Monotheism advocates found themselves in big trouble when they had to decide how can God be both the Father and the Son, as well as the Creator, so they came up with the Trinity, which said, in effect, that there are three Gods, but they are one. Amazingly enough, Christians bought into this oxymoron in a big way, and today, it is carved in stone. Personally, it reminds me of the old song, with these lyrics:
"...It rain'd all night the day I left, The weather it was dry, The sun so hot I froze to death..."
Dear Vandalshandle:
If this was just one group that came up with the Trinity, to explain the Father/Son paradigm,
can you please explain why this same Trinity pattern is found in
ALL religions and systems of law made by man? Could it be that since human nature has three parts body/mind/spirit, then ANY system we make up trying to explain human relations with the whole of the world and the collective level of truth or humanity,
follows this same 3 part pattern (as in man's self-awareness made in the image of God)
Buddhism; Three Refuges
Buddha (perfect spiritual awareness), Dharma (the law), Sangha (peaceful order)
Christianity: Holy Trinity
God the Father, Christ the Son or Word/Laws of God fulfilled by Jesus or Justice
made incarnate in man, Holy Spirit or healing grace spiritual peace and Comfort
Confucianism:
Jen (supreme Virtue or goodness) Yi (highest principles embodied in man)
Li (outward expression of moral standards and virtue in society)
Taoism: body/mind/spirit
Psychology: Superego/ego/id
Constitutional law: Judicial/legislative/executive
Hinduism: Creator, Destroyer of evil, Preserver of Peace
And one I find particular interesting because the UU came out of Unitarian traditions
rejecting the Trinity
3 of the 7 Unitarian Universalist principles
4. A free and responsible search for TRUTH and meaning;
5. The right of CONSCIENCE and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
6. The goal of world COMMUNITY with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
It makes sense to me that because human nature and experiences
are on three levels, from the physical to the mental/relationship level
to the spiritual or "collective" level that is abstract,
then any system we use to describe life and relations and process
is going to reflect these same three levels:
physical/mental/spiritual
if each person individually is "body/mind/spirit"
then collectively for all humanity, over all time and space, the whole is what we
are trying to symbolize using religious terms like God/Christ/Holyspirit.
And regardless if God exists first, and these are reflections of God where man is made in God's image; OR if it is the other way around, that all religions are made up by man and are a PROJECTION of our human nature onto God or whatever else we think we are defining, these systems remain the same; they follow the same patterns, even though culturally and historically they all developed independently from each other.
