The starting postulate of “Eternal Being” means that there is something existing without any change. We notice that every part of the universe is changing, but the idea of the universe itself is not. The idea of the universe is that of WHOLENESS or ONENESS. Therefore, the postulate of Eternal Being, simply translates as the postulate of ONENESS of existence.
In philosophy, the postulate of eternal being translates into the continuity, consistency and harmony of the system of postulates. But there is another aspect to this postulate—it is the aspect of aliveness. There is aliveness because there is the ability to postulate and the ability to ensure that all postulates are consistent. Thus, all subsequent postulates build up on these starting postulates in a consistent fashion.
The starting postulates are:
- There is the ability to postulate.
- This ability keeps all postulates consistent.
- The system of postulate generated is continuous, consistent and harmonious.
Therefore, any inconsistency in a system of postulates is an aberration. In order to predict or conclude correctly all inconsistencies must be resolved.
To believe in a human-like intelligence right from the beginning of the universe is an error. Human-like intelligence evolves from the starting postulates outlined above. It is therefore important to interpret the concept of God correctly.
There are warnings in the scriptures about misinterpreting the concept of God. The name of God in the Jewish Scriptures is an enigmatic mystery. People often pronounce the four Hebrew letters (YHWH) as “Yahweh” or “Jehovah”, but the truth is that we don’t really know how to say it. Jewish people, by and large, prefer to avoid using any name of God.
In Islam, God is never portrayed in any image. This is because human bias can easily be projected into one’s view of God.
The starting postulates above are the closest approach to the concept of God.
To give God superhuman type of attributes is an error that comes from the human-centric viewpoint. The human-centric viewpoint is a narrow viewpoint that leads to beliefs, such as, the earth is the center of the universe, the sun revolves around the earth, and the earth is flat. Superhuman attributes may come about with further evolution of humans. But that is something that lies in the future. It has not been realized yet in a consistent fashion.
In Christianity, God is portrayed with human-like images. The Bible portrays God as giving out the commandments in human voice. But these are poetic renditions of God. The actual understanding of God goes much deeper.
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