Tuesday, June 12, 2012

I believe for every drop of rain that ...


I believe in God.

But ultimately that which I call God is beyond names and forms – beyond all human conceptualizations.

 All God talk is but metaphorical. All bible and church dogma is but a cage to shut out the experience of the ultimate.

God talk is necessary, but must be seen for what it is – a human invention – metaphors for the inexpressible.

I do not believe the bible is the inerrant, infallible, inspired word of God.

I do believe it is a human product – an historical record (sometimes glorious and sometimes inglorious) of peoples’ conceptualizations of God.

I am not an atheist. I admit ignorance about many things.

I am a moderate mathematician, a linguist, and a lover of general relativity and quantum physics. But I know the more I know, the more I realize I don’t know.

I have read the Bible many times. Some parts thrill me (e.g 1 Corinthians 13) and others fill me with utter disgust (Leviticus 25: 44-46).

I believe that (in my metaphorical God talk) that all people (color, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation … even fundamentalists) are welcome at God’s table.

I believe that the only things that really count are love, our common humanity, and the mystery that we choose to call God.