Evolving perfection. Do I understand God. Are we all perfect?
In my search for God, I began as a non believer. That being said, I was still driven to reason with believers to see if they were on the right road to knowing God.
After about 36 years, I gave up on arguments and discussions of God with believers because they could not deal with my objections as to why their God was less than perfect.
I basically began to have internal discussions with myself because in most cases I could reconcile may own points for and against God better than believer could. Kind of a strange position for sure as a non believer but I created a paradigm or world view from a starting point that God had to be and that if there was a God at all, all that was had to be perfect.
No self respecting God would have it otherwise.
To make this paradigm work, I had to reconcile the existence of evil and the bad things that I saw around me as well. Not an easy task but I did it.
I read a number of Bibles and Holy books while I was seeking God and found some wisdom and knowledge within these works and have a grudging respect for all of them while at the same time, not reading them literally. In the case of the Bible, it is obvious that it should not be read literally. How can one do so when it begins with talking animals and ends with a seven headed monster. God would not use impossible and silly props.
Bibles have to be judged on the moral position they take or show.
Since the Christian Bible shows a distinct lack of justice or morals in dealing with women, Gays and slaves, there is enough ambiguity and injustice to discard it as a literal document and even perhaps as a moral one.
It may not have been 3000 years ago but it is certainly immoral by today's standards.
It did help to lead me to God but then I do not read it literally or believe it's characters to be real. They are and were always mean to be archetypes.
There are some passages that can and should be read literally because they apply to the reality that I now know exists for us all.
For example.
If babies can be used as an example for our corporeal world.
They are born as perfect as nature or God or evolution or whatever can make them. Defect and all.
In human terms, the motivation for evolving this perfection is learning and an instinct for a full life.
In Biblical terms, moving God's initial, Him alone perfection, to one with us in it perfection, would likely be done for the same reason.
God wanted to learn and have a full life.
On earth as it is, or was, in heaven you might say.
Regards
DL