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From: jnelson@trwrba.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Gender of God -- More or less than a person?
Message-ID: <904@trwrba.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 28-Aug-84 10:18:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: trwrba.904
Posted: Tue Aug 28 10:18:38 1984
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	From: aeq@pucc-h (Jeff Sargent)
	Subject: Re: Gender of God -- More or less than a person?

	You do not know God.  Why do you think you have a better idea
	of His actual character than those of us who have met Him?

Oh.... excuse us.  It's quite plain now that only a select few
(such as yourself) have been privilaged to see the true
nature of God.

Why do YOU think you have a better idea of his character when you have
only met him?  Just how many years DOES it take to grasp and understand
the infinite?  So sure you are that it was God you met, and not the
reflection in a mirror.


	Then where did we get the idea of "perfect"?  If imperfection
	was all that existed, how could we possibly form any concept of
	perfection?

This is the same mistake that Plato made, and you've taken it hook, line
and sinker.  Are you telling me that it is impossible for me to imagine
ANYTHING that does not already exist in the temporal world?  I can
conceive of MANY things, often things that could never exist, yet
they DO exist... in my imagination.

Perfection is what you imagine it to be.  Everyone has his own idea
of what heaven is like, and no two will be exactly the same.  Perfection
is relative to the individual, and constructed upon the basis of his
past experiences and ideas.  That's how it could possibly be done.

	I think the wishful thinking is on your side; you don't want
	there to be a God,

That's what I think of people who say they've met God or know God
intimately.  They rush head-long to the conclusion that most appeals
to them... that they have experienced some sort of personal and
meaningfull communion with the diety.  What is required here is a healthy
sense of what is real and what might very well be your own thoughts.

	His appearance in visions with beard (e.g. Daniel 7) was
	just to render Himself comprehensible to His audience.

Which implies that your intimate relationship with God is in fact
a relationship with a false-front of his, since you have just stated
that God is essentially incomprehensible.  If God IS putting up
such a false front, then there is little to be learned of his true
nature since these are images of what WE want him to be.... what is
palatable to us (His audience).


					"My first name"
					- Speaker
					umcp-cs!speaker