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"Man is not the measure of God."

Dear Sister,

No telling how many times you have posted that truth, and I merely read it as a good "truism". Only now has the Spirit pointed out to me how deeply and profoundly true it is!

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I may be old and slow, but, eventually, I usually do manage to "get it"! <LOL!!!>
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Now that I ponder it, that basic principle encapsulates the root cause of most of the disagreements that believers express about creation -- including the age of the universe - and, yes, the vehement feelings expressed re "evolution".

For example:

Man's egocentric insistence that the timescale of our eternal, omnipresent Creator must be measured by the rotation rate of this minor planet -- just because it is the time scale that man uses and comprehends is "making man the measure of God". And that, of course, leads to the YEC fallacy...
Man's egocentric insistence that it is his (man's) physical body-- rather than his spirit -- that is "made in the image of God" leads to iconic absurdities like the Michaelangelo Sistine "creation" image. And, that same mispercepion drives the "I ain't descended from no monkey!" hubris that rejects all explanations of how life and the univese reached their present states. Again, "making man the measure of God" is the root cause of the fallacy...

"Man is not the measure of God."

Yes, indeed!

Thank you, Dear Sister, for sharing that wonderful and useful insight! May I borrow it -- even as a tagline -- on occasion?

[ "Man is not the measure of God." ]

I do wonder if God even has need of gender..
Men certainly do need gender, physically.. but not spiritually..
But God would have no need of that, I believe..

Could be its the test of the flesh, that is, the need for gender..
Some/most humans glory in their gender, depend on it for identity..
Without gender they would be set adrift in a sea with no power..
I wonder if the human spirit needs gender..

A great spiritual test may be separation from gender..
Not ignoring it, but separation of identity from it..
Could be that "men is not the measure of man either"..
Men might be spirit as God is Spirit..

If so, what would the spirit/Spirit have need of gender?..
Needful for human bodies but irrelevant for the spirit, maybe..
Robbed of gender, would that be such a grievous thing?..
Or separated from gender would that be a glorious FREEDOM?..

Indeed, AG's question(supposition) precipitates wonderful possibilities..
I love that girl...

Thank you oh so very much for your encouragements, dear brother in Christ!

Truly, it is as you say, once a person accepts that "man is not the measure of God" he is free from the entanglements of all sorts of Scriptural rationalizations.

For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. – Isaiah 55:8-9

And of course, please feel free to use the truism any way you wish!

To God be the glory, not man, never man.

Man's egocentric insistence that the timescale of our eternal, omnipresent Creator must be measured by the rotation rate of this minor planet -- just because it is the time scale that man uses and comprehends is "making man the measure of God". And that, of course, leads to the YEC fallacy...

"Man is the measure" — either of nature or of God — leads to all kinds of fallacies!

I just wanted to write to say how deeply moving I found this essay-post, and your earlier one at #82 of this thread. Simply marvelous, TXnMA! So beautiful....

IMHO FWIW.

Recently I came to realize that this question of whether man can be the measure of anything, in what way, and to what extent, is at the heart of the great debate between Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr regarding the sufficiency of quantum theory as an ultimate theory of physical reality. That is, this question has already been asked, within the physics community, by the two greatest scientific minds of the twentieth century. Asked — but not yet answered.

The details of this insight will have to wait 'til I can get something down on paper. I'm working on it, and will ping you in due course — for I feel strongly you will find it of interest.

Thank you so very much, dear TXnMA, for your insightful, deeply moving, and beautiful essay-posts!