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To: Stultis
It could be that that the material world is an aspect or manifestation of God's being. IOW the world is "part of" God rather than something apart from Him.

I would like to believe that God feels our pain literally and continuously, rather than in occasional photo-ops, like Bill Clinton. More than a few thinkers have suggested that God is in us.

467 posted on 02/17/2004 5:57:04 PM PST by js1138
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To: js1138
More than a few thinkers have suggested that God is in us.

I see it (or at least suspect it may be) the other way around. God is not in us, but rather we are in God. If the physical world -- the creation -- is a manifestation of God's own Being, then it seems to me that this is the same as saying that the creation is part of God.

If one claims that the world is the full expression of God's Being, IOW that the world and God are the same thing, this is pantheism. The suggestion that the world is part, but not all, of God's Being has been called "panentheism," which literally means "all in God".

So, to reiterate, on this scheme you have three possibilities:

Theism: The world and God are separate things.
Pantheism: The world and God are the same thing.
Panentheism: The world is part, but not all, of God.

Theism can, of course, be combined with the claim that God is immanent (present) within the World. Most of those who say that "God is in us" are probably expressing a doctrine of immanence in the context of theism. This is different from panentheism.

474 posted on 02/17/2004 11:25:39 PM PST by Stultis
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