Global ethic?

In relation to an earlier post, is the notion of a global ethic feasible, or are we destined to continue with multiple ethics? If we do adopt a global ethic, how much of it would be dependant on religion? Or would the transcending of religion play a big part in adopting a united ethic as opposed to a pluralist model? Who woulod have a say in such discussions? Would it be democratic, or more authoritarian? Who would we grant such authority to?

Caring Father or Wrathful King?

A few years ago I wrote -- in an unpublished volume -- of distancing ourselves and eliminating from our religions the notion of a wrathful deity. Is it possible to eliminate the wrathful king from our theologies? Is this being necessary to our religious mind and our religions in general? Is it possible to separate the caring father from the wrathful God of the OT and other texts? What would it mean to not have this concept or being in our faiths?

God's Presence/Presents

I am beginning research for a book I am putting together on the subject of God's Presence.

Considering the discussion in the few postings here, does anyone have any personal experience or thoughts they would like to share about this? Don't be shy. The ancients were always looking for things from the gods or God. But in my understanding, presence is a present, that is, the experience of God's presence is the gift itself, that we shouldn't be looking to gain anything from him/her except love and perhaps knowledge of that very presence or moment in which he is received.

What can humanity learn from this understanding, or, is there more to it than I myself am understanding?

Symbols?

The power of symbols resides in their ability, through complex associations, to evoke multiple levels of reality. They evoke in us the transcendece of other realities, or again, they help us understand aspects of reality that would otherwise be hidden to us, all the more so since we are living in an ultra materialistic time. They also evoke the sacred, and even the presence of God.

Some people see symbols everywhere, while others see nothing and scoff at those who do. My question is this: do symbols really exist in the world, whether natural or manmade, or is it a matter of wishful thinking or some other such explanation? And, do we, humans, or maybe do modern peoples, need symbols in order to ourselves exist? Do we rely on them, or are they merely a product of our minds? Further, if the latter is the case, is that wholly removed from the sacred, or could our minds actually be hardwired to see, accept, and interpret symbols? To what do we ultimately attribute symbols and are they real? What is/are their function/s and do we truly rely on them? Or do they rely on us and are thus not real?

cont'd

Postmodernism wants to eliminate religion and metaphysics altogether, calling it variously a bad dream, a neuroses, an opiate for the masses, only for sick souls, and other such things. Do you feel this is an adequate estimation of religion? Do you feel this is what should happen to it? Or do you think it is something real and inherent in our being and the truth of reality?

Worldview?

What elements would be important to stress or include in the formulation of a new worldview? Would we want to bring stuff from the past, or state a fully new worldview in our own modern day terminology? Do we suppose that ethics would play a part in it, or is ethics something that should be kept out of matters pertaining to worldview? Do we or should we have one or many worldviews? And if we have many, should those all pertain to something larger or more encompassing? Is there, that is, a supra-worldview or umbrella worldview that would inspire or include the rest, or should we continue with the idea of a strictly pluralist society? Is ethics something that could ever be codified globally?

Question #3

Do we need a metaphysic or worldview in order to survive in what has lately become a very complicated world?