"The Word", Circular Reasoning, etc.

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Jul 8, 2015 at 16:15

You're not saying that the 'Word of God' is a book are you? I completely disagree if so. The 'Word' is the primordial 'energy' (for want of a better term) behind creation.

"Energy" is not fundamental -- it is merely an alternate form of energy/matter. What defines both energy and matter is a "law" that can be expressed mathematically (i.e. in mathematical "words"). Without the underlying law, there would be no matter and no energy, but simply chaos.

The Christian Apostle John was not the only one who believed that all creation was formed by and is held together by the word of God. Jewish mystics also believe this; and they even look for hidden meaning in the shapes of the Hebrew letters that make up the words of Torah.

"Torah", in a narrow sense, is a "book" -- technically the first five books of the Bible, taken together. In the broader sense, "Torah" means Godly instruction. Jews accept the "books of Moses" as part of Torah, and their collection of oral tradition as the other, even more valid part; because the Bible has been abused through the ages by charlatans to deceive unstable Jews; but the tradition of the rabbis is considered more sure and understandable, and easily applied to daily life. Christians, of course, have their own "Oral Torah" in the form of the New Testament. Beyond even this, Jewish Kabbalists believe in a "Hidden Torah" which is passed on, Pagan-like, from initiate to initiate.

The bottom line is that "Torah" is accepted by Jews as instruction from God: moral instruction to humans, but also instruction to the very elements of the universe. In this sense, the laws of physics are also considered part of Torah. Christians have mystified the Greek word "Logos", to somehow represent Jesus as an aspect and separate person of a mythical "Godhead". There is no basis for this in scripture; it merely imposes Pagan-Christian dogma upon the written word, "proving" the Trinity doctrine by circular reasoning. The Greek word "Logos", however, simply means "word" -- embodying not just the speech and/or form of the letters, but the thought: It originates in the nature of the speaker, and becomes embedded in the nature of a compliant hearer. This is how, for instance,

John 1
[14] And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

That, at least, is my understanding

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