INFINITE LOVE
Infinite Love is among God's attributes that are beyond the comprehension of those who have not had God made known to them by His Son, Jesus Christ. As such, reference to it would be cause for a CreatorGate reaction in a scientific journal. From a human point of view, Infinite Love is demonstrated by the Crucifixion of Jesus on the cross and his Resurrection three days later, in the process providing expiation for our sins. The events were adequately documented in the Gospels, foretold by Old Testament prophets, and endorsed by numerous miraculous post-Resurrection events.
The amazing thing to me is that, contrary to the popular theological view, God did not require his Son to die as an infinite sacrifice to satisfy the penalty our sins require for offending an infinite God. God could very easily have said you are forgiven and it would be so. But for those unable to think their sins are forgiven without an infinite sacrifice, God the Father required Jesus Christ, be endowed with human form united with His co-divine being, God the Son, and make that sacrifice to ensure doubters could believe that they can attain heavenly rewards.
The mysterious Trinitarian view Christians have of One God having three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, does not preclude the redemptive act of the Son from bringing salvation to those outside the christian persuasion; that seems to be reasonably established by the words and acts of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels.
FINDING GOD
Finding God is not likely to happen unless you try. That was the, perhaps obscure, suggestion implicit in my post - http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2014/05/finding-god.html - where looking at the wallpaper inspired me to understand how we program our internal search engine to find something. It apparently did not inspire others because only two page views are indicated for the almost two year old post.
The post - http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2015/01/god-and-religious-traditions.html - has a final section about how God may look at us.
I think the post - http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2013/06/god-and-people.html - also has a few views that might help us understand our relationship with God.
If you want to find or contemplate God you can even do it with your eyes closed. But there are many things in the world around us that can help.
1. Travel and experiencing the diversity and similarity of people of all parts of the world.
2. Natural wonders such as - the Grand Canyon, mountain ranges, Niagara Falls, waves lapping the sea-shore, the stars at night, many wonders of the biological world. Many small wonders are rewarding during a walk in the woods, a marsh, a garden, and your back yard.
3. The goodness of people - in dealing with adversity, serving others; infants, children, adults, seniors.
4. The tried and true- scripture reading, see below.
If you have never tried it and you have some quiet time in your day, try reading in the Bible for five minutes a day for a few weeks. Each time, either open the book at random and start reading whatever catches your eye; or pick a topic that is indexed and of interest to you; or flip through pages to find one. If each book has explanatory material at the beginning it is very helpful to read and know the status and nature of the particular book. Emphasize the New Testament in reading selections because the Old Testament has a frame of reference that is quite obscure to most of us in determining what is literal truth, illustrative story, historical account, prophecy, and use of views common to the time. The Old Testament can make one think God is vengeful, whereas the New Testament should help one know God is Love.
Joseph Engemann Kalamazoo, Michigan March 28, 2016
Showing posts with label CreatorGate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CreatorGate. Show all posts
Monday, March 28, 2016
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
CreatorGate II: Spiritual Beings
GOD
God is the pre-existing power, the Creator of the material world, pure existence as the "I AM" identity he revealed in the Old Testament, a being of infinite dimensions unconstrained by space or time, the First Cause uncaused, as identified by the Greek philosopher, Aristotle. God is so intimidating to non-believers they are compelled to edit the Creator out of scientific publications. Believers are happy to know God is the ultimate cause for all the good in the world, from the universe to the smallest sub-atomic particle.
Created spiritual beings
Angels and/or other spiritual beings created by God are beyond the reach of science. Scripture identifies several individual angels and ranks of angels with numbers presumably very numerous. To my knowledge, there is no effort or reason to bring them into the scientific literature so they are unlikely to contribute to CreatorGate.
Puzzling thoughts of the material and spiritual world
I have a difficult time understanding the existence of magnetism, gravity, and the forces operating in atoms and on their particles. I concluded gravity might be a result of dark matter particles impinging on atoms. The mass of a planet would intercept many of the particles while those coming from space beyond the atom would push it toward the planet. Alternatively, each particle could have its own angel directing its cosmic dance. I recommend not putting anything from this paragraph into your memory banks.
