Rheophilia

The dictionary defines rheophilia as "animal or plant life best adapted for living in flowing water." It comes from two Greek roots that translate into English as "love of the flow" or "love of the stream."

God is eternal. God is everywhere. There is no place, no time, no concept, where God is absent. Because God exists, there is no death. How could there be? Where would your essence go where God would not be?

You think of yourself as a discrete, finite being with discernible boundaries, but that is because you were taught to think of yourself that way. Life is like a river than never ends. If you could see yourself in time, all at once, you would look like a long, you-colored worm, snaking around all the places you have been to in your life and all the places you will go to before your physical body dies and you rejoin the great Cosmic Stream.

The way of thinking about God that I call Rheophilia is more formally called process theology. Invented by Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), process theology sees that rather than being static, like a great machine, the Universe is more like a living organism, always changing, growing, shrinking, living, dying. Process, or becoming, is the basic category of reality — not simply sitting there like a lump and existing. Process recognizes that Jesus said, "I am the Way" — not "I am the Destination."

Just like the Universe, God is always changing and evolving. Yes God is perfect — but there is no upper limit to goodness, beauty, or wisdom, so it is entirely possible for God to become more perfect. In fact, Exodus 3:14, which is usually translated “I am that I am,” could equally well be translated, “I become what I become.”

I began this site in 2001, and the frames you see here are primarily Christian. To see what I've been writing in 2005, click here.

65 : 05Aug17