Anitra
August 10th 2004, 01:03 PM
Like many Christians, both liberal and conservative, I consider the condemnation of "idolatry" to go far beyond statues of gods. Your "god" is whatever is most ultimately important in your life, most basically essential in your life; whatever establishes the central purpose of your life. If being the greatest philanthropist that ever lived is the central purpose of your life, for instance, you have placed an idol of human ego above God.
It is my impression that other monotheists -- Jews and Muslims -- also largely think this. Judaism and Islam generally go beyond Christianity in interpreting the forbidding of idolatry.
I would like to explore how the Jews here regard the viewpoint of some religious philosophers that the human concept of God may itself become an idol that takes the place of the One True God in our loyalty and attention.
If the One God of the three historically linked monotheisms is real, then that God goes far beyond human conception. The monotheist God embraces all of existence, however wide and complex that is, and current science is suggesting that it is pretty wide and complex. I think 11 dimensions is the most popular estimate. My husband the mathematician can build a five dimensional object in his head and rotate it, but it bruises my neurons just to think about thinking about it. God, however, goes far beyond even 11 dimensions. There is nothing that exists that is outside of God, because God is the sustainer of all existence; and yet, God is more than the sum of all existence, God transcends the sum of existence. For any few ounces of gray matter to claim to "know God" sounds almost too silly to even be hubris.
And yet we can apprehend God, even when we cannot comprehend God. "In God we live and move and have our being." (That is from the Christian Testament, Acts 17:28, but I hope it does not sound alien to any monotheist.) If God is real, God is real right now, right here, and we are all experiencing God, whether we consciously call that God or not; just as humans were experiencing oxygen for millions (or whatever) years before identifying it as "oxygen". God is not revealed in miracles or supernatural revelations or ecstatic visions, but in the structure of life and the universe itself. If God is real, then to "Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and [through] whatever abysses nature leads" is to follow God, even though it was Thomas Henry Huxley who said it. It may be the only way to truly follow God.
If God is real then, it seems to me, all dogma and doctrine and sacred text itself becomes idolatry whenever we defend it as set and unquestionable truth. Our own understanding of God can become an idol the moment we refuse to consider something new beyond it. And the most anti-god idols of all are those which set humans to fighting and abusing each other over our concepts of God.
If there is one God of all the universe, each human is equally and directly subject to that one God -- and none of us are subject to each other. We can all compare notes, just as we compare notes about the stars and the weather, but we all need to test each other's claims for ourselves, and work out our own understanding in humility before a reality that is greater than any of us.
If there is one God of all the universe, each human is equally and awfully precious to that one same God, and to love God is to love others, and there is no excuse for abusing each other over any difference in opinion about God.
I would say, then, that peace between Jew and Moslem and Christian can be achieved not by abandoning our religions, but by each pursuing our God in true humility.
It is my impression that other monotheists -- Jews and Muslims -- also largely think this. Judaism and Islam generally go beyond Christianity in interpreting the forbidding of idolatry.
I would like to explore how the Jews here regard the viewpoint of some religious philosophers that the human concept of God may itself become an idol that takes the place of the One True God in our loyalty and attention.
If the One God of the three historically linked monotheisms is real, then that God goes far beyond human conception. The monotheist God embraces all of existence, however wide and complex that is, and current science is suggesting that it is pretty wide and complex. I think 11 dimensions is the most popular estimate. My husband the mathematician can build a five dimensional object in his head and rotate it, but it bruises my neurons just to think about thinking about it. God, however, goes far beyond even 11 dimensions. There is nothing that exists that is outside of God, because God is the sustainer of all existence; and yet, God is more than the sum of all existence, God transcends the sum of existence. For any few ounces of gray matter to claim to "know God" sounds almost too silly to even be hubris.
And yet we can apprehend God, even when we cannot comprehend God. "In God we live and move and have our being." (That is from the Christian Testament, Acts 17:28, but I hope it does not sound alien to any monotheist.) If God is real, God is real right now, right here, and we are all experiencing God, whether we consciously call that God or not; just as humans were experiencing oxygen for millions (or whatever) years before identifying it as "oxygen". God is not revealed in miracles or supernatural revelations or ecstatic visions, but in the structure of life and the universe itself. If God is real, then to "Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and [through] whatever abysses nature leads" is to follow God, even though it was Thomas Henry Huxley who said it. It may be the only way to truly follow God.
If God is real then, it seems to me, all dogma and doctrine and sacred text itself becomes idolatry whenever we defend it as set and unquestionable truth. Our own understanding of God can become an idol the moment we refuse to consider something new beyond it. And the most anti-god idols of all are those which set humans to fighting and abusing each other over our concepts of God.
If there is one God of all the universe, each human is equally and directly subject to that one God -- and none of us are subject to each other. We can all compare notes, just as we compare notes about the stars and the weather, but we all need to test each other's claims for ourselves, and work out our own understanding in humility before a reality that is greater than any of us.
If there is one God of all the universe, each human is equally and awfully precious to that one same God, and to love God is to love others, and there is no excuse for abusing each other over any difference in opinion about God.
I would say, then, that peace between Jew and Moslem and Christian can be achieved not by abandoning our religions, but by each pursuing our God in true humility.