God's Coming Phase Change: Can the Rising Generation Get Religion Right?

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/clay-naff/gods-coming-phase-change_b_4250506.html

Clay Farris Naff
Science and religion writer; Journalist; Author

Posted: 11/10/2013 11:01 am

Monotheism in the West has undergone two major adaptive changes in the past 2,500 years. A third great leap is nigh. Can it succeed? Whether you are religious or not, you'd better hope so.

Like life itself, religion has repeatedly met the challenge of extinction with a phase change -- a sudden transformation so dramatic that it is hard to relate the before and after pics. Here is a brief, historical account, drawn from several reliable modern sources.

The first phase change followed a mind-boggling disaster. In 587 BCE, after a Jewish revolt against Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Jerusalem fell to its besiegers. King Zedekiah was forced to watch his children butchered before his eyes, after which he was blinded and hauled away in chains along with the rest of Jerusalem's elite. The Temple was demolished. So began the long Exile in Babylon.

This catastrophe made no sense. Jews were used to suffering, which the prophets invariably was blamed on their failings to adhere to the law. But when Nebuchadnezzar's army sacked the Temple, they destroyed the very place where God was believed to dwell. How in the world could that be?

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