At 10:52 PM 11/29/2002 -0600, Mia McDavid wrote: >SKZB wrote: > > > >Hmm. I respectfully disagree. The domain of Christianity, above all, has >shrunk *considerably* since the middle ages. Even the Roman Catholic >Church, among the most reactionary segments, has admitted the validity of >evolution, and even confessed that Gallileo was right (though they have >not yet given up on miricles, which have been described "God interrupting >Himself). > > > >Yes, the domain of the Church in world politics and the meddling with >scientific discovery have dwindled, as well it should. But, you are >equating "religion" with "God." Religion is the human response to the >Divine; the rituals, institutions, trappings, holidays, prayers, etc. > >The Christian God is every bit as omniscient, omnipotent, etc. as always, >thank you. No, I am not referring to those things. I'll restate my position; perhaps you missed it the first time. At one time, gods were part of everything. There was no aspect of life that was not controlled by its particular deity. Each tree, each body of water, had it's god. Now...let's skip several tens of thousand of years, and, with more understanding of nature and its interconnectedness, you find gods who control sets of things. Nature and plant life; the harvest; war, &tc. All things man found A) vital and B) Mysterious. Knowledge grows, and you have the earliest forms of the Judeo-Christian God, who determined everything that happened, who controlled each event--in other words, life is seen as interconnected, and part of a whole, but still fundamentally a mystery. This was pretty much the state of God until the reformation, when, with the beginning advancement of science, and with the advent of Protestantism, God became more of an original starter--that is, he created the heaven and the earth and the laws that govern them, and then pretty much let things run. By the time we hit the 20th century, we find many Christians who have trouble swallowing even that much. To reflect their needs, there are sects who claim that, well, okay, maybe the big bang explains the start of everything, but God *still* defined the laws that control them. And even that is too much for many. We find many groups of theists who can't really say what God does, but still, there has to be *something* out there, doesn't there? That's when you get the "God is love," thing happening, and similar ideas. No, we don't know what God does--too much is known about how our world operates to leave him much room--but many are still unwilling or unable to let him go entirely. In other words, one of the things God has always reflected is the unknown. And, however much the cynics like to deny progress, we know a *lot* more about how our world operates than we did 10,000 years ago--or a hundred years ago. And it would be silly to imagine that conceptions of God wouldn't change as knowledge of the world changed.