Greetings
The move from "God the father" to "God the awareness/consciousness" has been, from what i can tell, a reaction to the discoveries such as round earth, evolution, carbon dating etc (hinduism and Kabbalah is slightly exempt from this)
That is what many people believe, Tilt. Others believe this Creative presence is the Universe, that God's Awareness looks out from behind all our eyes, that there is no duality of creation and creator...
No offence but this just sounds like New Age speak
As for creator this falls down completely. Are you telling me that an all powerful, all knowing being (of whatever kind) created such a hostile and cruel universe?
A universe where life has to feed on life, a universe where the vast majority of it is two hostile for life to even begin on (as far as we know), a universe that looks like its going to end up a vast, cold empty wasteland in billions of years time. A universe where there is rape, murder, genocide. A universe where these bodies are faulty resulting in cancer among other things
If you really think there is a creator then you have to square it with these questions put for by Epicurus
Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. If God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world?" — Epicurus, as quoted in 2000 Years of Disbelief
Most religions are aware of this problem of evil, hence why they have such stories as Adam and Eve and Original Sin. However as we now know these things never happened
There is most likely no creator God and if there is it doesnt care about its creation
Why would we want to do that, show that the idea of God is not meaningful?
Because it can help some people get out of such a view
How would you feel if someone tried to convince you that the ideas of karma, rebirth and dharma were not meaningful?
In relation to my understanding of those terms they couldnt, rebirth is obvious and plain as day. Kamma is a little bit more abstract
Seems to me these are all ideas addressing the same deep questions: How does reality work, why does the Universe exist, why is life the way it is, why do we suffer?
Only the last one is a question the Buddha dealt with, metaphysical questions (reguardless of if he knew them or not) are not something the Buddha was concerned with
Where did laws of karma, rebirth, dharma come from? For a Buddhist its not an important question, for a person who believes in God the answer is quite obvious....
Perhaps it just is? Why does something have to have an agent behind it. This body is just body, no agent behind it there so why does kamma or gravity need one?
And very meaningful.
Its a nice fuzzy view but it doesnt really explain or mean all that much outside of providing comfort
well, exactly. there are some pretty nasty passages in the Jewish old testament, especially. thus the dangers of literal interpretations and fundamentalism.
If you truly believe that those are the word of God, without going into post enlightenment rational thinking (or pre-enlightenment Buddhist Dhamma), then God hates gays and its ok to persecute them
My understanding, from discussions with Jewish friends, is that a tradition of interpretation developed in Judiasm, in part because many rabbis and sages felt the old teachings should not be taken literally...
Perhaps they didnt like having to stone their child to death if it back chats
(yes its in the bible)
As for God though, i won't debate the issue too much, but there are varying ways that a supreme creative being can be conceptualized and Hinduism is actually a bit more open there, imo, then some other faiths.
Hinduism is unique in its take on other religions. Instead of trying to destroy them by force (verbally or with physical action) it takes the tact of "all is one" and thus attempts to absorb said religion into itself
God or Brahman is thought of as the ultimate source or creative wisdom which has brought all that exists and is aware into being. God in this view is not watching over or judging us, God is the presence/awareness that resides everywhere, within each of us.
So it sits back and watches as the Jews were being gassed?
You may not believe this, but how can it be proven wrong?
It cant but neither can Zeus, Osiris, Unicorns, fairies, wizards, witches ........
It's a matter of faith...
Blind faith
Where did laws of karma, rebirth, dharma come from? For a Buddhist its not an important question, for a person who believes in God the answer is quite obvious....
Wrong questions in Buddhism and i dont think one will ever get an answer to it
metta