Joe Engemann Kalamazoo, Michigan March 23, 2016
God is the pre-existing power, the Creator of the material world, pure existence as the "I AM" identity he revealed in the Old Testament, a being of infinite dimensions unconstrained by space or time, the First Cause uncaused, as identified by the Greek philosopher, Aristotle. God is so intimidating to non-believers they are compelled to edit the Creator out of scientific publications. Believers are happy to know God is the ultimate cause for all the good in the world, from the universe to the smallest sub-atomic particle.
Created spiritual beings
Angels and/or other spiritual beings created by God are beyond the reach of science. Scripture identifies several individual angels and ranks of angels with numbers presumably very numerous. To my knowledge, there is no effort or reason to bring them into the scientific literature so they are unlikely to contribute to CreatorGate.
Puzzling thoughts of the material and spiritual world
I have a difficult time understanding the existence of magnetism, gravity, and the forces operating in atoms and on their particles. I concluded gravity might be a result of dark matter particles impinging on atoms. The mass of a planet would intercept many of the particles while those coming from space beyond the atom would push it toward the planet. Alternatively, each particle could have its own angel directing its cosmic dance. I recommend not putting anything from this paragraph into your memory banks.
Joe Engemann Kalamazoo, Michigan March 23, 2016
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
CREATORGATE I: EVIL
Science cannot cope with evil, spiritual concepts, and infinite love. All three lack measurable physical existence subject to examination and quantification by using the tools of science. Miracles are not repeatable on demand. Consequently, a scientist acting as a scientist can neither affirm nor deny a miracle. Thus their discomfort allowing any role for the Creator as demonstrated in the previous post about CreatorGate.
SCIENCE AND EVIL
Moral evil is a value judgement and scientists as humans can make such judgments. But offering a scientific opinion about evil is valueless. Atheistic scientists and religious scientists have a right to talk about evil based on their philosophical and/or theological point of view; but each should recognize those views are not part of science.
The magnitude of the human loss of life from earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, other natural disasters can be quantified by scientists. Those factors had a role in our evolutionary history as did many biological factors such as injury and death from starvation, disease, predators, and warfare. Such events are unwanted, but apart from warfare and other adverse human interactions, do not involve the intent that most would find in things that are evil. The natural selection of evolution resulting in survival of the fittest was part of every species evolutionary history.
The phenomena of the early origin of the universe, with its explosion, nuclear, and gravitational mayhem, was essential for the origin of elements, galaxies, stars, and planets; the violence challenges our imaginations. Development of the life-spawning conditions of our own planet Earth involved volcanic eruptions, crustal movements, earthquakes, mountain-building, erosion, and flooding also almost beyond imagination.
In adapting to our ever-changing environment species used various evolutionary solutions. Some got bigger, some got smaller. Some got faster, some hid. The diversity of the flora and fauna of the world is mind-boggling. With millions of years involved, many amazing adaptations have evolved.
Those adaptations involved the demise of many lacking the adaptation. If the demise was us, we would think it was evil. But if we don't view as a personal happening we should be thankful that many generations were gradually shaped into the species we see when we look in the mirror.
SCIENCE AND THE SPIRITUAL AND INFINITE LOVE
Maybe I will be able to shed some light on these topics in the next two posts. The spiritual and infinite love are not part of science but maybe you can see some connection of value to you.
Joseph G. Engemann Kalamazoo, Michigan March 22, 2016
SCIENCE AND EVIL
Moral evil is a value judgement and scientists as humans can make such judgments. But offering a scientific opinion about evil is valueless. Atheistic scientists and religious scientists have a right to talk about evil based on their philosophical and/or theological point of view; but each should recognize those views are not part of science.
The magnitude of the human loss of life from earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, other natural disasters can be quantified by scientists. Those factors had a role in our evolutionary history as did many biological factors such as injury and death from starvation, disease, predators, and warfare. Such events are unwanted, but apart from warfare and other adverse human interactions, do not involve the intent that most would find in things that are evil. The natural selection of evolution resulting in survival of the fittest was part of every species evolutionary history.
The phenomena of the early origin of the universe, with its explosion, nuclear, and gravitational mayhem, was essential for the origin of elements, galaxies, stars, and planets; the violence challenges our imaginations. Development of the life-spawning conditions of our own planet Earth involved volcanic eruptions, crustal movements, earthquakes, mountain-building, erosion, and flooding also almost beyond imagination.
