OH yes, I have been getting a lot of those. For me, at least I am actually receiving the old emails, rather than having them not show up at all
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Well... right about the e-mails. The thing for me is that I was good about keeping up with all the comments, and so 99% of the old comments coming in through e-mail were already seen and old to me (not that they still weren't good comments :)).
Ehh, they don't have to be literal. We can't see the literal, anyway. Just as long as you are being honest about who you are and how you respond, I think that's good.
The problem is that I am often either constantly smiling or constantly frowning during a post...LOL! That's funny. You don't often have a straight face? That's standard for me. It looks like everyone basically does the same thing as you for the ;) and :P faces. Those are more symbolically symbolic of real expressions ...er... something like that. They speak more of an attitude than a real expression on the face. So, I'm with you on that
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Ah, I was afraid I was mistating myself. My apologies. I was not saying that God had neither reason nor intelligence. For one thing, I am not convinced that God is "outside of time." (That's in an essay I wrote, purely speculative, but currently something which I am keeping my eyes open on.) However, what I meant was that, as beings created in God's image, we are finite examples of what I would say are many of God's best attributes. That is to say, when we speak of reason and intelligence in us, we are using those words to express our limited understanding of the capacity and complete perfection of those attributes in God. So I would say that God is really the one who reasons and has intelligence, and we humans are simply beginning students on the subjects, taking lessons from a master. You are right in saying that there is a difference in our intelligence and his. I do not know that our reasoning is necessarily different on a philosophical scale, as I believe we both go through the same abstract processes when we reason. The
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Yes, I saw (but didn't read, yet) your article on God and time. The Bible provides at least two hints as to God's relationship with time. (1) It says that God inhabits eternity (Is. 57:15), or you might say all of time, which I view as in contrast to us inhabiting a moment. (2) It says that time is relative to Him, essentially, when it says that one day is as a 1000 years and a 1000 years is as a day (2 Peter). Now, yes, time is relative even in our measurement of it, but not in our normal experience of it. My belief is that God created time (as we know it), and therefore His existence is not in any fashion limited by time, nor is He bound by it at all. This might also elucidate His eternal existence in the past
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Yeah, I'd say we have a lot of the same ideas, but out different thoughts on "time" give us a different ending.
I think, to answer your question, I might take a different approach. Because of the way I think about God and time, I would say that God knows everything that exists simply because he is God, but that his intelligence is utilized whenever he reasons or makes decisions (undoubtedly much faster than we could ever imagine).
I think this is where the big difference in my theology lies, in that I believe that an all-knowing God does not necessarily necessitate a "predestined" future. That is, I believe taht the future has not happened yet, even for God. And of course, with this kind of thought, it is only natural to expect God to reason and have intelligence, since he must make decisions.
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Ehh, they don't have to be literal. We can't see the literal, anyway. Just as long as you are being honest about who you are and how you respond, I think that's good.
The problem is that I am often either constantly smiling or constantly frowning during a post...LOL! That's funny. You don't often have a straight face? That's standard for me. It looks like everyone basically does the same thing as you for the ;) and :P faces. Those are more symbolically symbolic of real expressions ...er... something like that. They speak more of an attitude than a real expression on the face. So, I'm with you on that ( ... )
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I think, to answer your question, I might take a different approach. Because of the way I think about God and time, I would say that God knows everything that exists simply because he is God, but that his intelligence is utilized whenever he reasons or makes decisions (undoubtedly much faster than we could ever imagine).
I think this is where the big difference in my theology lies, in that I believe that an all-knowing God does not necessarily necessitate a "predestined" future. That is, I believe taht the future has not happened yet, even for God. And of course, with this kind of thought, it is only natural to expect God to reason and have intelligence, since he must make decisions.
Reply
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