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As for me, I'm against anything ...mortal ... How can we love God absolutely ... with any such obstructions[mortality]? I have no confidence at all in matter. Or as Einstein said, “reality is an illusion, albeit a persistent one.”

Yet God created man a mortal and our very purpose is to love and glorify God. There are instances in the Bible where some mortal men "walked with God". Moses spoke with Him "face to face". Many of us, if not all, who are Christian, would gladly give up all our mortality and material goods for our love of the Lord. The plan of salvation and Christ becoming mortal is the reason for this creation. Angels desired to know these things and look at us with wonder.

If, as you say, all of it is illusion, then it must be a cosmic joke and God is not being honest with us. However, we know that God does not lie, so your epistemological hypothesis,(ergo!) if you are a believer, must be rejected.

The plan of salvation and Christ becoming mortal is the reason for this creation. Angels desired to know these things and look at us with wonder.

AMEN!!! All history leads up to and flows from the cross on Calvary. It is the reason for our existence.

God didn't just whisper His truth into the ears of prophets. He spoke through human language, set down in Scripture in black and white for all the world to read and know and believe.

I love the story of Lazarus because it is so profoundly gracious to our human minds. Christ said he could have cured Lazarus before he died. But instead, He says it is actually BETTER for his followers that Lazarus was truly DEAD and molding before Christ raised him up to life again. Better for us, so that we might thoroughly understand and believe. It was important to Jesus that the truth was made clear to those with eyes to see and ears to hear.

"Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him." -- John 11:14-15

Thank you both for your replies!

1000: If, as you say, all of it is illusion, then it must be a cosmic joke and God is not being honest with us. However, we know that God does not lie, so your epistemological hypothesis,(ergo!) if you are a believer, must be rejected.

The term “illusion” was coined by Einstein, not me, and refers to local realism (a physics concept). He said “reality is an illusion, albeit a persistent one.” The issue came up because “matter” was a focal point of the theology in question (most likely transubstantiation owing to the correspondents involved.).

My counter-point was that matter in the universe (critical density) is of three types: ordinary matter at 5% which has never been observed nor made (Higgs field/boson), dark matter at 25% e.g. the high gravity center of galaxies, and dark energy at 70% which has a negative gravity. Moreover, because neither CERN nor Fermilab have been able to observe or make ordinary matter, state-of-the-art physics theories suggest that matter in our four dimensions (3 of space, 1 of time) is a shadow of momentum components in a fifth dimension – or perhaps multiply imaged from as little as a single particle in a fifth time-like dimension.

In other words, physics even with its limited technological ability tells us that “matter” is not what most people think it is and thus what appears to be mystical to us (e.g. the items of the temple which were so Holy that one could not even touch them, the indwelling Spirit, etc.) – may be something else from God’s point-of-view. And I suspect that is the case because of my epistemology

My epistemology summed up at post 1190 puts God first as the only reliable source of objective Truth. But you all are certainly welcome to reject my personal epistemology. We each have our own “worldviews” – and that doesn’t bother me at all.

The reason God is first, the only source of objective Truth in mine is simply this: we are parts and participants of His Creation – both physical and spiritual. We are “in” it, anchored to space/time. God alone is beyond all geometry – dimensionality cannot apply to the uncaused cause, i.e. creator of causation itself.

So being observers “in” Creation we cannot move outside of it and see “all that there is” at once. Only God can speak in those terms, stating the end from the beginning.

Our vision and minds are limited specifically to three spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension – even though we know through mathematics (geometric physics) that there may indeed be additional spatial and temporal dimensions. Thus everything we observe with our senses, think with our minds, is distorted by comparison to His vantage point.

And therefore, all revelations of God are more sure, more valuable, more trustworthy to me than any other source of knowledge – whether sensory perception, logic, mentors, opinions of experts, etc.

Dr E: All history leads up to and flows from the cross on Calvary. It is the reason for our existence.

The Spiritual leading I have is a bit different, i.e. the purpose of our existence is God’s will. It’s not “about” this heaven and earth – but rather, it's "about" the next heaven and earth.

Christ is the centerpiece of “all that there is” – first in everything - and all that was made was made by Him and for Him. And Calvary was the necessary part to reconcile to Himself everything both in heaven and in earth. (Col 1)

We shall see that reconciliation (His kingdom come, His will be done) in the new heaven and the new earth after everything that is to be culled from this heaven and earth has been destroyed and “all that there is” is remade.

My two cents...