>> I recall reading somewhere that Christianity is not a religion. A religion
>> is man seeking God. Christianity is God seeking man. We use words like God,
>> Creator so readily that we do not comprehend the depth that such terms
>> convey. If one were to sit in a quiet room for several hours trying to truly
>> comprehend the meaning of those terms, I can assure you that the result will
>> be humility, fear, and a desire to know more about God the Creator.
>
> OK if by "trying to truly comprehend" you mean something like fides quaerens
>intellectum or at least being open to the possibility of faith. But there
are plenty of
>merely intelligent people who, after such an exercise, will have concluded
that "God"
>and "Creator" are vacuous, or will have attached to them concepts
incompatible with
>Christian faith in the God who is revealed in Christ.
>
>George L. Murphy
>gmurphy@raex.com
>http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
Dear George,
Perhaps to those who "God" and "Creator" are vacuous terms should stay in
the quiet room for several days rather than several hours. When I wrote the
original message I had in mind someone like Pascal who realized that in some
sense man was the median between the infinitesimal and the infinite. I do
believe that without a notion of the transcendental, the logical conclusion
of one's intellectual thoughts would lead to despair. Witness what Steven
Weinberg said about things being meaningless the more we learn (and limit
our thinking only to the physical plane). I still believe the belief of a
Creator is the most important first step in the road of theism and
ultimately to Christ.
Take care,
Moorad