On God as a product of human mind |
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"Look here, a God who would allow himself to be insulted by you in such a way would be completely ridiculous. Let me tell you that such a God does not exist, except in your imagination. A God who could be called to account, a God who would stand before you as an accused before his judge - oh no! such a God could exist only in a sick mind. And I can only say this, 'Let's get rid of such a God. Let's put an end to him once and for all!'" "But you are a minister, aren't you?" he stammered in surprise. — Wilhelm Busch[1]
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Liberal Theology is the one maintaining that mankind created God.[note 1] Such a position is exactly opposed to Classical or Orthodox Theology that, based on testimony and revelation in Scripture[note 2], has the proposition that God created mankind among its central tenets. In consequence of this difference, the scriptural texts are believed in Liberal theology to be purely a sort of legends and/or philosophical treatises considered as containing at the best some moral values worth of teaching, but do not make mankind accountable to Living God who created the World and them.[2] Liberal Theology reinforces the secular caricature that Christianity and reality occupy two separate zones. Christian faith is thought to be only ‘in your head’, some emotional crutch that might ‘work for you’, but has nothing to do with hard facts. As the god of Liberal Theology is just product of human mind, followers of this school of thought search for non-Biblical explanations of the origin of world and life where God plays no role whatsoever and they regard the Biblical passages on origins for being solely metaphorical, usually referred to as a 'creation myth'.
According to Wilhelm Busch, a Lutheran priest persecuted by Nazis, such god as conceived by Liberal Theology, existing only in people's imagination as a construct of our time, who could be called and dismissed at one's discretion, would be completely ridiculous.[1] The Bible calls a god created by humans an idol and compares it to ‘a scarecrow in a cucumber field’.[3] It portrays worshiping such god as worthless and makes distinction from the living God who made the earth by his power[note 3] and founded the world by his wisdom.[note 4]
Since liberal theologians are paid to defend doctrines they do not believe, they redifine them instead in their ramblings. Thus, they can pretend they are not violating their ordination vows. For them, God is not the Creator, but the 'ultimate concern'; ‘Jesus is Risen’ means that His influence continued after His death; ‘Christian faith’ need not consist of holding any doctrines, although the New Testament states otherwise.[5]
While theologically conservative, evangelical Christianity has remained steady in the United States, mainline Protestant denominations, which strongly tend to be theologically liberal and compromised, are in large decline.[6]
Additionally, according to a five-year study published in late-2016 by David Millard Haskell from Wilfrid Laurier University, "conservative Protestant theology, with its more literal view of the Bible, is a significant predictor of church growth while liberal theology leads to decline.”[7]
Categories: [Religion] [Theology]