcarp]

Rowan Williams was interviewed on Newsnight towards the end. He was impressive, I thought, and surprisingly open in his views about capitalism. (One has to read between the lines maybe.)

[gradus]

Rowan Williams was interviewed on Newsnight towards the end. He was impressive, I thought, and surprisingly open in his views about capitalism. (One has to read between the lines maybe.)

I thought it was a thought-provoking interview worth watching if you missed it.

[Serial_Apologist]

I thought it was a thought-provoking interview worth watching if you missed it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000gpj4/newsnight-23032020

At 34 minutes.

Raw, but worth it!

[Once Was 4]

Yes it is, to quote Jesus. I. In order to believe in the Christian God you don’t need a degree in theology. God is love. That’s it.

And one more thing: I am going to have another look at Revelations. Just sayin'

[jonfan]

And one more thing: I am going to have another look at Revelations. Just sayin'

Make sure you read to the end though, chapters 21 and 22.