[betty boop]

Because it's the "god within them" that equals feeling that equals truth REGARDLESS of scripture BECAUSE the scripture is only the recounting of the "imaginings" of those who lived in those eras.

Exactly, xzins! Yet scripture is not the mere imaginings of primitive peoples. For one thing, it seems to me Genesis must have been divinely given, for one cannot imagine how such primitive, idol-worshipping people as the ancient Israelites would have had the "sophistication" or the experience to have come up with the account of Creation given in Genesis.

Case in point: How would the primitive mind ever have conceived the idea of "nothing," from which creation was drawn forth by God's Will and Holy Word? In the primitive imagination, either the world was understood as eternal; or there was always a "something" that preceded the beginning of the world -- for instance, a vast ocean with a giant turtle in it, on whose back the world somehow magically comes to rest. The point is, the primitive mind is informed by naturalistic concepts; arguably, the "nothing" of ex nihilo creation is not a naturalistic concept.

Further, on the ethics front: Man did not conceive the idea of giving up worshipping idols -- by which the primitive thought he could make nature serve his interests -- on his own. The only way primitive man would have ceased an activity that he understood as indispensable to his own well being would have been that God commanded him to do it! And the ancient habit was so hard to break, that the Tribes of Israel frequently "back-slid" into idolatry, divine command notwithstanding.

In our times, we have "new idols" to worship, which frequently go under the head of "the god within." But let's face it, "the god within" is the main strategy of self-divinization: One becomes one's own idol of worship.

I can't imagine that this sort of thing is pleasing in the sight of God. For I strongly doubt that He ever repealed the First Commandment, which is the foundation of the divine covenant with Man. Indeed, the Second Dispensation inaugurated by the Incarnation of the Son of God in Christ renews this foundation.

Folks are telling themselves fairy tales these days, in order to justify what God does not justify.

[AlbionGirl]

In our times, we have "new idols" to worship, which frequently go under the head of "the god within." But let's face it, "the god within" is the main strategy of self-divinization: One becomes one's own idol of worship.

What a potent statement that is.

Folks are telling themselves fairy tales these days, order to justify what God does not justify.

Long before the 'hey I'm god' actually occurs though, the attempt is made to depose the One True God by a death of 10,000 denials and equivocations.

To the person who is able to see this, it is a horror as they witness each divine injunction being hollowed out.

[KC Burke]

As far as the "God within" or the centered Christ, I have even read some Society of Friends writers that stress that God is the initiator, and man the responder. I think the article explains well the trend toward Equivalancy and Universal Salvation that is in the non-orthodox wings of most denominations.

This ties in well with the Oden Rebirth of Orthodoxy issues I have been so inspired by in the past year.