Hi, Gilberto,
At 12:14 AM 12/13/2004, you wrote:
>>First she wants to get the ingedients in one place, and then she wants to
>>make the batter, and then she wants to grease the pans, and then she wants to
>>pour the batter in the pan, and then she wants to make the frosting.etc. "
>>but then from another perspective, its the constant unchanging will of the
>>chef to make a cake. And if you understand that, you can see how God's will
>>never changed.<<
Well, we might have different perspectives on this subject. I would not want to
go as far as the openness theists ("hyper-Arminians"), who say that God can
change His mind because He does not know the future, but I would never place
limitations on God's options. As Susan Maneck is fond of quoting, "He doeth
whatsoever He willeth."
"He Who is the Dawning-place of God's Cause hath no partner in the Most Great
Infallibility. He it is Who, in the kingdom of creation, is the Manifestation
of 'He doeth whatsoever He willeth'. God hath reserved this distinction unto
His own Self, and ordained for none a share in so sublime and transcendent a
station."
-- Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, pp.36-37
>>I understand your examples and thought along similar lines. That's why I
>>specifically said murder, not just killing. Actually murder might be defined
>>as unlawful killing so maybe its even a tautology that murder is wrong.<<
I think so. Murder is whatever people say is murder. For instance, it is fairly
common, at least in the U.S., that a person charged with murder may be allowed
by the prosecutor to plea bargain down to manslaughter.
>>No, I wouldn't but they claim to be and their arguments in their defense are
>>not stupid ones. That's why I would say that they are "arguably loosely
>>monotheistic"<<
I will go along with that.
>>Do you think the belief in the divinity of Christ or the Sonship of Christ is
>>also shirk?<<
I think that a belief in the Deity, not divinity, of Christ (in the context of
the Trinity) may be shirk. For example, I would have no problem saying that
"Christ is God," but I mean by it that Christ manifests, or reflects, God. He
is not on the same level as the divine Essence.
Honestly, given my tendency to minimize the importance of orthodoxy, I am
somewhat uncomfortable discussing shirk. However, I regard christology (or
prophetology) as an aspect of the Covenant, and, in that sense, I consider it
to be an element of orthopraxy, not orthodoxy.
>>I forget if I've talked to you about this before. I would have thought that
>>the elephant is God.<<
You mean Ganesha? ;-) No, I was using the term to refer to a particular divine
Revelation.
Mark A. Foster * http://markfoster.net
"Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburger"
-- Abbie Hoffman
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