not far from me who were aggressively debating about God and nature.
The flashes of light like lightning and the rumble in the air like thunder
were correspondences manifesting the conflict and clashing of the argu-
ments. One side was for God, the other for nature.
This spiritual confrontation arose in the following way. Some satans
in hell had said to each other, “I wish we could talk to angels from
heaven. We could fully and completely demonstrate to them that what
they call God, the source of all things, is actually nature. God is only a
word, unless it means nature.”
Because the satans believed this with all their heart and soul, and
because they longed to talk with angels from heaven, they were given per-
mission to come up from the mud and darkness of hell and speak with
two angels who were just then coming down from heaven. [ 2 ] The satans
were in the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell.
Once they spotted the angels, the satans hurried rapidly toward them.
With voices full of rage the satans began shouting, “Are you the
angels of heaven we are allowed to meet face to face to debate God and
nature? They call you wise for acknowledging God, but actually you are
complete idiots. Who has seen God? Who understands what God is?
Who grasps the idea that God rules and has power over the universe and
everything in it? Only the lower classes would acknowledge something
they don’t see or understand. What is more obvious than the fact that
nature is the all in all? What eye has seen anything but nature? What ear
has heard anything but nature? What nose has smelled anything but
nature? What tongue has tasted anything but nature? What hand or body
has felt anything but nature? Our physical senses are our witnesses to
truth. We swear on the testimony of our senses. Our breathing is another
witness—the respiration that keeps our body alive. What do we breathe
but nature? Our heads and yours are in nature. Where does the inflow
into the thoughts in our heads come from if not from nature? If nature
were taken away, could you think at all?” And many other arguments
made out of the same ingredients.
[ 3 ] After the satans finished, the angels answered, “You speak that
way because you trust your senses alone. All the spirits in hell enmesh
their thinking in their physical senses. They cannot lift their minds
above their senses. So we forgive you. A life of evil and a belief in falsity
have closed off the inner realms of your minds so completely that you
cannot be lifted above sensory input—unless you happen to be in a state
that is remote from the evils in your life and the falsities in your belief. A
singke
(singke)
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