The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #158223   Message #3744635
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
17-Oct-15 - 08:49 AM
Thread Name: BS: The Pope in America
Subject: RE: BS: The Pope in America
Joe suggested that you have a fundamentalist concept of God, Steve, and that seems right. so it's no wonder you reject it. That includes a way of understanding words like creation and creator. The kind of thing Pope Francis was talking about in saying ""When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so,"

"We're here, because we're here, because we are here..." Is not really an explanation of how it is we are here. Nor does the notion of God provide that kind of explanation. But nor does it imply that we should ever stop working away looking for greater understanding of how it is - albeit with no expectation of ever getting a final answer.
..........
God didn't chisel them into tablets of stone and hand them to some bearded, bronze age, middle eastern goat herder who could then stumble down the mountainside with them shouting Hosanna!

Of course then Moses promptly proceeded to smash the tablets, a bit like the Labour Party with the Ed-stone... But most of the Ten Commendments, I doubt if too many people would actually disagree with them as a guide to how we need to try to behave to each other. (Where does using "bearded" as an insult come from anyway?)