God has certainly left us with quite a dilemma then. He can't be measured.
He can be measured, but not in the anal sense you prefer.
For instance when you say hello to your neighbour (assuming you don't live in NYC), you might bring in a few general issues of measurement (such as their general location - so you don't mistake them for their dog, potplant or the mailman -, their general mood or even if they are conscious and living), but there is no need to get an x-ray of their head because one believes all issues of self hood arise from the brain.
We can't compare Him to anything material, likewise His very nature.
No
We can't compare the material to god. ...much like expecting the nature of the sun to be as mild as one's experience of the nature of its sunlight on earth has the same problems (IOW you can't hold a potency of an object as sufficient of the object itself)
... but you can take the potency as an
indication of the object
Unless I delve deep into my consciousness I don't stand a chance of ever knowing Him or understanding Him. Even that is no guarantee.
Fortunately he makes it easy for us by explaining how one can know him
I guess you know where that leads us. Right back to believing your fellow man. I don't think for a minute that you would be the person you are today without having to first believe a human.
You too and every one else.
Any pedagogical method you can dream up (except being a Trappist monk I guess .... but even then, not entirely) is intrinsically interwoven in the social context it appears in.
No matter how learned and respected he/she may be, this human would be your first measuring stick for God. Anything he/she tells you to expect influences your decision, your thoughts about God. It's the first real data provided to you about that what you seek. God's good, He's great, he's any number of things. This a measurement of God, information, yet it comes from a human who is physical material. This before your first foray into your conscious mind.
Regardless whether we are discussing car mechanics, high philosophy or issues of retail strategy, generally we call them "teachers"
(And as a further detail, if they're any good they can also give us clues for comprehension, literacy and application aside from theory)
(and as a further detail from that, if they didn't have some foundation of theory to begin from, there wouldn't be a snow ball's chance in hell of approaching topics of application, literacy and comprehension)
God doesn't have blue skin, wear a Viking helmet, have a beard, etc. Is this imagination at work?
If you don't have the experience or are citing the statements of other similarly inexperienced persons, yes.
If someone came out of a self induced meditative state and proclaimed all these things about God then you have to admit imagination doesn't exist in the consciousness field, it plays no part in God seeking. If so then you would have to admit God is measured according to the material world just from the information gathered.
I think I missed the part where you properly established that going into a (self induced) meditative state and letting loose with one's mouth (divorced and independent from the findings of any other practitioner) is the most effective and common normative description given as a means for knowing god.
Sheesh
I mean what if someone locked themselves in a laboratory for ten years and then emerged proclaiming that the he has a cure for cancer and the sun is made of jelly, would it cross your mind to examine his claims in light of the existing bodies of authoritative work on the subject given by other professionals ... or would you even reject them until you personally verify the deal with the sun and cancer?
