The Dovian Primadoxies

Dovian Primadoxy #1:
Love your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.*
Love your neighbour as yourself. There are no commandments greater than these. (Mark 12:30-31)
*Note that it says "Love YOUR God," not "Love MY God." I don't care what God you love so long as you love. So long as you love your God fully and that love so inspires you to love all of God's creation. If your love of your God does not lead you to love yourself, and others more completely, then perhaps it is time to re-evaluate your concept of God.


Dovian Primadoxy #2:
"The Corporal Acts of Mercy," or what we should all be helping to do, not because "The Bible tells us to," but because we are decent, compassionate human beings:
1. Feed the hungry
2. Give drink to the thirsty
3. Clothe the naked
4. Shelter the Homeless
5. Visit the sick and the lonely
6. Visit the imprisoned
7. Bury the dead

 
Dovian Primadoxy #3:
"The Spiritual Works of Mercy" or, those things which help us and help others in matters of spirituality:
1. Instruct the ignorant (Teach those who wish to learn)
2. Counsel the doubtful (Help others through crises of faith)
3. Admonish sins (Help people stay focused on those things which bring them closer to the Divine, and help them avoid those things which separate them from the Divine)
4. Bear wrongs patiently
5. Forgive offences willingly
6. Comfort the afflicted (This is similar to visiting the sick, but in spiritual matters)
7. Pray for the living and the dead


Dovian Primadoxy #4: Read, contemplate, UNDERSTAND, share.
Very few things have been more detrimental to the "Word of God" than the taking of a single passage, removing it from the subtleties of it's original language and context, and bandying it about (whether spreading it as gospel truth, or using it as a weapon) as if it's true meaning was fully understood.
All scripture should be examined and understood through the lens of the teachings of Christ. Does it agree with his message of love, compassion, and forgiveness? Does it move you closer to God (Love with a capital "L"), does it move you to be a better person (love yourself), so that you may be a better steward to your planet and your fellow mankind (love your neighbour)? Does it fill you with love and joy, so that you want to share it with your fellow man in a way that is meaningful?

Dovian Primadoxy#5: Any attempt to define God, limits God.
Do not pretend to know God's mind. Do not seek to judge in God's stead. Only seek to share God's heart. That is, love without restriction or condition, be compassionate beyond your comfort level, and forgive, even in the face of the unforgivable.


Dovian Primadoxy #6: God became man so that man could become God.
God became man in the form of Jesus of Nazareth so that "He" might perfectly experience being one of the human beings that he created. Jesus lived among us, as us, with all of our human faults and frailties. The Bible gives us a cleaned up and abbreviated version of his life (nobody ever talks about the time Jesus got dysentery) up until the very end. At that point, we reach a crossroads; Jesus teaches us everything we need to know to attain the Kingdom of Heaven (to become one with God again). The price for giving us this ultimate enlightenment is for him to experience ultimate suffering. He took on the extreme of the human condition to give us the extreme of the Divine condition. 


Dovian Primadoxy #7: In seeking God, so does God seek you. The journey and the destination are one.
Once we begin to realize that we and God are one, the real journey of life begins. As we move toward the Divine, we begin to feel the Divine more within us. As we love more, we will attract more love. As we are more compassionate, so will others learn compassion. As we forgive more, so the more will there be forgiveness in the world. These things are the Light of God.
As this realization grows, so will our awareness of the world around us. We do not get caught up in some touchy-feely, hippy-dippy, warm and cosy (and insulated) Divine Wonderland; instead, we begin to feel the pain of the world. This is the awareness of the suffering that we have spent most of our lives trying not to see. Once we have seen it, we cannot unsee it, so it drives is closer to the Divine within. And as we get closer, we are able to be even more loving, more compassionate and more forgiving. With these things, we are able to affect positive change in the world. Be the Light of God.


Dovian Primadoxy #8:
You do not have all of the answers.
Neither the Book nor the telescope will provide you with all of the answers. If you look for God with an open mind and an open heart, you will find Science. If you look for Science with an open mind and an open heart, you will find God. The two are not mutually exclusive. Where a scientist sees the Big Bang,there is also God saying "Let there Be Light." Where the Scientist sees evolution, there is the grand mythology of creation found the Book of Genesis. Where the Scientist sees the dinosaurs, there too is God telling Job of the Behemoth and the Leviathan which came before him.
Be of open mind and open heart. This universe is a big place. No book can contain all of it wonders, no map can chart all of its amazing vastness.  


Dovian Primadoxy #9:
The New Atheism movement is every bit as problematic as the Religious Fundamentalism that it opposes.
New Atheists are themselves Fundamentalists in their own right. They are every bit as self-righteous in the surety of their "knowledge" that "there is no god," as the Religious Right is in their surety in the absoluteness of their God. This sort of attitude from either side is so much more part of the problem than it is part of the solution.