God

It has difficult to imagine a God so powerful He can part the Red Sea, talk from a burning bush and not to mention create the whole world in 6 days, and yet be so little as favor a Sunni over a Shiite, or a Jew over a Muslim, or a Baptist over a Catholic. Were Buddhists and Hindis left out? Confucius? It is absurd. I can only conclude that all religion is false and a creation of humans to meet human needs and in no relation whatsoever to the Almighty.
Who is God? What is God? Where is God? Is there a God? I do not have any of those answers. If I claimed that I did, they would have to be through some revelation that I could not prove. My belief in God, or even my disbelief can be nothing but faith, for there is no science that can prove or disprove God’s existence. Someday there may be.
Yet there is something in me that wants to believe in God. There are experiences I have had that trick my mind into belief. A bright light that appeared to me before my twins were born to assure me they were going to be healthy and safe. They were born 2 months premature and spent 30 days in intensive care, but today are wonderful and healthy men. I had clear moments of understanding of the nature of what God is or isn’t as I was attending seminary. My mind drifts to the understanding of the nature of complexities that justify actions I have taken. God is everywhere anyway; at least in the media.
Recognizing that my belief in God comes from a place in my mind that “just plain wants to believe”; I believe in a God that is powerful and is “just all”. I believe He/She created this universe and that God’s ultimate goal is that Humans will evolve to God. In fact God may be the evolved being of some past universe. Who knows? Because the universe was set in motion by an act of God, the entire universe is part of God. Because we, humans, are part of the universe, we have a bit of God within us. Some show more of God than others.
God is too big to be petty. He/She did in fact set our universe in motion. Being petty would be favoring one “religion” over another. Those people who find their particular differences in belief systems to be the mark of their righteousness are mistaken. They either do this for power, or they have allowed their minds to place themselves at the center of the universe instead of God. The mind is a powerful force!
So what is to be made of all the differing opinions of who is saved, who is not, and who has the right answers and who does not? Whose side is God on anyway? If each of us has some part of us that is God, perhaps we hear in some way the voice of God. Suppose that voice is difficult to understand unless you have evolved far enough to hear it properly. Perhaps some people are just a bit closer to God in evolution than others. It’s also possible that when we hear Gods voice, we mistakenly translate it in Human terms and the translation comes out badly mangled. Perhaps we just don’t listen well.
Those whom we have deemed as profits; Mohamed, Abraham, Jesus, Confucius, and Buddha, just to name a few: may have understand God’s communication better than others. Does that mean they are special, yes perhaps. To be worshiped? No! Others wrote most of what is attributed to them. We have no idea how their messages have been perverted for the individual gain or power of others. Witness the treatment of women in the Catholic Church for instance.
The only way to ascertain the truths within the “religions” is to look for what a former seminary professor of mine told me… the statements that “bring life”. If a statement does not “bring life” then it must be false. We can also look for statements or messages that are universal between religions in the hope that the various “profits” heard the same message. Beware, the very act of trying to determine the truth, runs the risk of setting rules for religion. Religion is ultimately bad because it destroys our evolution toward God by setting boundaries.
In order for us to be “like him” we have to evolve naturally. With our own free will. Without free will, God could never be sure we were indeed like him. Any religion that wants to take your free will is false. God is so powerful; He/She favors us with the authority to make our own decisions.
I can only hope that all of us will search our hearts and minds for the voice of God that brings life to humankind. That we search our hearts and minds for those truths that bring us together rather than break us apart, yet still allow our own individual spiritual search.
I have no idea what the truth is, and neither does anyone else. However, there is one right answer, and through our own evolution we ill find it….. someday.