From: salyavin808 <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <yifuxero@...> wrote :
I agree: God = The Unified Field; which is apparently (imo) equivalent to "The Tao" - Well why not call it the Tao instead of the unified field which makes no sense? Or even worse, calling it "God." This is really the biggest issue IMO. I believe that people MISUSE the term "God" for many reasons, applying it when they *know* it is not appropriate. For example, they often do this when talking to people who believe in God as the "magic man in the sky" to avoid admitting that they do *not* believe that there is such a being -- a conscious, intelligent-unto-itself, omniscient and above all omnipotent entity called "God." Believing that there is some underlying level of the universe that one can experience during meditation is FINE, in my opinion. Been there, done that. However, you're moving into *completely* different territory when you use sloppy, misleading language and call that underlying level "God." By using that term, you are purposefully implying that you believe in what most people throughout the ages have believed when they used that term -- an entity that is sentient, can think and plan things, can perceive the universe, and can probably affect the universe. Taoists believe NONE of these things. Most flavors of Buddhists believe NONE of these things. They use language that is *precise*, and limits itself to what they mean. If they're speaking of the value of contacting via meditation a level of fundamental energy that they believe permeates the entire universe, they limit themselves to talking about it *as energy*. They do NOT feel the need to claim that energy has sentience, or a personality, or its own ability to think or plan or "want" things (as in the "will of God"). It's just energy, and will remain unaware of us forever, because it possesses neither its own intelligence nor perceptual mechanisms. If that's what you believe, BE MORE FUCKIN' PRECISE. Don't call it "God." That's just sloppy language, and sloppy thinking. You tap into a level of energy every time you plug a device into an electrical socket. That does not tempt you to declare that electrical energy has its own intelligence, personality, desires, and magical abilities. It does not tempt you to declare that electrical energy created the universe. Why do people feel the need to believe such things when talking about the level of energy they tap into when they meditate?
