I came across this while I was surfing the internet (but have no idea where it was, as I forgot to grab the site address), and thought it was something interesting to think about. I'm a big fan of thought experiments, and enjoyed this one.
If there is a God, or a Universal Energy, and that energy is everywhere in everything, then everything about YOU must be made up of that. If God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, then everything that you are is God and as such those qualities are inherent in you. If everything that you are is GOD, then what you are must be omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.
Thought experiments are fun if you take the time to actually think about it. Most are very easy to just dismiss outright or agree with, but that defeats the purpose. The idea is to think outside of the box, to explore all the different possibilities and options.
How do you think this example goes along with, or against, a Christian line of thought?
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7 comments:
Hmmm...Is this where we have to distinguish God being more present in some places and less present in others?
I remember hearing that that was one reason why some don't practise communion, that they believed God was fully present in all times, places, and things, so we should not insist that he is more present in the bread and wine. But I've got to wonder about that. Aren't there a lot of references to the Lord being "with" people at certain times, and so it follows, not at others? In being believers in the forces of Good, don't we need to admit the presence of dark forces in the world as well? Surely our experiences of love and goodness that we interpret as God's presence have their complement in experiences of darkness and despair. I understand that God could be present even during the most horrific experiences, but perhaps he's less present.
This little thought experiment makes me think that the world and the people in it consist of a soupy mix of all kinds of goodness and badness (and therefore God and not-God), emphasized and extracted by different experiences. It makes me think that it makes the most sense that God is not equally present in everything all the time.
I'm sure I'm in hot theological water by now.
To combine two biblical commonalities:
"Truly I am WITH you till the very end of the age"
"I will never leave you, nor forsake you"
This combination would entail that
God is with us in and through everything we go through, without question. Does that mean he is with us in different quantities? I don't have an answer to that question, but since ephesians says
"..one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it."
it almost seems that God is over all and through all and in all, but it is the GRACE which Christ gives us apropriate to our needs. It is by Grace we are saved, so although God is within all, and his grace extends to all, it is grace that seperates those who follow and those who do not.
So God is within all, but with free will, comes the line. Just as Morgan Freeman says in Bruce almighty: You can do anything you choose, but you cannot cross into free will. So that means that although God is within you always, your actions are your own, and that seperates you from God. Perhaps not in a physical sense because he is omnipresent, but as AW tozer says 'as far as we run our whole lives from God, we are still in his hand'.
...I hope that makes sense!
-Andrew
The more I see god described as "omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent", the more I think it just leads to inappropriate logical traps. These categories are excessively rational and beside the point that God can set the game up anyway He wants. And the game is already afoot!
Besides, whether you are made up of God energy or not, it won't change your actions, will it? It won't change your faculties and your responsibilities and your world as it presents itself. It won't change the day to day of being a person here on this planet.
I prefer the medieval categories of Divine Omnipotence, Primordial Love and Ultimate Intellect to explain God. These don't place categorical boundaries on space or time, like omniscience and omnipresence. He is all Power, Love and Wisdom. See how these attributes don't make you wonder if you have free will, or if he can create a rock so big even he can't lift it or whether he is more here or there.
He is more sublime than that. As Jo would say, God is bigger than the three Os.
What do you think?
you are asking us what we think about something that challenges us not to.
I belive you have taken yourself out of the conversation of thought you brought up in the first place Chris, sorry man :)
-Andrew
Andrew: Not thinking in the categories of the three Os and not thinking at all are different ideas all together.
Fair enough, it is a new discussion. What do you think of the categories of "Divine Omnipotence, Primordial Love and Ultimate Intellect"? Better or worse that the three Os?
God is because God is. Face the facts. End of discussion.
:P
The question posed is not about why god is but how god is. So "God is because God is", though perhaps relevant to the why does not speak to the how.
The discussion of how god is is obviously not an uninteresting one because we have two completely on point and different analysis of how god is by Andrew and Trivia Kari above.
And the discussion is clearly not over because I think most Christians (humans?) spend their lives trying to understand and mediate the how.
If you've got it figured out I'd love to hear your opinion. And if you have nothing new or interesting to say on the matter, you'd be like most of us most of the time.
PS: The phrase "Face the facts" is intellectually void.
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