Tag: Joseph J. Dewey

Who Is God?

Shirley MacLaine in her book Out On A Limb famously said that “I am God.” Does that make any sense, and if so, could it be true? It largely depends on how you understand her claim.

Mainstream Christians mostly seem offended by this statement. They may see it as enormously egotistical. Those of a more fundamentalist stripe might say something like:

You are not God! You are not the Creator of the Universe! Who do you think you are!

Those a little familiar with New Age thought may not see this as a claim to being the one, the only, and the almighty God in one person incarnate. They see it more as being one with that God. They don’t see it as a claim to be the whole entity that is God, but rather a part of it. Author Joseph J. Dewey put it this way:

A drop of water is insignificant when it is removed from a giant wave, but when it is joined back into the wave and cooperates with it, it then becomes the wave.  We are like drops of water that have separated from the Life wave we call God.  When we join back in with the God wave we become one with it and we can say with all the other billions of lives:  “I am the wave” or “I AM God“.  We have not lost the molecules that have made us the drop.  We still have our identity, but we also have much more.  We are one with something much greater than ourselves (as drops) to the extent we actually become the wave.  We are a wave, yet millions of drops combined.  We are God, yet millions of human drops combined.  No life is separated from the life which is God.

Gods Of The Bible, Joseph J. Dewey

The Christian Apostle Paul alluded to this:

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.

1 Corinthians 12:12-14

 God is both one, and many. There is only one God but it is composed of many members. And again from Paul:

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 

Philippians 2:5-6

We are all “in the form” God, like Jesus, and it is not a crime to understand our equality to God in the sense of being part of God.

We are all members in the same body that is God. We are equal as drops in a giant wave. We become one with God when we seek its will. We become one with God when we cooperate with the wave and not resist it.

Is God Perfect?
Being God
What Is God?
What Question Would You Ask God?

Perfection Is An Illusion

We are always searching for perfection,  but never finding it. We invent theories of how perfection exists, just not here, not now. Perfection is an illusion.

For the Greek philosopher Plato perfection only existed in Forms and everything in the material world was merely an imperfect image of those Forms. Real perfection existed somewhere other than where we live.

For Christians perfection resides in God. God is perfect and all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful. If perfection is an illusion, what is God? Not an illusion, but not an unchanging image of perfection either.

The ACIM (A Course In Miracles) folks have an answer. The world is not real and it is only a dream.

[ACIM] states that everything involving time, space, and perception is as illusory. It presents a nondualism which states that God is the only truth and reality: perfect, unchanging, unchangeable, extending only love, though not in time and space, which can not really be comprehended from a dualistic perspective. –Wikipedia

“Dualism” or “duality” is a big no-no to many into this kind of philosophy. Perfection has to be unchanging (which in itself makes sense) so anything that changes is neither perfect, nor real.

I come to a different conclusion.

At some level the world exists and we live in it. A lot of how we perceive it is an illusion at some level too. We see solid objects but know from science that a lot we perceive is just empty space, occupied by tiny atoms, or particles, or something – possibly just waves or vibrations that feel solid.

To me the world is self-evident proof that absolute perfection is an illusion. God is not perfect and has never been so. That is not a bad thing.

The real God, of whom the Christian Apostle Paul said that “in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28) is not an absolute, finished, perfect being. That God is “becoming” that which it choses to be. God has goals, plans, and purpose in this existence, and you are part of that plan.

Supposedly God gave his name to Moses thus:

“I will be what I will be” (Exodus 3:14, alternative translation)

The above is the alternative translation in the NIV (New International Version) that usually goes along the static line of “I AM THAT I AM” that most are probably familiar with.

Author Joseph J. Dewey has argued that the most accurate translation would be:

I am becoming that which I choose to become (I AM BECOMING)

This takes into account, as does the alternative NIV version, that the underlying Hebrew verb is in the future, not present tense. If you think about it a bit, that kind of God or being is a lot more likely to sympathize with our problems than some absolute, perfect being beyond duality.

We too, like that God, are in a process of becoming something more. Maybe that is because we are part of that God? Think about it.

11/3/2015

A Course In Miracles (ACIM) seems to believe that which is not perfect is not real, or something like that. I would like to suggest another possibility. Nothing which is real is perfect. Nothing, not even God.

Perfection is an illusion, a belief about what something can be without any objective evidence to show that it is possible. It is an imaginary thing, much like medieval theologians arguing about how many angels could fit on the head of a pin.