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Mendalla

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The Most Important Theological Question

That was the title of today’s sermon in my UU fellowship. And the question is an interesting one. I am not entirely sure it is the “most important THEOLOGICAL question” so much as important in any area of human thought and endeavour. The minister did preface it by reviewing a broad history of theology, esp. the Christian theologies that led into modern UUism (ie. Unitarianism and Universalism). The text is Charles Schulz’s Peanuts.

 

Snoopy on theology

 

Yep. The most important theological question is “Have is it ever occurred to you that you might be wrong?”

 

The minister made a number of points as to why he thinks it fits. A couple that I remember offhand:

 

-          If we always stop to consider that we may be wrong, then extremism, violence, hatred, and intolerance could become a lot less likely. After all, if we might be wrong, that implies the person we’re hating on might be the one who is right.

 

-          Spiritual growth requires it. If we think have everything right, we can stagnate. Considering that we might wrong opens us to considering what other ideas might possibly be right.

 

There were more and I may add them in another post if I can him to send me a copy.

 

As I said, I’m not sure I agree about this being the “most important theological question”, but I do think that all involved in religion and theology need to ask it of themselves and each other from time to time. And, yes, that includes atheists, agnostics and UUs. Thing is, it isn’t just a theological question. Those involved in politics, philosophy, science, and just about any other field of thought need to do it as well. Indeed, I think just about anyone could, and should, consider that question from time to time. It may be one of the most important questions period, not just in theology.

 

What do you think of the question?

 

What do you think is the “most important theological question”?

 

Mendalla

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Neo's picture

Neo

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Aldo wrote:
The most important theological question: who or what am I? In the answer, is the most immediate and direct communion with God...

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
- 1 Corinthians 3:16


Mind, spirit and body are the temples of the Lord which man inhabits.

Spirit is Shiv shakti, which is energy.

Mind is Brahma, which is thought formation.

Body is Prakriti, which is material substance and can also be thought of as material activity.

- The Maitreya Teachings

RAN's picture

RAN

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Neo wrote:
Aldo wrote:
The most important theological question: who or what am I? In the answer, is the most immediate and direct communion with God...
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” - 1 Corinthians 3:16
Mind, spirit and body are the temples of the Lord which man inhabits. ...

Temple, or temples? A significant difference? Either/or/both?

Temple indwelled by God's Spirit, or temples inhabited by people ("man")? Either/or/both?

 

Neo's picture

Neo

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RAN wrote:

Neo wrote:
Aldo wrote:
The most important theological question: who or what am I? In the answer, is the most immediate and direct communion with God...
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” - 1 Corinthians 3:16
Mind, spirit and body are the temples of the Lord which man inhabits. ...

Temple, or temples? A significant difference? Either/or/both?

Temple indwelled by God's Spirit, or temples inhabited by people ("man")? Either/or/both?

 


Both. Mind, spirit and body can be seen as separate or in unison, depending on one's point of view.

WaterBuoy's picture

WaterBuoy

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But if you get too spiritual (emotions) you find the cogito ... like a bump in the log it errs sum ... perhaps the cog in the weal thing?---eL mere Fude ...

 

Thus Life is like a bump in the infinite Eire ... that'd be the mind of God that can span such distances in time (according to Celtic Myth). This will upset some isolated black spirits of god that can't see their not alone ... sort of a Black Ito that conception!

 

Some say we can't see such sublimely ridiculous things from this side of reality ... so there must be another as the corruption on this side is un-real ... makes it difficult to unravel it!

Aldo's picture

Aldo

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WaterBuoy wrote:

But if you get too spiritual (emotions) you find the cogito ... like a bump in the log it errs sum ... perhaps the cog in the weal thing?---eL mere Fude ...

 

Thus Life is like a bump in the infinite Eire ... that'd be the mind of God that can span such distances in time (according to Celtic Myth). This will upset some isolated black spirits of god that can't see their not alone ... sort of a Black Ito that conception!

 

Some say we can't see such sublimely ridiculous things from this side of reality ... so there must be another as the corruption on this side is un-real ... makes it difficult to unravel it!


at this point awareness is simply awareness.... neither specifically thought or emotion.... these distinctions folllow in the quagmire of reflection....God's love is... it is neither thought or emotion... so Descartes, the mathematician used unnecessarily limited language

ideas and thoughts are a dime a dozen, reality is unique

Aldo's picture

Aldo

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after all this discusion the most important theological question (for critical thinkers), is not whether being wrong occurs to us.... critical thinking assumes that from the start... and it is central to the process thereafter...

perhaps it is not so much a question for theology as a question for the self-righteous....christian or otherwise

WaterBuoy's picture

WaterBuoy

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Is there some other wise ... a different aware Ness as some occult thing we don't know?

 

Can you imagine a mortal that doesn't know everything ... or so they believed?

Aldo's picture

Aldo

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WaterBuoy wrote:

Is there some other wise ... a different aware Ness as some occult thing we don't know?

 

Can you imagine a mortal that doesn't know everything ... or so they believed?


but.... perhaps its enough that we know what we know... why undermine what we know with what we do not know... we know the Light we see

RitaTG's picture

RitaTG

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I wonder if God's most important theological question is 

Where do they come up with this stuff????

Perhaps worth considering???

Regards

Rita

Aldo's picture

Aldo

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RitaTG wrote:

I wonder if God's most important theological question is 

Where do they come up with this stuff????

