As a Christian, I cannot accept the doctrines
of the Incarnation and the Trinity. There are four reasons for this:
First, there is the
liberating fact that there is no one interpretation of Jesus in the Gospels -- and certainly not this orthodox doctrine.
Second, these doctrines
are not logically possible. Saying that someone is both human and divine, finite
and infinite, is like talking about a square circle. It may be imaginative, but
it is nonsense -- as contrasted to a paradox.
Third, they violate
our common sense. What was imaginable for Zeus or Apollo -- to descend to the
earth in human form -- is not imaginable for the God of the Universe.
Finally, for many people it is unnecessary
and unhelpful. Unnecessary, because we do not need to believe that Jesus is divine
in order to choose him as the focus for understanding of God, to try to follow his teachings.
Unhelpful, because many of us just can’t make sense of it -- and we refuse to just say we believe the incomprehensible. Furthermore, if Jesus was human as we are -- and lived the way he did -- maybe we
can, too.
For more on the Trinity,
unitariansm, and Unitarianism, see this page>>