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Vexen
Registered Member
Date Joined Jan 2002
Total Posts : 55
| Posted 1/19/2002 5:24 AM (GMT -6) |   | I just read The Golden Telephone post/joke by PotOnWheel and it has inspired a question... if you could talk to God directly, honestly, on a telephone (so you wont have any embarrasing problems with a shining face afterwards!)What theological question would you ask?
For example... "do you exist?", "how does the Trinity work?", "does evil exist because of free will?", "is open theology true?", how about, "am I going to go to heaven?"
At this particular moment in time, I would ask, "am I going to heaven?"
Oh actually I wouldn't ask "do you exist" because it be a tautology at that point!
--
Vexen
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Semeia
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Date Joined Aug 2001
Total Posts : 522
| Posted 1/19/2002 6:30 AM (GMT -6) | | The other day our nine-year-old son told my husband that he wished that his teachers would talk more about God in his Sunday School class. He said that they talked a lot about being nice to people, but that he had some questions that he'd like answers to, but he was too embarrassed to ask. My husband asked him what his questions were, and these were his top three:
1) Am I going to heaven?
2) What did Jesus do as a little boy? What was he like?
3) I know those people killed Jesus, and nailed him to the cross, but why did they do it?
I thought those were very good questions. I wish I had THE answers. (I have my version; I just wish I had God's version.)
As far as what I would ask God:
What is it about Life that makes the most valuable, rewarding, life-enhancing experience of Love so non-intuitive and difficult for people to attain? What is it about Life and consciousness that veils this seemingly simple truth? Why would it be so difficult to "Love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself" that we would murder God when he came down among us as our brother?
Thanks,
Semeia
"The opposite of sin is not virtue, but faith."--Soren Kierkegaard | | Back to Top | | |
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Semeia
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Date Joined Aug 2001
Total Posts : 522
| Posted 1/19/2002 7:25 AM (GMT -6) | | Oh, and I would also ask God:
Is an electron (or photon, or any bitty thing we discover next) a particle or a wave?
Or what does it mean to be both/neither? What is its true nature?
It seems to me that if I could understand this, I might have a clue about my question concerning love.
I can't explain right now exactly why I see a connection between these two things, but someday perhaps I will be able to. It has something to do with existence being relationship as opposed to essence (similar to something PoW said about that recent post). Iconoclast's quote from Christopher Alexander hints at it:
These two things are true of every living center:
1. Each center gets its life, always, from the fact that it is helping to support and enliven some larger center.
2. The center becomes precious because of it.
"The Nature of Order - The Phenomenon of Life"
Thanks,
Semeia
"The opposite of sin is not virtue, but faith."--Soren Kierkegaard | | Back to Top | | |
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trosie
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Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 550
| Posted 1/19/2002 9:01 AM (GMT -6) | | My question would be, God, why is there so much gray in life? Why can't the bible CLEARLY spell out the black and white in such a way that there would be no gray (which gets everyone disagreeing about things like homosexuality, divorce, open view theology, women's roles in church...)?
quote:
These two things are true of every living center:
1. Each center gets its life, always, from the fact that it is helping to support and enliven some larger center.
2. The center becomes precious because of it.
I love this!!!
trosie
"Sometimes when your heart breaks God is the only one who can put it together again." Author Unknown | | Back to Top | | |
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Springs
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Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 636
| Posted 1/19/2002 4:19 PM (GMT -6) | | quote:
Semeia wrote:
1. Each center gets its life, always, from the fact that it is helping to support and enliven some larger center.
2. The center becomes precious because of it.
Be still my heart. Semeia does this mean you want to become covenant partners? 
Springs
"God has instituted prayer so as to confer upon his creatures the dignity of being causes." — Blaise Pascal
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Semeia
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Date Joined Aug 2001
Total Posts : 522
| Posted 1/19/2002 6:13 PM (GMT -6) | | Springs said: Be still my heart. Semeia does this mean you want to become covenant partners?
Semeia:  
Before I answer this I have important instructions for Pia---before reading any further, close your eyes, put your hands over your ears, shake your head back and forth while shouting, “Fa la la la...I don’t HEAR you…fa la la la la…” so that you hear nothing!!!! Trust me on this one. Ok? Ok, then, here’s my answer:
Just kill me now!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!!!!! (Stamps foot.) 
