Crazy Little Thing Called God

God is a strange concept in that people often take it to mean many things. So, what exactly do we mean when we say God, anyway? Can we come to some sort of accord regarding what exactly God is?

One major fallacy often made by the world's religious practitioners is the stubborn claiming that theirs is the only "true" God. But basic logic tells us this is absurd. It's kind of like having a basset hound and then claiming your is the only dog. No--there are clearly other dogs, and they all came from one ultimate source--some dog of dogs.

What God is, depends on how you define God. Otherwise it is just a word. The Judeo-Christian religions, as well as Hinduism imagine God as a divine personality; he is a character of his own, he is his distinct "person" like us, only...bigger, smarter, better at shuffleboard, ect. Significantly though, he is also imagined by the world's three biggest religions (Christianity, Hinduism and Islam) as the creator of the world who is omnipresent and omnipotent. So, if God created everything and if he is everywhere at once, and is also all powerful, then it follows that he made all religion, he tolerates all religions, and is ultimately above all religions.

Even Einstein used the term "God" on occasion. He said, "I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings." For practical purposes, let us take Einstein's (or Spinoza's) line of thought concerning the nature of God. It still allows us to think of God as the creator, it still allows us to think of God as omnipresent and omnipotent; it is only his shuffleboard skills that are sacrificed.

Clearly there is some order to the universe. The proof should be immediately obvious: We are not just floating is aetherial chaos. We live in a very complex and fascinating world. It has a long history and is constantly evolving and unfolding. And there is more than just one world--that much is also obvious, for the universe is perceived separately by all conscious beings, thereby existing both independent of the other universes, and symbiotically with them. There is clearly an intelligence governing the universe (or multi-verse). We can think of that intelligence as the divine, and we can for our purpose call that divine intelligence God.

As to the question of whether or not to ascribe some sort of personality to God, I see no obvious reason to do such a thing. And in seeing no such obvious reason in doing so, I will not work with such an assumption, because it is dangerous. The threat is that if no such personality exists, people will create such a personality in their imagination. If a person does so, but does not believe this personality is real, then that person is being deceptive. If that person creates a personality of God in his imagination and and convinces himself that such a personality is real, then that person has become schizophrenic.

Let us not discount the possibility, but also keep our minds open to others. Perhaps God has no personality after all. Perhaps we are all pieces of God ourselves. Perhaps it the truth is the a mix of the above, or something entirely different, which we cannot even comprehend. For now, let's not concern ourselves with such things. It may be beyond our scope, for the time being, and after all, perhaps we are asking the wrong questions.

So, then, if not to work-out the nature of God, much less God's will, what is the point of this whole exercise, anyway? Well, ultimately the aim of this exercise IS to work out the nature of God, but since we do not yet know exactly what our relationship with God is, we it is difficult to learn anything about God. Unfortunately, most of us do not even know ourselves. How can we even begin to work out the nature of God, before we have worked out our own nature? Who can build a tower without knowing what a brick does? For the time being, at least, out aim here should be to work out the nature of self. If we have done that, perhaps then we can begin to work out the nature of God.