Jesus Christ is the iconic figure, often actually represented in iconic paintings, Who stands for what is God-worthy in humanity. So yes, there are"a thousand Jesus Christs". Even if we disapprove of images of JC, as do Calvinists and Muslims, we think, in our own private thoughts and prayers, of what or who is Christlike . There is no way to conceive of anything, any person, or any idea, other than by means of attaching the thing, person, or idea to one's own lived experience.EricPH wrote: ↑November 3rd, 2021, 3:45 amThe only way to respond to the thread title is to assume there is a God; the creator of all that is seen and unseen.I agree with you: Humans supposing the working of the minds of gods isn't very flattering to gods.
Are there thousands of gods, or do thousands of religions choose to worship the same god, but in thousands of ways? Christianity comes to mind, it would make far more sense if there were a thousand Jesus Christs. Despite all our differences, the same God hears all our prayers. We are all created by the same God; and we have a duty to care for all of God's creation; this means caring for each other despite all our differences.
We can look at the amazing advances that science has given our world; yet we cannot grasp the meaning of the greatest commandments; to love God and all our neighbours. Even if we ignore the greatest commandment, the second still makes sense to love all our neighbours as we love ourselves.
We search for a greatest good meaning of 'One God'.
My opinion as in the paragraph above is not a Christian opinion. What defines Christian doctrine is belief in the Resurrection event as a unique historical event.
Christ as iconic figure and the historical Jesus of Nazareth are not the same, despite the claims of orthodox Christian doctrine.
Calvinists and Muslims are wrong to disallow images of Christ. In effect there is no ethical difference between a mental image of Christ and an image painted on canvas. Some images of Christ painted on canvas (by such as Leonardo Da Vinci )are iconic in their own right and are as near as we can get to sharing with each other our ideas of God.