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According To Our Own Measure

Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Every one of us forms an idea of Christ that is limited and incomplete. It is cut according to our own measure. We tend to create for ourselves a Christ in our own image, a projection of our own aspirations, desires and ideals. We find in him what we want to find. We make him not only the incarnation of God but also the incarnation of the things we, and our society and our part of society, happen to live for.

Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, Chapter 21


Man is the measure of all things.

Aristotle


Is it at all possible to avoid "cutting" or interpreting deity according to our own measure? That is, is there such a thing as a notion of deity that is not distorted by our own projections, by our ideals, aspirations, and desires?

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E

evearael

Well-Known Member
Is it at all possible to avoid "cutting" or interpreting deity according to our own measure? That is, is there such a thing as a notion of deity that is not distorted by our own projections, by our ideals, aspirations, and desires?
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I don't believe so. We are only human, after all.
 
Comet

Comet

Harvey Wallbanger
Sunstone said:
Is it at all possible to avoid "cutting" or interpreting deity according to our own measure? That is, is there such a thing as a notion of deity that is not distorted by our own projections, by our ideals, aspirations, and desires?
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In most sences "NO". Yet, I think one's ideals etc.... are shaped just as much by the deity they worship and what the idea of that deity was when the one discovered it. I see it really working both ways here. We understand it by our own measures for all are different and only see by their own eyes, yet the deity in question has shaped that person's views.
 
Halcyon

Halcyon

Lord of the Badgers
Sunstone said:
Is it at all possible to avoid "cutting" or interpreting deity according to our own measure? That is, is there such a thing as a notion of deity that is not distorted by our own projections, by our ideals, aspirations, and desires?
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Nope, that's why we teach that God is essentially unknowable.

But then again, is it possible to project the belief that we cannot know?
 
C

Chattan

Member
I agree. I don't believe that we can comprehend God but I do think that we can experience God. Essentially, we only have what we know as humans so God is made in that image. Sometimes it is very anthropomorphic and sometimes it is more abstract. Regardless, our view is limited and that affects how we see or don't see God.

Joe
 
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