In this class, Dr. Keislar talks about a discussion he had this past weekend with Matthew Fox, leading American Christian mystic. He asked Matthew Fox several questions, based on extraterrestrial information and the ideas of some Muslim Sufi mystics.
When Keislar asked Fox about Allama Iqbal’s statement that “Allah is an individual”, Matthew Fox replied that in the West we talk about God as an individual, but the East has the idea of God as impersonal.
Keislar also asked about an idea Fox had mentioned, based on the teachings of Meister Eckhart, that “Being is God.” or God is being.” (The leading Christian theologian of the 20th century Paul Tillich called God “the ground of being”.) “What is the relationship of that being to consicousness?” Keislar asked, and Fox replied first that “Isness” is a better translation than “being”. (In the Bible God says, when Moses asked him who he is, “I am that I am.”)
Fox then went on to say that Thomas Aquinas, the leading Roman Catholic Christian theologian, stated that God’s fundamental characteristic is “joy” – so that means he must be conscious. When Keislar then asked whether that conscious God is an individual, Fox did not know how to answer. Keislar reported that he looks forward to discussing these topics further on 21 December, when he is scheduled to meet Fox in Berkeley.