To "Know God"

[PairTheBoard]

Taking this from
Sullivan's last Reply to Harris in their Debate
====================
(5) There is a God, but all of our religions have distorted Her reality. Jesus was a man more suffused with divinity than any other human being who has ever lived. God loves everyone and has never been concerned about what a person believes, except that a person know God and accept God's love freely and expresses that love toward everyone he or she encounters. Jesus uniquely showed us how to accept God's love and how to be worthy of it. After death, all people, Christians and non-Christians, simply merge with the Deity in a loving embrace. But Jesus was the proof that such love exists, and that it is divine and eternal, and that it cares for us.

(6) None of us knows anything about these things.

I guess I've tipped my hand by endorsing (5) but acknowledging the wisdom of (6).
=======================

What does it mean to "know God"?
Consider the following viewpoint:

Since God is Love, if a person "knows Love" he "knows God". If a person values Love, Compassion, Empathy, Tolerance, Good Will, Charity, Humility, Integrity; he embraces God and accepts God's love. If he strives to practice these principles in his life he is expressing God's love toward those he meets and is doing God's will. If his heart's desire is to grow in these traits, God hears his heart's desire as a sincere prayer just as if he said the prayer to God with words.

So in this view an Atheist can "know God" just as well as someone who is inclined toward Theistic language. While the Atheist would reject the language in this viewpoint and thus not see it as providing common ground for himself with the Theist, the language could be acceptable to the Theist and provide himself with a view of common ground with the Atheist.

So, I think the Theist should accept this viewpoint. It provides the Theist with a bridge across the Central Gap between him and the Atheist. It provides the Theist with a viewpoint that transforms his talks with the Atheist into an Ecumenical discussion rather than a contentious debate. The Atheist may not see it that way. Nevertheless, the tone of the discussion will change. The attitude the Theist brings to it will be an agreeable one rather than contentious. The Theist becomes respectful, as he should be, when invited into the Atheist's home.

PairTheBoard