(March 22, 2013 at 12:17 pm)jstrodel Wrote: Not sure what you mean by allegorical, God is a sentient spiritual being who communicates with people. To talk about God requires the use of language that typically does not come from sense experience and refers to human concepts that are symbolic of God's nature. God is not literally a king or a father and God's nature can be understood through using human concepts that have their origin ultimately in God. But the use of these concepts involves applying non-literal symbols to describe a God who is different from what humans experience.
Well even if you disagree that God is best understood to be allegorical, you can probably make sense of how that might work. Someone happy in their church and its community might not literally believe in a personal god that intervenes in the world. They might actually think "god" refers to something like ones own better nature, within each one of us but not reducible to our conscious self or ego. That doesn't mean you have to think of God that way but why should anyone who does so stop calling themselves a Christian. Remember, no denomination owns the franchise right.
