Natural Theist/theologist

[pljames]

I feel GOD is a spirit! I am now believing toward the thought that GOD can also be found in nature. It is said he created the earth and everything in it. Then why can't you find/feel him in nature?
That would make me a natural Theologist, right? GOD is divine, why can't we accept nature as divine? pljames

[Tim Holt]

That would make me a natural Theologist, right?

Natural theology is about using nature to find out about God. For instance, by looking at the ordered complexity of the universe, we can discover the existence of a God that created it. By considering the ways in which the universe is fine-tuned for life, we can discover that life is valuable to God. By looking at moral conscience, we can discover something about how God wants us to live our lives.

This would be contrasted with revealed theology, theology that studies special revelation from God, such as that of the Bible, or religious experiences.

We can use nature to find out about God without thinking that nature is God. It sounds like what you're leaning towards is either pantheism (everything is God) or panentheism (God is in everything). Being a natural theologian is something different to being either of these.

[zorathruster]

GOD is divine, why can't we accept nature as divine? pljames

When everything is devine - nothing is!


Devine is special, extraordinarily special, one of a kind type special. Although nature is powerful, wonderful, and capable - it is not as special as the word "divine" implies. If we are all Gods, none of us are unique or special.

[shunyadragon]

Natural theology is about using nature to find out about God. For instance, by looking at the ordered complexity of the universe, we can discover the existence of a God that created it. By considering the ways in which the universe is fine-tuned for life, we can discover that life is valuable to God. By looking at moral conscience, we can discover something about how God wants us to live our lives.

This would be contrasted with revealed theology, theology that studies special revelation from God, such as that of the Bible, or religious experiences.

We can use nature to find out about God without thinking that nature is God. It sounds like what you're leaning towards is either pantheism (everything is God) or panentheism (God is in everything). Being a natural theologian is something different to being either of these.

I consider my worldview to be that of natural theology. I evaluate the nature of existence and how it is 'naturally'. This is the best image of an unknowable God we have. The universe is a constantly evolving, changing, cyclic universe billions of years old and billions of light years in size. Our earth and the life on it reflects this image. My understanding of the relationship of creation, revelation and the human experience to what we see and it is a grander picture than is reflected in any single religion or belief. Each religion or belief is but a few frames in movie billions of years in length.

[mentored1]

I feel GOD is a spirit! I am now believing toward the thought that GOD can also be found in nature. It is said he created the earth and everything in it. Then why can't you find/feel him in nature?
That would make me a natural Theologist, right? GOD is divine, why can't we accept nature as divine? pljames

Great thoughts... I'm not one for making distinctions between terms and categories so I won't try... But methinks that many religions / faiths teach that the true God is unknowable by mortal man and cannot be apprehended by mortal minds. If this be so then we have nowhere to look but at the universe and what it contains to find clues that point to God... I don't know if that is true or not but it seems reasonable enough to put out there...

And following that if we can look at the finite to learn of the infinite that then nature of our universe is a marriage of the finite and infinite... Granted that humans are temporal beings dying in a short lifespan; but the ideas and imagination generated by the human mind can, possibly, last as long as humans exist: that seems to denote some form of immortality - survival beyond death of the form... Anyhow, does that imply that the bound/unbound, the finite/infinite, are contained in one another? A circle seems to be a good example: no beginning or end, no edge, just a path that can be traversed an infinite number of times...

Not that any of that helped you but it sure sparked some thought in my feeble brain - so thank you for that!