聽神談【人類在地球上已開始面臨的巨大改變】
用「昨日之神」(Yesterday’s God)一詞,我意指: 你們 昨日「對神的認知」、昨日「關於神的觀念」。這些一直是人類走向沒落 的原因。他們沒引領人類到人類想到達的地方;他們沒帶來和平、和諧,及快樂;他們沒有產生啟蒙的黃金時代(the Golden Age of Enlightenment)。它們只為全世界帶來了眼淚、憤怒、暴力、血腥,和數不清的痛苦與恐怖的破壞。
神本身並沒有做這些,但是,「你們關於神的觀念」卻做了。神本身永遠不會做這種事,但是人類會,並且做了。
人類今後將擁抱之「對神的認知與觀念」,將引領人類到人類想到達的地方——帶來和平、和諧,及快樂,產生啟蒙的黃金時代——並以非常正面的方式,影響所有這一切。
這並不只是一個「人類對神的概念」的溫和轉變。這是一個非常重大的轉變,並將接著,創造一種人類文化故事的巨大改變。它也將戲劇性地改變「人們互相告訴彼此關於生命」的種種面貌。
你是否已經準備好要面對這巨大的改變?
人類與改變之間總有一種複雜的關係。人類並不是很喜歡改變。而那正是為何人類與神之間總有一種複雜關係的原因。
摘自《重新定義神》第5章
By Yesterday’s God I mean Yesterday’s ideas about God, Yesterday’s conceptualizations about God. These are what have been humanity’s downfall. They have not led humanity to the place where it says it wishes to go. They have not brought peace, harmony, and happiness. They have not produced the Golden Age of Enlightenment. They have brought tears and anger and violence and bloodshed and untold anguish and terrible destruction across the globe and around the world.
God herself has not done this, but your ideas about God have.
God himself would never do such a thing, but human beings would, and have.
The ideas about God that humanity will embrace on that future tomorrow can and will affect all of this in a very positive way.
So, as I said, this really isn’t just a modest shift in our conceptualizations about God. This is a major change, and would, in turn, create a massive alteration of our Cultural Story.
It would dramatically alter what we tell each other about life.
I’m not sure humanity is ready for a change on that order of magnitude.
Human beings have a complicated relationship with change. They don’t like it very much. And that is why human beings have al- ways had a complicated relationship with God.