Believer: “Hey, Frank. Why don’t you believe in God?”
Frank: “What do you mean by ‘God'”?
So far, I’ve yet to hear a definition of ‘God’ that doesn’t insult my thinking brain and offend my feeling heart. I’ve yet to hear a definition of ‘God’ that isn’t so childish (and easily dismissed based on the evidence of how the universe works) or so vague and slippery that there’s nothing of logic or moral substance to discuss.
An Invitation to believers: I remain humbly agnostic regarding the true essence of ultimate reality. I make no dogmatic claims about such as I commit myself to a humanistic worldview grounded in freedom, science, and love that I practice every day without any reservations or fear of being wrong. But my curious mind and compassionate heart would sincerely like to understand: What do YOU mean by ‘God’? And why do you believe in such? But, most important, how do you put such belief into daily practice?
WARNING: Let’s keep things civil, honest, and on topic, folks. I’ve already deleted two dozen comments and blocked two anonymous trolls for engaging in snark, straw manning, and personal attacks. Apologies to all who were on the receiving end of such or merely had to witness such behavior. I also deleted a slew of other comments that, although they stimulated some other important questions, were totally off topic. Thanks to all who are willing to engage with such consequential questions with the sincerity, honesty, and gravity they deserve.
learn more… Finding My Religion
Such a difficult question to answer, Frank! I don’t believe in the religious version of “God” (one that looks like or acts like a human being), and I have never felt comfortable in any form of organized religion. But I do believe in a divinity (vibration, energy, light, etc.) of which everything is a part of (the macrocosm extends out beyond the universe, the microcosm extends inward beyond cells and everything smaller than that). That being said I am not against religion or religious beliefs of others, because I think there is truth in everything, and the differences are how people interpret their experiences and inform their understanding. At the end of the day, what we believe doesn’t really matter, so long as it is not causing harm to others or other life forms. My own personal beliefs about divinity have to do with some personal “metaphysical” experiences I have had in my life, in which I “understood” the interconnectedness of everything. These were events that happened to me out of the blue (in other words, I was not thinking about them, or trying to create the experiences, or even meditating – I was simply “being” and living my life, and have no idea why they happened, but the result was that they completely transformed my perspective on life and divinity). That’s my 2 cents! (smile)
Thanks a bunch for sharing your perspective and experience, Anita. I agree that such experiences are not supernatural in the least. Perhaps “spirit” is just physics we don’t understand and physics is just “spirit” we don’t understand. At any rate, the existence or not and essence of such is an eminently scientific question worthy of study.
BTW, you might check out my post on my Ayahuasca experience. (Just copy and paste “ayahuasca” into the search box).
All the best, sent with a warm hug.
I completely agree, Frank! ” Spirit” is just physics we don’t understand and physics is just “spirit” we don’t understand. And thank you for mentioning a post on your Ayahuasca experience! I am going to check that out now! Warm hugs, my friend!
I used to be a very committed believer. It took a few years of unanswered questions for me to come to the realization that there are no gods. The idea is manifested by humans, with an ego that says, “i cannot end. I will continue after I leave this mortal world.”
Thanks a bunch for sharing your perspective and experience, Jim. I came to the same conclusion as you largely the same way: years of unanswered questions and few other realizations… such as the epic narcissism of thinking one immortal. All the best.
Here you go, bro ~ my $.02:
• What do YOU mean by ‘God’?
I use this word only because it is comprehensible and appealing to the minds past which my works must go to reach the heart.
I prefer the word “Divine,” encompassing everything about the great clockwork of our multiverse which we can know ~ and all of it which we cannot yet know.
• And why do you believe in such?
No belief necessary. It Is. How much more miraculous are the synchronicities in my little life than that the sun rises upon me every morning?
• But, most important, how do you put such belief into daily practice?
Much as you have, I think, my friend ~ on a mental level by reasoning that, whether or not there turns out to be a heaven, you really can’t go wrong by doing good either way (and besides, on a heart level, it creates the best feelings of all, right?)
This principle has been taught in both Christian and Pagan gospels: “Love, and do what thou wilt.”
You can’t really get a better balance than that!
So at the same time, my friend ~ as long as we were doing good also ~ we reached out with both hands and grabbed great big fistfulls of the Terran third dimensional experience, archiving the whole thing for extraterrestrial friends who also may or may not exist…
… (If they DID, though, they’d find that archive of yours a perfectly priceless resource ~ not to mention that you would be looking at all the damn culturally diverse traveling your heart could ever desire! Jus’ sayin. If ~ always in theory, of course ~ they’d left our memories intact for the duration of these assignments it would have resulted in an infinitely inferior product…)
I never believed in God as an almighty master of the universe. God as the space/time continuum itself works in my head, but if you’re someone that requires an entity to pray to, that probably won’t work. I believe that within human potential there lies a spiritual domain, but that doesn’t necessarily mean God. And not to sound glib, but it’s always been my belief that God was invented because of our failure to reconcile a random world.
Thanks so much for sharing your deeply considered perspective, Michael. I resonate with everything you said. For real.