First Reformed Church, Schenectady

Want to know something about God?

"an individual can survive without sexuality, a society can not"

"an individual can survive without religion, a society can not"

question is

can an individual survive without society?

is religion an emmanation of society - or is there a God calling us to pray?

 

 

 

Hmm.  Individuals all have sexuality.  They may not have sexual behavior.  However, I think I know what you mean.

Can an individual survive without society?  I'm not sure how this would be possible since even the influence of even a parent would be a society of sorts.  Can we exist in the wild?  Sure.  But I simply can't imagine a modern scenario without some social influence.

Is religion of product of society?  To some extent.  God works through creation for all kinds of things and religion is certainly influenced greatly by societal trends. 

Is God calling us to pray?  I'm not sure this is related to the previous point, but my answer would remain:  always.

it is true - any interaction between 2 of the same species is "society"

and it is also true- people and most mammals and birds can not survive without parents.

so I would concede - individuals can not survive without society

to my knowledge - there is no society without  at least some form of rudimentary religion

I'll go one more and concede that hence - people cannot survive without religion.

but...

God and religion are not mutually inclusive

Old testament refers to acknowledgment of the Gods of other "societies" by the Hebrews and vice-versa

was the Egyption Ra - just  a different perception of the same presence as the Hebrew percpetion of Yaweh?

as the human race matures - so does our perception of God

the shift towards monotheism and non-physical perceptions of "God" was an example of maturation of the human perception of God.

the popularity of paganism in this modern world - seems evidence to me -

that not everyone is even physically capable of percieving God in a common way.

a society can collectivly define and proclaim a percpetion of the presence of God

a society can "create" a God to fit it's needs

but not all individuals will experience God as instructed.

some individuals - physically ,psychologocoly or spiritualy -can not

the boy with the club foot - will never win the race - no matter how hard his instructors work with him, because he physically can not run as fast as the boys without club feet.

so again - if God is always calling us to pray

is that so that God can hear our prayers  and know that we percieve God-

or is it so that we can hear ourselves speak them?

 

 

 

 

 

Hey Tim, me thinks you think too much.. God sent His only Son down here so that we could be redeemed and, perhaps, spend eternity with Him in Heven.  God created everything the way He wanted, perfectly.  We are not perfect because we sinned against God, hence the redemmer, His Son.  
We are all sinners .  In this day in age, we do not want to deal with sin. 

Does He want us to pray to Him?  What do you think, if you created something as important as life would you not want a little respect, worship  ect.  

What came first, the chicken or the egg.

Most anyone who gives it a thought believes that life begins at the moment of conception.  Does a women have domain over her own body?  Well, no.  God created it and He said "thou shalt not kill". They call them the ten commandments not the ten suggestions.  But I digress

There is a basic anti-choice mistake in equating 'life' with human life.  Of course egg cells are alive.  As are hair cells.  But no one pickets barbershops.  This leads to the second error, usually around the commandment about murder.  The commandment is not about killing animals or plants, obviously.  In fact, Jewish custom at the time of the commandments did not start the moral clock going on human life until well after birth.  Any Jewsish scholar will confim this.

I'm not sure the God who gives us a brain would object to us thinking too much.  Or praying too much for that matter, because good prayer requires good thinking.

Our Anglican friends have the best descriptor for this date, and it does not refer to attendance: Low Sunday!