God of the gaps?

[Soyeong]

Hello, could you please be more specific about what your question is? 

[Brian Boru]

Hi Soyeong,

Thanks for your reply again. Sorry my last post wasn't very clear.

I guess for a while now I have gotten too immersed in "The God of the Philosophers" and neglected my spiritual life. I find a lot of talk about relating to God to be unintelligible - I don't agree or disagree with it, I just don't understand what people are talking about.

I find one or two things aspects a bit troubling - for example why does God want our praise and love? Why does Jesus say the greatest commandment is to Love your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. The second is to love your neighbour as yourself. (sorry for butchering the Biblical Quotation.)

To me the second command is the most important. I am not sure God would care about us loving him and place this over the second commandment.  The only explanation I can think of is that it is only possible to love your neighbour if your love God first so you don't have false idols in your life. ? I don't know.

Apologies for my very simplistic understanding of what Jesus says.

[Soyeong]

I find one or two things aspects a bit troubling - for example why does God want our praise and love? Why does Jesus say the greatest commandment is to Love your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. The second is to love your neighbour as yourself. (sorry for butchering the Biblical Quotation.)

God wants our praise and love because He is is praiseworthy and He first loved us.  This love is not about affection, but about tender regard, conduct in harmony, and about placing our primary focus on God.  Jesus said that if we love him, then we should obey his commands, so love and obedience are closely related.  The second commandment (and all others) is derived from from the first, but it is equal in value and represents it. 

1 John 4:7-21 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot[a] love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Apologies for my very simplistic understanding of what Jesus says.

No problem at all, you don't learn if you don't ask questions.

[Brian Boru]

Hi Soyeong,

Apologies, I have been away for the last few days. I do appreciate your replies.

I guess I wonder why God doesn't say: "if you love Me it will be good for you because I am love. But if you don't want to, that's your choice. But the one thing I command is that you love each other. "

Relating to God is hard. I don't find it intelligible.
I pray every day. I pray for the strength to get me through the day. I thank God for the good things in my life. I think about Jesus on the cross. I try to appreciate natural beauty.

I guess I have troubles with some of the religious imagery that I have inherited

[jayceeii]

Isn't the resurrection argument just like the God of the gaps? We don't know therefore it's God?

You know, it’s kind of strange since I have never seen this explicitly stated, but the underlying argument to Christianity is that the resurrection proves God has the power to reanimate a body, with the implication this power will be used later to raise all the dead. Perhaps this has not been explicitly stated since it initiates a discussion of God’s powers, for once this topic is broached you notice that if this power is proved, it still is not proved that God can generate a new planet for the Christians, nor animate bodies dead a long time. Once you say “God has this power,” you notice the critical powers were not proved.

This would weaken Christianity substantially, allowing atheists and those of other religions an easy target, and so the argument has remained tacit. Another glaring issue is that it has not been proved God can purify a soul rapidly. Christians would generate Heaven right now, on Earth, did they have the personality characteristics of the angels, so it is clearly not enough to drag them to Heaven. Jesus mentioned the “pure in heart,” but no claims are made in Christianity that God intends to purify souls, though it is required.

So Christianity is itself loaded down with gaps, where they say, “God can do anything,” but they do not have a God that has proved much, even were the miracles of Jesus real.