In adapting to our ever-changing environment species used various evolutionary solutions. Some got bigger, some got smaller. Some got faster, some hid. The diversity of the flora and fauna of the world is mind-boggling. With millions of years involved, many amazing adaptations have evolved.
Those adaptations involved the demise of many lacking the adaptation. If the demise was us, we would think it was evil. But if we don't view as a personal happening we should be thankful that many generations were gradually shaped into the species we see when we look in the mirror.
SCIENCE AND THE SPIRITUAL AND INFINITE LOVE
Maybe I will be able to shed some light on these topics in the next two posts. The spiritual and infinite love are not part of science but maybe you can see some connection of value to you.
Joseph G. Engemann Kalamazoo, Michigan March 22, 2016
Thursday, March 17, 2016
SCIENCE PREJUDICE
CreatorGate
Darwin would have a problem if he tried to publish his "Origin of Species" today. Sara Kaplan of the Washington Post authored an article in today's Kalamazoo Gazette (Page A6, March 17, 2016) entitled "Science meets God in CreatorGate" that described the establishment science uproar over the use of the term Creator in describing the long evolutionary process of the formation of the human hand.
The Chinese authors' article had "Creator" used in a translation describing the amazing natural evolutionary process of formation of the human hand. It was too close to the use of Creator in Creationism and Intelligent Design arguments that are anathema to many in science. Their article was in PLOS One (a free online open access journal in which PLOS stands for Public Library of Science).
Applied prejudice and retractions
If such diligence in seeking strict conformance to rules and prejudices of science had been applied to Darwin, he would have had to retract his first edition of his book. As it was he took out one of his references to the Creator in the final sentence of later editions of his book. see http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2013/06/darwin-and-god.html
If the people demanding retraction, which already has happened, knew the scientific atrocities infecting some revered studies in their scientific disciplines that have not to my knowledge been retracted, they would hang their heads in shame. I have described some of the errors in two such articles needing retraction in a post that my records indicate has only had about ten direct entries in almost three years as measured by use of the following entry
http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2013/05/science-screw-up-no-1.html
The lull in the Creation/Evolution debate [ http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2015/07/creationevolution-debates.html ] may be temporarily over but the cognitive dissonance aspect of it will probably make peaks and valleys of concern continue.
Too bad I don't have the Twitter and Facebook skills to respond to critics of the PLOS One article.
Joseph G. Engemann Kalamazoo, Michigan March 17, 2016
Darwin would have a problem if he tried to publish his "Origin of Species" today. Sara Kaplan of the Washington Post authored an article in today's Kalamazoo Gazette (Page A6, March 17, 2016) entitled "Science meets God in CreatorGate" that described the establishment science uproar over the use of the term Creator in describing the long evolutionary process of the formation of the human hand.
The Chinese authors' article had "Creator" used in a translation describing the amazing natural evolutionary process of formation of the human hand. It was too close to the use of Creator in Creationism and Intelligent Design arguments that are anathema to many in science. Their article was in PLOS One (a free online open access journal in which PLOS stands for Public Library of Science).
Applied prejudice and retractions
If such diligence in seeking strict conformance to rules and prejudices of science had been applied to Darwin, he would have had to retract his first edition of his book. As it was he took out one of his references to the Creator in the final sentence of later editions of his book. see http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2013/06/darwin-and-god.html
If the people demanding retraction, which already has happened, knew the scientific atrocities infecting some revered studies in their scientific disciplines that have not to my knowledge been retracted, they would hang their heads in shame. I have described some of the errors in two such articles needing retraction in a post that my records indicate has only had about ten direct entries in almost three years as measured by use of the following entry
http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2013/05/science-screw-up-no-1.html
The lull in the Creation/Evolution debate [ http://evolutioninsights.blogspot.com/2015/07/creationevolution-debates.html ] may be temporarily over but the cognitive dissonance aspect of it will probably make peaks and valleys of concern continue.
Too bad I don't have the Twitter and Facebook skills to respond to critics of the PLOS One article.
Joseph G. Engemann Kalamazoo, Michigan March 17, 2016
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