I’ve been thinking about god, or at least the idea of god, off and on lately. Which, I really don’t do much of anymore. I thought I would share some of the things I’ve been thinking about, in case anyone is interested. But, like I said in my last post, I definitely have more questions than answers. For the sake of consistency in this post, when I use the word “god”, I’m referring to the idea of a divine intelligent being that is, or is part of, everything. And if I refer to god in the male sense, please don’t be offended. It just saves time and that’s the idea I grew up with, so it’s familiar to me. You could also say life force, or essence, or light, or whatever someone thinks god is. The dictionary defines god this way; “(in Christianity and other monotheistic religions) the creator and ruler of the universe and source of all moral authority; the supreme being.” That’s pretty much the definition that I used to agree with. There were slight variations here and there, depending on the flavor of Christianity, but that seems pretty standard across the board.
The way I see life now, I probably will never have a concrete belief in who or what I think god is. From my experience and personal opinion, I don’t think it’s possible for us to REALLY know who or what god is. I used to think it was, and that I knew him pretty well. I’ve changed a lot since then. I don’t think god is like the Christian god that I grew up believing in. I no longer believe in the traditional ideas of heaven and hell. Along the way over the last few years, I’ve heard some interesting ideas about god. There is the idea that the universe is basically a play or a drama and god is the sole actor, playing all the parts. A similar one is that he is playing hide and seek with himself and at some point, people come to the realization that they are god. In both of these, he is playing the role so well, or hiding so well, that we don’t realize that we are all god. At least not right away. I like these ideas. I also recently heard someone say that they thought everything and everyone is an expression of God. I like that idea as well.
A friend and I were talking this weekend about the idea that god is all. So there is nothing that is not god. Many religious traditions have this idea in their writings. The Christian idea I’m familiar with says that god is over all and through all and in all. Well, all pretty much includes, all. If there is nothing that is not god, then god is both (what we would perceive as) good and evil. This really fucks people up! I know it did me, at first. I still trip over it from time to time. But then we have to go back and define good and evil. Aren’t both ideas based on perspective? And, if we go with the idea that all is a drama, and god is playing all the parts, then he is playing both the victim and the perpetrator. And yes, there are always the extreme examples where we just can’t help but think that something is just flat evil and there is no way god had anything to do with it. I’m not saying that this is how it is, period. I’m just sharing thoughts and questions.
An idea tied to the god is all idea is that there is no such thing as sin. This also gets folks riled up! Especially in my area where religion is so prominent. If we are all expressions of god, characters played by god, or one with god because there is nothing that is not god, how could there be sin? How could god be mad or hurt or disappointed by something that he is doing? Now, for us to live in the organized society that we live in, we do have to have rules and laws to generally keep things the way we like them. But I’m talking about sin between man and god. And they would have to be separate to have one sin and the other label it as sin. When I’ve heard this idea presented, people generally ask, “so are you saying you are perfect?” Well, what is your definition of perfect? I would say yes. I’m exactly as I should be.
Then, of course, there is the idea that there is no god. From this perspective, there is no sin, either. There are those social norms that people expect, but sin between god and man can’t exist if there is no god. Also, if there is no god, then there probably is no devil. The traditional idea being that the devil was at one time an angel created by god. Then good and evil falls into social norms versus things that society deems to be good or bad. And when people do bad things, they are probably messed up or broken, somehow. It’s like when hurting people hurt people. Most child abusers were abused as children. And so on. One thing that gets me when I think of there being no sort of god at all is, where the hell did everything come from? Even if everything started from a super dense mass of matter, and it went, “bang!” Where did the super dense matter come from? And, where did God come from? The human mind really can’t grasp the idea that something has been around forever, with no beginning at all. But, that probably has something to do with the fact that most people see time as only linear. But that’s another topic.
And I’m sure there are many, many other perspectives and factors to all this that I haven’t thought of yet. I’m not sure that I want to know the answers to a lot of these questions? A friend recently asked, if you could know the exact time of your death, would you want to know? My initial response was yes. Then I thought about it, and at that time, decided that I would not want to know. Another friend said that he thinks it’s more fun not knowing. That way, you are free to keep imagining. Yeah. I kind of get that. Sometimes, not knowing is fun.
Shifting Beliefs 