God according to God, by Gerald Schroeder, third blog post

God according to God, by Gerald Schroeder, third blog post

I have omitted some good stuff.

Schroeder spends a chapter showing from scripture that God wants us to argue with him. He wants us to protest when we feel he is being unfair. That goes for modern things too. When we feel someone is sick or has cancer and it’s not fair we should protest. It goes beyond prayer.

Schroeder feels that Abraham was very much wrong when he did not protest God’s call for him to sacrifice his son. He feels that God no longer communicated with him directly after this. God was displeased that he was obedient with arguing about it. Just before this Abram had argued about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. God was disappointed that Abraham did not argue with God. I think this is an excellent take. But just because we argue does not mean God will give in. Moses argued that he was not the person to lead Israel out of Egypt. God listened and made some changes to the agreement. But God did not give in. Moses was ordered to do it.

I’d like to explain his physical spiritual “duality” which isn’t really a duality at all because energy, which he equates more closely to the spiritual, comes before the physical universe. Taking Einstein’s formula of E = mc2 energy and mass (matter) are two forms of the same thing. But energy came first. That is what God created and that is sort of like what God is, active energy. God created energy and at the Big Bang it converted into mass and expanded rapidly.

The basic unit of matter is the atom, I suppose. The basic unit of the spiritual realm is the thought. Schroeder seems to think that the soul is tied to the body while we are alive but then is freed after death. He says that is what is suggested by reported near death experiences where people say they can remember the actions of the doctors and nurses trying to save them. While physically dead their soul is free to come out of the body and is conscious of what is going on around them. This is part of his concept of the relation between physical (brain and body) and the spiritual (soul).

Talmudic tradition once taught to children: God sends an angel to teach every unborn babe, while in the mother’s womb, all the secrets of the universe, those of the heavens and those of the earth. Then, just before birth, the angel kisses each child just above the upper lip causing the slight indentation each person has just below the nose. With this mark God shows us the universality of his care for His creatures. The angel’s kiss erases all conscious knowledge of the lessons but leaves the information tucked in the subconscious. So when we hear a profound remark it has the ring of truth about it and our subliminal knowledge of truth surfaces momentarily. We have heard it before but it is in the memory of our soul, not our brain.

There is a lovely story, tantamount to a parable about Marcos and Aristos in the Talmud. It runs from pages 175 to 179. So I cannot report it here. It is about the wonder of a true friendship. God wants us to be friends with him like that. But even more God wants us to be friends with each other like that.



I have omitted some good stuff.

Schroeder spends a chapter showing from scripture that God wants us to argue with him. He wants us to protest when we feel he is being unfair. That goes for modern things too. When we feel someone is sick or has cancer and it’s not fair we should protest. It goes beyond prayer.

Schroeder feels that Abraham was very much wrong when he did not protest God’s call for him to sacrifice his son. He feels that God no longer communicated with him directly after this. God was displeased that he was obedient with arguing about it. Just before this Abram had argued about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. God was disappointed that Abraham did not argue with God. I think this is an excellent take. But just because we argue does not mean God will give in. Moses argued that he was not the person to lead Israel out of Egypt. God listened and made some changes to the agreement. But God did not give in. Moses was ordered to do it.

I’d like to explain his physical spiritual “duality” which isn’t really a duality at all because energy, which he equates more closely to the spiritual, comes before the physical universe. Taking Einstein’s formula of E = mc2 energy and mass (matter) are two forms of the same thing. But energy came first. That is what God created and that is sort of like what God is, active energy. God created energy and at the Big Bang it converted into mass and expanded rapidly.

The basic unit of matter is the atom, I suppose. The basic unit of the spiritual realm is the thought. Schroeder seems to think that the soul is tied to the body while we are alive but then is freed after death. He says that is what is suggested by reported near death experiences where people say they can remember the actions of the doctors and nurses trying to save them. While physically dead their soul is free to come out of the body and is conscious of what is going on around them. This is part of his concept of the relation between physical (brain and body) and the spiritual (soul).

Talmudic tradition once taught to children: God sends an angel to teach every unborn babe, while in the mother’s womb, all the secrets of the universe, those of the heavens and those of the earth. Then, just before birth, the angel kisses each child just above the upper lip causing the slight indentation each person has just below the nose. With this mark God shows us the universality of his care for His creatures. The angel’s kiss erases all conscious knowledge of the lessons but leaves the information tucked in the subconscious. So when we hear a profound remark it has the ring of truth about it and our subliminal knowledge of truth surfaces momentarily. We have heard it before but it is in the memory of our soul, not our brain.

There is a lovely story, tantamount to a parable about Marcos and Aristos in the Talmud. It runs from pages 175 to 179. So I cannot report it here. It is about the wonder of a true friendship. God wants us to be friends with him like that. But even more God wants us to be friends with each other like that.