So, Sells, when you say:

>>Worship of the man would be idolatry. God is in the event of Jesus<<

... are you saying that the event (God) and the man (Jesus) occupied the same physical space in our world for a while? But if so, why is it wrong to worship the man (idolatory), when to all intents and purposes at that particular point in time he was inseparable from God?

When you follow this with:

>>Calvin says that Jesus is in a way present in the Eucharist and in a way not. We may also say that he is present in faithful preaching in a way, but in a way not since the earthly Jesus has gone from us.<<

... are we not in Schroedinger's cat territory here?

Here we have the postulation of Jesus in a superposition of states (presence and absence) that according to Schroedinger (and Einstein) can only be resolved by the interference of the observer, who causes the collapse of the wave function into one state or the other.

But there's one critical factor at work here. So long as we don't "observe" - i.e. ask any questions - the duality of states can exist forever, since unlike in the case of the stuff in the box with the cat, there is nothing that imposes a requirement for a time limitation on the experiment.

So there you have it. Evidence that would seem to tell us that there is absolutely no point in the Dawkins of this world rabbiting on about the irrationality of religion, and trying to prove God cannot exist except as a function of man's imaginings.

It is clear that he does exist, but in a continuing quantum state of presence and absence, actualized only by the observation (belief) of the individual.

Works for me.

I suggest you all read the book 'Mystery of the ages' by Herbert W Armstrong.

In terms of Christianity, it answers questions about What God is, how he exist, what spirits are, even the question of man, what is he. Most of the things discussed in that book are not talked about in most pentecostal churches now adays.

Pericles,
Silly! We do not have to resort to Schrödinger or Einstein or quantum mechanics etc to understand this. The early church arrived at the doctrine of the Trinity in order to understand the relationship between the truth (Father) of the event (particular history) and our perception of it (Spirit). This is how God is revealed to us. You cannot have one person of the Trinity without the others otherwise you fall into idolatry. The father without the Son is an abstraction distant from human event. The Son without the Father is just another religious crank. The Spirit on its own is pure subjectivity, the spirit of our age in the turn to the self. But make them interdependent and you have a framework that describes all knowing.

Pericles,

And that's why Me (God)countinues to be, as observed by yours faithly, Tree. ;-)

(makes the existence of God dependent on faith, via resolving superposition. Problems with onmipresence and means faith "commands" God's existence. Interesting analogy, though.)

The concept of god our father and protector is like the dummy that soothes the hunger pains of a baby.Only when we react to reality,work hard and create enough wealth to buy time,can we indulge in such egocentric ideals of living forever in nervana with our protector.

God exists in our aspirations of escape from mortality,but spirituality is born from the anvil of lifes' tortured experiences.
Assume nothing.We may well be just god's toys.

"We may well be just god's toys."

Indeed. Perhaps we're just God's ants in his big ol ant farm providing never ending entertainment.

This Larson cartoon captures it beautifully.

http://60sfurther.com/JustForFunPhotos/GodComputerFarside-th.jpg