Now, if you got rid of the signed Covenant Statement and the twelve hour class, but kept the pizza party and threw in some Caribou coffee, SIGN ME UP!!!!  (Well, not literally of course, because I’m not going to SIGN anything!)
By the way, in spite of everyone’s protestations to the contrary on the other threads concerning Covenant Partnership NOT being membership, last week at the 11:00 service Mary Van Sickle explained that “Covenant Partnership is our kind of membership.”  Iconoclast and I nearly fell off our chairs. LOL.
Also, if you dig in to Christopher Alexander’s philosophy, it is quickly apparent that he would find something like the Covenant Statement to be very detrimental to the living centers, for the reason that it is a kind of wishful thinking that fails to take into account the reality of human behavior. Denying the reality always reduces the life of a center. Only by recognizing the true forces at work (in this case the daily sinfulness of human beings) can the forces be balanced to produce a living center, connected to and supportive of other living centers. Most modern architecture is predicated on an idea of how people should be, not how they really are, and that is why it is mostly devoid of life. The Covenant statement fails for the same reason, in my opinion.
But hey, Springs, you didn’t REALLY want to talk about this again, did you? If we really need to torture ourselves like this, we could just go scrub our bathroom floors or do five more loads of laundry or clean out the cat litter box, and then at least we’d have something to show for it at the end!
Ok, someone tell Pia that she can open her eyes now… It’s all over, and I’m willing to say it never happened… We were just talking about what we were going to ask God if we had the chance… 
Thanks,
Semeia
"The opposite of sin is not virtue, but faith."--Soren Kierkegaard
Edited by - Semeia on 01/19/2002 11:18:10 PM | | Back to Top | | |
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Iconoclast
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Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1227
| Posted 1/19/2002 6:40 PM (GMT -6) | | Good question Vexen. I think I would ask:
1. Am I going to heaven? Am I OK? Do you love me?
2. How am I doing? Am I on the path to a "well done thou good and faithful servant"?
3. What should I be focusing on to get better?
Then I think I would ask:
What is the secret to making something that can behave both like a particle and a wave?
thanks,
Iconoclast
"being weird is rarely a total waste of time" - Greg Boyd | | Back to Top | | |
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Empiress
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Date Joined Jan 2002
Total Posts : 363
| Posted 1/19/2002 7:27 PM (GMT -6) | | I can't pick a single question! It's too hard. I would ask God...
General Questions:
Who are you? What are you like?
Why is there evil and suffering?
Where and in what ways have you revealed yourself throughout world history and in human cultures?
What's the deal with the Bible?
Questions about me:
How do you feel about me?
What have I done right/wrong?
What is my call?
~Empiress
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BJS
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Date Joined Dec 2001
Total Posts : 587
| Posted 1/20/2002 3:03 AM (GMT -6) | | Trosie:
quote:
My question would be, God, why is there so much gray in life? Why can't the bible CLEARLY spell out the black and white in such a way that there would be no gray (which gets everyone disagreeing about things like homosexuality, divorce, open view theology, women's roles in church...)?
I'm totally there with you, Trosie! I posted on this in the "OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD" topic.
Brett
"Siste viator et memento mori." | | Back to Top | | |
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Mephi2K
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Date Joined Jun 2001
Total Posts : 713
| Posted 1/20/2002 3:21 AM (GMT -6) | | Upon deep reflection, I would ask these things:
Is the whole Christ thing (life, message, death, RESURRECTION) real? Did you REALLY do that?
Has it been you talking to me all these years?
Why aren't you more clear with everything?
What can I do and/or be for you?
What EXACTLY do I have to do to help open my eyes to see more of You and more of myself?
Here's something. What if God gave you answers that you didn't like or honestly thought were somewhat "beneath" God? How would you respond?
Just wondering.
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June
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Date Joined Dec 2001
Total Posts : 105
| Posted 1/20/2002 4:42 AM (GMT -6) | |
I'd ask God if Jesus really could have failed. Was there are REAL possibility that Jesus could have sinned?
i'd also ask God if the is otherlife out there. with the universe as big as it is, you'd think there would be a God chance. and if there was, what is their story. did Jesus save them too?
June
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trosie
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 550
| Posted 1/20/2002 5:06 AM (GMT -6) | | BJSquote:
I'm totally there with you, Trosie! I posted on this in the "OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD" topic.
