Consiousness, God and Reality

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Jun 10, 2015 at 03:51

Hi, Waz. I just discovered this tab. I thought I had lost this discourse to Cyberland; but here it is, so I'll post it...

You raised some very interesting points. I will have great trouble, trying to keep my responses brief.

"What English speakers label 'God' is the field of consciousness in which all phenomena and all fields exist."

That probably goes too far, in my limited understanding. I am an English speaker, and I believe in the existence of one whom the Bible calls "God". Is this "God" equivalent to "consciousness"? If "consciousness" is somehow related to "self-awareness", then I would say "No". After all, the Devil of the Bible is very self-aware, very conscious of himself; and others are conscious of him, his nature and his machinations. Yet the Devil is not part of God; he is destined to spend eternity in the "Lake of Fire", the heavenly Gar Hinnom, the eternal garbage dump; whereas the essence of God is focused on His presence between the chruvim; and his worshippers and followers are forever separated from those in the fiery lake, those in the "outer darkness" as it says elsewhere, metaphorically:

Matt 25:
[30] And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
[31] When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
[32] And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
[33] And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
[34] Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

The Bible thus speaks of an eternal "consciousness" that is conscious of eternal suffering, and separated from the presence of God.

When I suggested that the intellectual community call the realm of consciousness "God", I was oversimplifying. From a purely philosophical point of view, one could do this, so that God, Jesus, the Devil, the messengers (translated "angels"), chruvim and all spirits of all men (and perhaps also beasts) could be lumped together by the common bond that they are things we cannot physically explain. Because of the nature of "what English speakers call God", however, there must be a separation between God, and those sharing His nature, and those who loathe and reject His nature. That is the essence of "holiness", which is a defining characteristic of this "God". You continued,

My guess is that (angels) are composed of a subtler form of energy unaffected by typical physical forces.

They are definitely described as being "super"-natural, meaning that their substance is not constrained by the laws of physics... (theme continued in preceding post)

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".