Perhaps worth considering???

Regards

Rita


some say the stuff comes up with us... not so much we come up with it...: )

Arminius's picture

Arminius

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If, as I believe, God is the self-creative ALL that split ITself into object and subject, observer and observed, contemplator and contemplated, experiencer and experience, in order to experience and contemplate ITself, then God's constant question to us might be:

 

Why don't you see, you belong to me?

Aldo's picture

Aldo

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Arminius wrote:

If, as I believe, God is the self-creative ALL that split ITself into object and subject, observer and observed, contemplator and contemplated, experiencer and experience, in order to experience and contemplate ITself, then God's constant question to us might be:

 

Why don't you see, you belong to me?


he was in the world and the world was made through him, the world knew him not... John 1:10

WaterBuoy's picture

WaterBuoy

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Thus we pop up as essences of daemons as something to support de light ...

 

One has to consider the definition by confer-ance/antes of daemon as offspring of secondary gods (Beta forms?) that which is left after the god passed ... just a god essence (godI'va sense of this) or the mire spirit of he who sold heh's ole to the devil ... thus he lost it in a collosal state of chaotic intercourse ... an image of the greasy market place (Grecian Urn) in the heart of an O'live tri?

 

That's enough to confuse eM for the deis ... or so the word goes .. with great passion in a cloud of ... Shadows? Is that pure satyr to hide present data on what's intellectual f(unction) of the infinite rub or Reuben as a san de witching factor of what is yet mystery?

 

It is said it willultimately be apocalyptic ... popping up as bits and bites ... quarks an quirks of the human perversion with literal sects? It like celibate should be literary and thus ongoing creative or imaginary ... like the abstract side of what we know ... a non-absolute sliding factor ... floating point deci-mation/irratic-mating with great discretion ... thus related to excretion and execration! Some can't differentiate nothing ...

WaterBuoy's picture

WaterBuoy

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Thus we celebrate in the light of darkness and allows those that don't wish to know anything to remain in chaos ...

If you learn enough of those dark misunderstood words one can hide intelligence and people will think your crazy and believe you've talked to God who is right out of the equation concerning controlled passions and metaphysical thought ... an odd binary system known as de deuce from this point in history or time ... hysterical as looked at from the outsider's perspective ... outlanders ... like gnomons in Semite realms?

 

Thank god for misunderstanding ... and I can't be accused of a'crued intellect ... as I appear crazy ... an anacronism? SOB eit ... and the wadis fall ...

 

Knee deep in RHBillies fear of catharsis ... the act of his previous beliefs being swept away and altered ... difficult for stoics and those using spartan methods to remain the same ...

 

But, alas as you look about ... do we need another way of thinking as we see  pure passion has bought us to the fringe of existence? Perhaps it is just a metaphysical geist on my spine ... as a kohl'r process ... an udder BH Syndrome?

Aldo's picture

Aldo

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WaterBuoy wrote:

Thus we celebrate in the light of darkness and allows those that don't wish to know anything to remain in chaos ...

If you learn enough of those dark misunderstood words one can hide intelligence and people will think your crazy and believe you've talked to God who is right out of the equation concerning controlled passions and metaphysical thought ... an odd binary system known as de deuce from this point in history or time ... hysterical as looked at from the outsider's perspective ... outlanders ... like gnomons in Semite realms?

 

Thank god for misunderstanding ... and I can't be accused of a'crued intellect ... as I appear crazy ... an anacronism? SOB eit ... and the wadis fall ...

 

Knee deep in RHBillies fear of catharsis ... the act of his previous beliefs being swept away and altered ... difficult for stoics and those using spartan methods to remain the same ...

 

But, alas as you look about ... do we need another way of thinking as we see  pure passion has bought us to the fringe of existence? Perhaps it is just a metaphysical geist on my spine ... as a kohl'r process ... an udder BH Syndrome?

I think each has Light... as each seems different so the Light of each may seem different...

But as we do not create Light, Light retains its integrity apart from our experience of it...

This much is clear from the illumination: Light joins with Light... Light never opposes itself. Consider an image: when two candles come together, nether's light is diminished but the two provide greater illumination than does one alone. When a Light comes near me, I lose nothing and gain everything...

So we can celebrate all Light in its various 'sizes' and 'forms'...

And, by Light I men reality itself not ideas of reality, feelings of reality, mental presentations or representations, its in being and existing not so much in our knowledge

Arminius's picture

Arminius

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Yes, the Light is reality itself, ontological or objective reality as it really is, not as we think it is. The reality which is God.enlightened

 

The lamps are different,

But the light is the same.

One matter, one energy, one light, one light-mind,

Continuously creating all things.

 

-Rumi

 

ninjafaery's picture

ninjafaery

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RitaTG wrote:

I wonder if God's most important theological question is 

Where do they come up with this stuff????

Perhaps worth considering???

Regards

Rita

Absolutely - lol

WaterBuoy's picture

WaterBuoy

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That well chewed over in-material thought .... like Rumi Naching heis teeth, or trooth about connections  of marre ðages ... sages in debate?

 

If you didn't have a mind, heart and some processing power you wouldn't know what to think of all the lien going on over Judi'n and that other deis mon ...

WaterBuoy's picture

WaterBuoy

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The one with the punch line for the poke at the Pi Gaze ...

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