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The Forum > Article Comments > Newton and the Trinity > Comments

Newton and the Trinity : Comments

By Peter Sellick, published 29/11/2010

In a world dominated by natural science, the church finds itself driven into a corner having to defend the existence of the spiritual.

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Fortunately I am a non-theist. That means I disbelieve in the whole ten thousand or so gods who have been held by some to be of utmost importance since hominids first stared at the stars and asked,"Why?"
Peter Sellick only disbelieves in 9,999 or one less that I do.
Christianity has only been around for 0.1% or less of the time which has elapsed since the first hominid started hunting for a living. We managed to survive without Christianity and domineering popes and other clerics for much of that time.
If they had their way we would go back to giving them the power over life and death as they had during the Inquisition and the Thirty Year War.
As Terry Lane said in a radio interview after writing "God; The Interview" all theologians make it up as they go along.
Posted by Foyle, Monday, 29 November 2010 12:47:03 PM
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Peter, I think you've explained the situation clearly. Unfortunately, apart from those who attack Christian faith from a scientistic (not merely scientific) viewpoint, there are also some within the church who don't understand that God is not supernatural.

Foyle: <<We managed to survive without Christianity and domineering popes and other clerics for much of that time.>>
The article is not about the institution but about some concepts central to Christian understanding. And I would suggest that the Christian path is about being fully human: far more than survival.

Foyle: <<That means I disbelieve in the whole ten thousand or so gods who have been held by some to be of utmost importance since hominids first stared at the stars and asked,"Why?">>
I may be wrong, but you seem to be suggesting that God is simply constructed to explain the material world and the position of humans in it. I think that for many people the starting point of faith in God is not an intellectual effort to find a God to fill the gaps in knowledge. Rather it is an awareness, however faint, of the presence of God in their lives. The intellectual efforts to describe and understand this awareness become what we often call theology.
Posted by crabsy, Monday, 29 November 2010 1:56:43 PM
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Sell, I think your whole argument falls down because the Christian church believes that God becaome flesh in the form of Jesus. This is an oxymoron if you wish to continue to believe in God as a spiritual being. He may be one or the other, but not both.

David
Posted by VK3AUU, Monday, 29 November 2010 2:52:32 PM
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Crabsby,

This is an edited version of a paper that I gave at a theological colloquium in Perth this November. Your comment that:

"there are also some within the church who don't understand that God is not supernatural."

is an understatement. In a room of intellectually leaning church men and women I had the distinct feeling that I was the only one in the room that thought that God was not supernatural and who did not exist in the world as supernatural being. It seems that most of them wanted God to act somehow in the material world apart from the power of the Word in the Spirit. The providential God is alive and well!
Peter Sellick
Posted by Sells, Monday, 29 November 2010 2:53:55 PM
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Thank you Peter, for an interesting article. I have recently completed a course on the Trinity and would like to read your paper - would you be willing to post it on your website?
Posted by Rhian, Monday, 29 November 2010 3:34:26 PM
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Rhian.

You may find it at: http://petersellick.nationalforum.com.au/admin/upload.php?

It is called "At the origins of antitrinitarianism 2"
Posted by Sells, Monday, 29 November 2010 3:48:22 PM
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