God and The Fundamentalist's Problem with Time

(Cross Posted at The Reformed Buddhist)

Time is nothing more than the measurement of change. Just as a ruler measures length, a thermometer measures temperature and a scale measures weight, time is merely a tool, a human concept to help us parse the endless cycle of change into weeks, days, hours and minutes to help us in our everyday lives. Even science has shown time to be nothing more than other dependent, conditional on, and relative to everything else around it.

I see what scares a lot of the fundamentalists Christians is this need to fill that gap left by our concept of time with something absolute, something beyond time. If you have spent any amount of time meditating, you probably have some deeper insight into this concept of time and have experienced the futility in believing in absolute beginnings and absolute ends; and it is certainly a damn scary feeling. Fundamentalists I think also feel this fear, as they take such stubborn refuge in our dualistic mind, and they always find they are frightened by the change that surrounds them on a moment by moment basis. They, I imagine, on very conscious level in protection of self, take harbor in their concept of a God creator, to fill that gap of time, to fill those burning questions; "Well if God didn't make me, why am I here? Who created the universe? Why is something here instead of nothing?"

Once we can go beyond this concept of time, realizing that a better understanding of the true nature of our existence can not be answered by beginnings nor ends, we can move past this fear of falling into that dark abyss of not being. Perhaps, if they asked themselves if they can truly feel God inside them, then maybe God was never separate from us after all.

I invite all my Christian friends to explore Buddhism with an open mind, knowing that Buddhism does not ask one to relinquish their beliefs as a prerequisite to practice. Perhaps it is this, that frightens so many of your fundamentalists friends concerning Buddhism. However, do not believe me and do not believe them, but find out for yourself with an honest and open mind.

Job 9:20-21 - If I justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.  Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life.