Problems with this section (Agnosticism)

by Frank Paris , Friday, November 06, 2009, 21:54 (5282 days ago) @ dhw

You wrote: You objected to my saying "If the universe is God...". On 24 October at 19.23 you wrote: "All is One." And: "All there is is the physical [though you now leave the physical nature of God's consciousness open to question] and all there is is the divine." If All is One, then God is all and all is God.-I don't think we should get too distracted by this. Mystics throughout the ages report the experience that "All is One", and I've had that experience myself. I would not be honest if I didn't mention having that experience since it was so powerful. The feeling that all is one emerges when you experience layer after layer of incrustations and illusions of separation being pealed away until it all seems as if separation is just an illusion. But interpreting this experience with the words, "All is One" is just a spontaneous description of the way it seems during this experience. It has bearing on my theology the way everything at base arises from the nature God and our "profane" existence is the result of wishful thinking and limited perspectives that are washed away in experiences of mystical union.-My theology is just a rationalization of the primordial experience of this underlying "unity" and I wouldn't try to push literal conclusions from the raw statement, "All is One," because that is just a mythological statement that tries vainly to point beyond itself, as all mythological statements do. In a way, my "proclamation" that "All is One" is a report that my entire theology is based on that primordial experience that cries out with that universal proclamation. My theology is an attempt to rationalize that experience. -If you're more confused than ever, that's one more reason to stay away from that proclamation. There is another expression that "popped out of me" during mytical experience that perhaps (or perhaps not) is revealing in this respect: "God normally hides his true nature from us [revealed in mystical experience] to protect himself from desecration." In a way, taking the statement, "All is One," too literally is a form of desecration.