Christ in the Cretaceous

[robrecht]

Yeah I suppose it **could**, but man how much do I have to suspend disbelief to think that the entirety of the cosmos and all sentient life it potentially encompasses, was redeemed when a Jewish carpenter & itinerant preacher was crucified for blasphemy 2,000 years ago. That just doesn't satisfy I suppose...at best it just stretches out infinitely the problem of the "Holy Heathen" (i.e. those who lived a good moral life but never received the Gospel message).

And furthermore, those who do believe will all life together on this Earth when Heaven comes down to form a New Jerusalem! Might get a little crowded (I would hope) !

A more universal perspective does not necessarily fit so well with some theological traditions within Christianity. I believe theology evolves with human knowledge in general and becomes incarnate in a wide variety of cultures. In line with much recent theology developed over the past century, I don't see any problem with holy heathens. Just as Paul wrote letters to address various local and cultural issues of his time, so we must do the same today.

[Adam]

I can't comment on this thread without getting in more trouble with Mossrose.

[Cerebrum123]

I can't comment on this thread without getting in more trouble with Mossrose.

What are you talking about?

[One Bad Pig]

I can't comment on this thread without getting in more trouble with Mossrose.

Get over it, already. Whining won't change things, and makes you look like a petulant child. And you know that your protest is untrue.

[mossrose]

I can't comment on this thread without getting in more trouble with Mossrose.

The only way you will be in more trouble with me is if you don't stop typing my username with a capital letter.

And if you don't stop whining all over the site about how mean I am.

That, too.

[Cow Poke]

The only way you will be in more trouble with me is if you don't stop typing my username with a capital letter.

And if you don't stop whining all over the site about how mean I am.

That, too.

Yeah!

[rogue06]

The only way you will be in more trouble with me is if you don't stop typing my username with a capital letter.

And if you don't stop whining all over the site about how mean I am.

That, too.

Mossy is a meanie!

[mossrose]

Mossy is a meanie!

[whag]

A few weeks back, our pastor gave a sermon on the Power & Glory of God. In it he used the passage in Psalms 19 saying that the heavens are declaring the Glory of God. He supplemented it by showing a vast array of Hubble Space Telescope images, from nebulae to the Deep Field to the new awesome ultra Hi-Res photo of the Andromeda Galaxy. It is awe-inspiring to say the least, and does conjure up a sense of the Divine.

He then tied it up into John 1, saying that all things were created through Christ. While most went away firmly refreshed in faith and wonder in God, I was nonplussed. After much reflection I found out why...Christianity is much too small a worldview to contain the vastness of the natural world. The sense of immense awe & wonder instantly vanishes when I insert a theology that restricts itself to a tiny fraction of a moment in a tiny fraction of a land in an incalculably tiny portion of the Universe. Or in other words, I simply fail to find Christ in the Cretaceous.

We scoffed at Copernicus when he dared to suggest that the Earth was not the center of the Universe, but 500 years later we still really haven't gotten away from that philosophy. Yes we realize that technically the Earth revolves around Sol, but theologically we still hold that everything in the quintillions of suns & planets revolves around something that happened in a few hundred square miles. Given what we know about how the natural world works, there is almost certainly other life out there, potentially with their own moral dilemmas. How do you reconcile this paradox? I mean this as an open-ended question to get answers, not to scoff at believers.

Excellent question. If human-equivalent life exists elsewhere, it would have to have evolved with the same ancestral baggage and under the same conditions of natural evil that force our worst behaviors (territoriality, nature worship, human sacrifice). With that raw material and environment to work with, it's impossible to imagine any equivalent species remaining perfect forever. We have to conclude that all similarly evolved species would also be in need of the same passion play.
Perfection in any context, particularly that one, is very difficult to imagine on large societal scales, and I think Christianity's biggest challenge is having a coherent answer for what God really expected when he created human beings.

[Jedidiah]

A sweet young thing mossrose is.

[Cow Poke]

A sweet young thing mossrose is.

Lemme guess - Rogue is up to his old antics again!

[Adam]

What are you talking about?

YOU at least should know.
Hey, lighten up, I'm just making it look like I could give the ultimate answer to the "meaning" (interesting pun in this regard) except that mossrose is too "mean" to let me.

[rogue06]

Lemme guess - Rogue is still up to his old antics again!

FIFY n/c

To say "again" implies that there was a time that I stopped.

[Jedidiah]

Forgive me for saying so, but it appears that your concept of God and creation is way too small.

A few weeks back, our pastor gave a sermon on the Power & Glory of God. In it he used the passage in Psalms 19 saying that the heavens are declaring the Glory of God. He supplemented it by showing a vast array of Hubble Space Telescope images, from nebulae to the Deep Field to the new awesome ultra Hi-Res photo of the Andromeda Galaxy. It is awe-inspiring to say the least, and does conjure up a sense of the Divine.

He then tied it up into John 1, saying that all things were created through Christ. While most went away firmly refreshed in faith and wonder in God, I was nonplussed. After much reflection I found out why...Christianity is much too small a worldview to contain the vastness of the natural world. The sense of immense awe & wonder instantly vanishes when I insert a theology that restricts itself to a tiny fraction of a moment in a tiny fraction of a land in an incalculably tiny portion of the Universe. Or in other words, I simply fail to find Christ in the Cretaceous.

We scoffed at Copernicus when he dared to suggest that the Earth was not the center of the Universe, but 500 years later we still really haven't gotten away from that philosophy. Yes we realize that technically the Earth revolves around Sol, but theologically we still hold that everything in the quintillions of suns & planets revolves around something that happened in a few hundred square miles. Given what we know about how the natural world works, there is almost certainly other life out there, potentially with their own moral dilemmas. How do you reconcile this paradox? I mean this as an open-ended question to get answers, not to scoff at believers.

[rogue06]

Forgive me for saying so, but it appears that your concept of God and creation is way too small.

That ^^^