Reader Revelation from Dave Thompson
I have been extremely impressed and at times overwhelmed with the level of direct email feedback I am getting on the website. Here’s a thought-provoking excerpt from Dave Thompson, a college classmate of mine, that may generate some introspection (please feel free to comment as well).
- Fred
“I read through portions of Fred’s website today and found it refreshing in its clear attempt to be open and genuine. Fred uses the terms “hearing” and “seeing” in their metaphorical sense, in keeping with the writings of someone like Marcus Borg, rather than in their literal physical senses.
That sensibility is certainly far more consistent with my own experience and understanding. I lay no claims to, “knowing the mind of God”, as I continue to see my own life as a journey of seeking and discovery. I acknowledge the very real possibility that there is no “Reality” behind the notion of “God”, that it may be a human invention fostered by our genetic and socio-psychological make up. I prefer to hope that there is a “Reality” behind the notion of “God” or the “Divine”, but suspect that if indeed “God created the universe” that creative act was at a far more sophisticated and subtle level such as defining the fundamental properties and characteristics of energy and matter than captured by the literal interpretations of the early chapters of Genesis.
If the universe is indeed a Divine creation then we need look no further than the evidence plainly at hand to infer that the Universe of Divine creation is one of grand and compelling diversity – Stars of various masses and stages of development, gas clouds, planets, asteroid belts, dark matter, black holes, etc., at the cosmic level; grasses, shrubs, trees, microbes, viruses, plankton, insects, fish, birds and mammals of all different shapes and sizes at the life forms level here on this planet.
To the best of my knowledge all the food chains that life on earth depend on are in turn dependent on a complex web of diverse components. How those who would claim to “speak for God” can be so willfully blind to that obvious evidence is, to me, testimony to a fear based intolerance of Divine wisdom and wealth. I have a friend who quips that, “When God hates everyone you do, you can be sure you have invented God in your own image.”
From Dave Thompson