Mark T wrote:
> "lynx" <none@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> <re-organised for logical purposes>
>
>>Hey Bazz.. let's see if Morkie can answer your questions.
>
>
> I'll have a try.
>
>
*lots of good stuff snipped - well answered Mark!*
>
> I don't believe God exists.
>
> God is the ground of all existence and being and not an existent being.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> from John A T Robinson, Bishop of Woolwich, 'Honest To God'
> (SCM, London: 1963)
>
> ********************
>
> God, [Paul] Tillich was saying, is not a projection 'out there', an
Other
> beyond the skies, of whose existence we have to convince ourselves, but
the
> Ground of our very Being. pp. 22
>
>
> God is, by definition, ultimate reality. And one cannot argue whether
> ultimate reality really exists. One can only ask what ultimate reality
is
> like ... Thus, the fundamental theological question is not in
establi****ng
> the 'existence' of God as a separate entity but in pressing through in
> ultimate concern to what Tillich calls 'the ground of our being'.. p. 29
>
>
> God is not 'out there'. He is in Bonhoeffer's words ' the "beyond" in
the
> midst of our life', a depth of reality reached ' not on the borders of
life
> but at its centre', not by any flight of the alone to the alone, but, in
> Kierkegaard's fine phrase, by ' a deeper immersion in existence'. For
the
> word 'God' denotes the ultimate depth of all our being, the creative
ground
> and meaning of all our existence. ...Tillich warns us that to make the
> necessary transposition, 'you must forget everything traditional that
you
> have learned about God, perhaps even that word itself.' p. 47
>
>
> ... the beginning is to try to be honest - and to go on from there. p.
141
>
>
> **************
I actually still go along with the concept that "God is dead" as put
about by various theologians twenty years or so ago. Our understanding
of God has changed so much (but also so little) in the last century, but
more so our understanding of what it is to be human has changed. You are
right that God does not exist, but God is our existence. You must be
able to accept paradox as the basis of faith, and that is what the
literalists like Barry and Pete find so difficult.
Chris
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