thread: 2007-01-04 : Self-identification vs. Membership
On 2007-01-09, NinJ wrote:
Vincent, there's a substantial tradition in Jewish thought (which copulated wildly with Sufi thought a thousand or so years ago) that holds the same perspective.
Sydney, why didn't the Universe stop functioning when God was incarnate, then? If God isn't the prime coordinating force in the Universe, what is? Or, perhaps phrased better: If the prime coordinating force in the Universe isn't God, what's God?
It's no sacrifice of God's if there's a fraction of the infinite that becomes mortal while God rests on high and doesn't infuse creation; a fraction of infinity is still infinity.
"When God began to create the heaven and the earth" is never ended in Torah; it never says, "And Earth was Done, and God clapped the dust off His hands, and said, 'Phew. Now I can kick back.'" Creation is an ongoing process.
N.B.: I never said Jesus was "just" a dude. I said that he was a dude. A physical thing. The point isn't that he's just some guy; he can be the most superspectacular human in existence and that still doesn't approach Godliness. He can be completely without sin, turn vitamin pills into amphetamines, and walk on lava. He could know the answers to all of life's problems. He can converse with angels and command them. He can shit cr??me brul??e and sneeze risotto, and I would hire him, but I wouldn't call him God.
Moses wasn't God. Eliahu wasn't God. The Ba'al Shem Tov wasn't God. And whatever the crackpot Lubavitchers think, Manachem Schneerson wasn't God. The ability to work wonders, lead people, heal the sick, and give hope are not Godly attributes any more than the ability to eat breakfast.
