That's kind of where I feel I am. To me God is such a being that there is just no way, no logical way we could ever have a personal relationship with them or they be able to talk to us, except by sending some kind of messenger in a form we can relate to. Such a being would be truly unknowable.
LOL, really! I've read several of the trades (and watched the TV show) and that seems oddly uncynical for Preacher.
Yes. Messengers and Creation Herself. Personally, I connect through Nature, whether that be the bigass Eucalyptus tree in front of my house, the Desert Botanical Garden, a forest, or pictures of nebulas and galaxies, I find that sense of awe connects me in a way beyond words and ideas. This makes it hard to describe! As I have in my sig line, we are the Universe made manifest, trying to understand Itself.
LOL! Thinking a bit more as I have tea, I also connect with the Divine through people and other beings. My cats and other people's cats, dogs, ferrets, etc. My friends and the love they have for me and each other. My husband, who sometimes blows me away with his love and kindness. Watching people play with their kids. Acts of kindness between strangers. Anything where there is Love and Kindness, I think God/Goddess/Gods are there. Teaching by action. I just realized that much of my more expansive views on this have been because of Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology. https://freewillastrology.com/
Jesus is that Messenger in Christianity. Psalm 19:1-6 is a favorite passage of mine along those lines.
I think it's different in that direction. Him/Her/It/They should be just fine understanding us if HHIT created us. As a little girl in Catholic school, I was taught that Mary and the Saints interceded with God for us. But why would The Divine Wow need that? Of course, it could be US who need that.
God is omnipotent presumably. They can make it so I just understand anything they want me to. They don’t. Conclusion: they don’t want me to understand or there is no they.
Ah........ Good point. Also the whole Mary and the saints thing interceding for us as pentecostals (I used to be one of those) the RC added all that to the scriptures, and I'm pretty sure the bible says adding things to its written word is a sin so the RC committed a sin there.
Since it was brought up...what the heck is the pentecost anyway? Asking as a technically-Jew-but-mostly-Agnostic.
Pentacostals are those christians that have a lot of music and song in worship and wave their hands around a lot and believe in things like speaking in tongues and laying of hands in prayer, it's kind of oddball and conservative at the same time and money is a huge focus of their religion. Everything is money and the prosperity gospel.
In Christianity, "Pentecost" was when the Holy Spirit came to the Apostles and other followers after Jesus' ascent into heaven. Pentecostals, and some other Evangelical denominations, read the relevant passage in Acts, Chapter 2, as the dictate to prophesy, speak in tongues, and "spread the Word" throughout the world. Some scholars believe it was originally the Jewish harvest festival of Shavuot.
Interesting article and relevant to our discussions here: https://www.wired.com/story/psychologists-religion-how-god-works/
Huh. I have no idea what Acts, Chapter 2 is all about, but this is interesting. I always enjoyed Shavuot too.
"Pentecost" (meaning "50th day") was the name for Shavuot given by Hellenistic Jews of the time. So yes, the passage clearly states that the festival was going on, and that many people were in Jerusalem from abroad to celebrate. And that's when the Spirit was poured out.
Oh, sorry! Acts is a book in the "new" testament that deals with what Yeshua Ben Yusef's followers got up to after his death.
I am Roman Catholic! Did anyone of you know Khan himself Ricardo Montalban got knighted By Pope John Paul II! How cool is that?