Now I'll want to look this thread up
Gosh, aren't these all such COOl questions. Wouldn't if be fun if for real we could get the answers!!!
Mephiquote:
What if God gave you answers that you didn't like or honestly thought were somewhat "beneath" God? How would you respond?
? That's an interesting thought!
trosie
"Sometimes when your heart breaks God is the only one who can put it together again." Author Unknown | | Back to Top | | |
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writerdad
Registered Member
Date Joined Jun 2001
Total Posts : 448
| Posted 1/20/2002 4:47 PM (GMT -6) | | Who killed JFK? To hear it from God you know it would be true...
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writerdad
Registered Member
Date Joined Jun 2001
Total Posts : 448
| Posted 1/20/2002 4:50 PM (GMT -6) | | My belief is that all the hard questions of this life (such as why there is such evil, gray areas and other such stuff) will be answered by being in his presense. The more concrete questions I have have to do with events such as the one just posted, certain specfic events that happened that were unanswerable. Harold
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Starkman
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Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1747
| Posted 1/20/2002 5:38 PM (GMT -6) | | Writerdad,
Well, you stole the show out from under my feet on the JFK one, for sure. I was going to post something along that line (no, not JFK, but more like) "Okay, God, one question: If three guys are on one side of a river, and there's a boat that can carry 200 pounds - one of the guys weighs 200 pounds - and there's a dog...forget it, the dog's already dead... Well, you can kind of see the issue here. Serious stuff!
Yeah, to know that Calvin Klein or Kevin or whatever his name is (who made the movie) really did have it right would be good to know (you DO agree with the movie, don't you? DON'T YOU???)
Starkman
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PotOnWheel
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Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890
| Posted 1/20/2002 5:39 PM (GMT -6) | | Semeia said (bless her):
quote:
Also, if you dig in to Christopher Alexander’s philosophy, it is quickly apparent that he would find something like the Covenant Statement to be very detrimental to the living centers, for the reason that it is a kind of wishful thinking that fails to take into account the reality of human behavior. Denying the reality always reduces the life of a center. Only by recognizing the true forces at work (in this case the daily sinfulness of human beings) can the forces be balanced to produce a living center, connected to and supportive of other living centers. Most modern architecture is predicated on an idea of how people should be, not how they really are, and that is why it is mostly devoid of life. The Covenant statement fails for the same reason, in my opinion.
So Sem, if you follow that whole "Pattern Language" thing, like they did at the Univ. of Oregon by not laying sidewalks until they saw which buildings people REALLY wanted to get between, and which side of the building REALLY was the front. What would the REAL Covenant Statement be.
Ha!!! Gotcha!!!!!
Maybe it would begin: "I believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth. And I believe in Jesus Christ his son our Lord, who..."
For fun and seriousness..... | | Back to Top | | |
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Semeia
Registered Member
Date Joined Aug 2001
Total Posts : 522
| Posted 1/20/2002 6:25 PM (GMT -6) | | Hey Pow, you COULD be on the right track... but I don't want to discuss it right now because:
a) I don't want to ruin this perfectly good thread that Vexen started; and
b) Woodland Hills is having another Covenant Partner meeting next week and the last thing I want to do is stir this all up again and get everyone upset. Well, ok, maybe I do like to stir things up, but in this instance I'm going to use some self-control and not take the bait (at least not more than I already have).
So I'm taking the fifth on this one...
At least for now.
Do I hear any amens?!
Thanks,
Semeia
"The opposite of sin is not virtue, but faith."--Soren Kierkegaard | | Back to Top | | |
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PotOnWheel
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890
| Posted 1/20/2002 6:31 PM (GMT -6) | | | | |
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might-be-don
Registered Member
Date Joined Jun 2001
Total Posts : 830
| Posted 1/21/2002 4:05 AM (GMT -6) | | I've been practicing this one since I discovered my retirement fund may run short... "Would you like fries with that?"
peace and love, don
A quote from Rev. Gregory A. Boyd, PhD ... " Has anyone seen my keys? " | | Back to Top | | |
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PotOnWheel
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890
| Posted 1/21/2002 8:45 AM (GMT -6) | | Here's a feel-good answer to the question:
quote:
Jeremiah 31:33-35 ""They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, "Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,'' declares the LORD,
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