The God Delusion 2

Despite my negative take on Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion in my last post, I'm grateful that the book's simplistic theology has prodded me toward defining my own. Here are some working notes:

1. I am in awe of the cosmos, first that it exists at all (that there's "something" rather than "nothing") and then that life and consciousness have evolved within it.
2. My response to that awe is (appropriately, I think) gratitude.
3. To whom or what am I grateful? To the great unnameable mystery that lies not only beyond space and time, but also beyond existence itself. The traditional word for that mystery is "God." Among the best definitions I've found for "God" is Paul Tillich's "the ground of being." (Unfortunately Tillich doesn't appear in Dawkins's extensive bibliography and index.)
4. The only way I know to express gratitude to God is by addressing God in the only way I know, the way I address the most complex, loving things I know: other people. So I consciously anthropomorphize God, not to limit God, but to concede my own absolute inability to know God as God is.
5. I experience God not only as the mystery beyond the existence of the cosmos, but also as the mystery beneath my own existence, my own consciousness. The traditional language for this experience is that God is both transcendent and immanent. I feel God's transcendence in nature, especially in nature's systems. I feel God's immanence in art and ritual (signs and stories), in other people, and in the depths of my own meditation and prayer.

If you're on a spiritual quest, you may want to read The God Delusion. The experience may help you define your own theology.

Comments

[Jay Cole Simser]

Ken,
Have you read "Jesus for the Non Religious" by John Shelby Sprong. He says “God is not a heavenly judge. God is a life force expanding inside humanity until that humanity becomes barrier free.” Worth a look. Jay

[michael krahn]

Hey,

I'm a Christian who is working on a series on Dawkins' book "The God Delusion" at my blog at:

http://michaelkrahn.wordpress.com/richard-dawkins/

Join me there for some discussion.