As a resident of our universe, we all have some opinion on a higher power or governing force behind existence; even if this opinion is that there is nothing out there. Our entire world history can be tracked by religious beliefs and mythology which have been commonly used as a means to comfort through explaining the unknown.
The religions which are currently followed and the higher powers which are currently worshiped belong to classifications that have adapted and transformed throughout time.
Some broad perspectives can be sub-categorized, like Christianity being divided into different groups, Lutheran, Catholic, Methodist, etc. just by the details of what is regarded as important.
Keeping on with the Christianity analogy referencing various sub-classifications, note that the foundational principles, the cornerstones and mortar which hold it all together, are the same between each classification.
Those who are good people and follow the important rules, including accepting Christ as your savior, will ultimately spend an eternity in Heaven.
Those who are bad people and neglect the rules, turning their backs on their religious guidings and not seeking to repent for their sins, will ultimately spend an eternity in Hell. The rest of the division into different classifications, as I boldly consider segregation of Church, is actually purely based on morality.
Some will be more likely to “spare the rod and spoil the child” while others see that type of reinforcement as sin incarnate. Others yet will even put specific commandments above the others, while some believe that simply praying and asking for atonement on a nightly basis is sufficient regardless of action or intention.
Further religious segregation can be attributed to many things, some (outside of Christianity, now) which are comprised of many gods.
It’s a little odd, I think, that large masses of our population can follow a religion which specifically states it is a sin to worship any other Gods than the one true God, while other large masses follow a religion which observes hundreds of entities as higher powers.
One side of the spectrum worships an individual deity for each aspect of our observed lives – a god of the sun, the lord of wind, the god of harvest, and the spirit of the woods. The other side of the spectrum worships a singular entity that governs everything alone.
Wouldn’t it mean that whoever is wrong is going to suffer an eternity of punishment for improper beliefs? Then, in an attempt to bring salvation to groups of people throughout the world and history, people have continually killed one another in a holy war – murder, at it’s best.
Some Christians in history actually used their “faith” as justification to spread fear through rape and pillaging after slaughtering the bulk of societies. Is this not a sin? Who is right? Who gets to exist in prosperous sanctity for having chosen the “good guy’s” side?
In my eyes – in my honest and logic-based belief system – God is all of these things. The bible, which is observed by all sub-classifications of Christianity, in my perspective, is mostly a compilation of metaphor.
It is taught that metaphor is the highest form of language; wouldn’t the explanation of life and all driving factors behind morality be defined through the highest form of language?
Considering the vast amount of things that are to be covered, a few thousand pages wouldn’t be nearly enough to actually define life, origination, creation, expansion, and everything else the bible preaches.
Thousands of people have their own understanding, and preach this notion, and claim it’s the truth. In a previous article, I stated that every one of these beliefs is correct in its own capacity because the person who truly believes it makes it correct for their own reality.
I may not believe in the conventionally preached aspirations associated with the entity; I may not believe that every story in the bible is 100% infallible truth, but I do believe in the associated positivity with the notion.
I do not think that God is a singular being – I do not believe that God is a sentient consciousness that witnesses, governs, judges, forgives, and outlives. I believe that God IS creation. I believe that God is all positivity, all good energy, and does have a physical and spiritual source location in the universe.
I believe that when we do well and feel good about it, we are drawing on God’s energy. When we are happy, we have God in us. When we are telling ourselves everything is going to be alright during a hard time, we are reaching into the astral form, the energy base of our Lord.
I believe that God exists as all that is good, all that prospers, all that will be cherished. In much the same way, the devil exists as negative energy – as our fears, our shortcomings, our greed, our selfish endeavors, our hate, our envy, and everything which makes us miserable.
God is love and the energy we draw on, recycled back to the singular entity, filling all, and within all – vengeful, yes, because of the strength of this prosperity.
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I agree with pretty much everything you write. The only differece is that in my opinion God is all and in everything... light and darkness, good and bad. In fact the word 'God' alone doesn't quite help me get my point through because it serves as a very specific label (meaning how can someone/something that depicts love actually be fear as well?) But hopefully you understand what I'm saying. It is only a matter of choice. Firstly embrace both sides of you and then choose which one is more helpful for you to grow. Love based feelings bring us peace, hapiness, joy and so on. Fear based feelings create anger, jealousy, greed and so on. And of course there is no such thing - again, in my opinion - as trying as hard as you can not to have negative feelings, ever! We shouldn't beat ourselves for being angry or envious sometimes because that is merely an expression of a feeling, not who we are! Embrace it and discard it. I think that is the ultimate goal to reach. Hope all this makes sense.
Christine - it does make sense, yes. I'd say you are right, as well, just looking at both sides of the metaphor as singular. Which, as you say, it's hard to use the word 'God' alone and describe the full magnitude.
Nick,
Very interesting article. I would like to take you up on your invitation to dialogue. Firstly, you begin with a Freudian presupposition that belief is at service to, or at best, a result of the need for comfort. This later comes out in your conclusions about God and the devil. God is at most discernable in immediate emotions of positivity and the devil in immediate emotions of negativity.
Furthermore, the distinction you set up with good (positivity) and evil (negativity) is fundamentally dualistic. To this point allow me to say two things: first, if two contradictory (good, or positive, v. evil, or negative) infinities exist, than neither would exist. Second, it greatly problematizes the faith of believers because God is now only with them in good things and not with them in suffering.
My final point is on your definition of God. You at one point say that God is a physical or spiritual presence in the universe. However, God is not a force in the universe, or a presence in the universe, God is the source of existence. Because of this, he cannot be a being in the universe, like you and I are. Even if we were to put God on a higher level of existence than us, he would still be a being grounded in existence and not existence itself.
Thank you for your article. For the sake of time and space most of these are developed but I would love to know what you think.
I appreciate the challenge, Chris, and the fact that you caught the Freudian presupposition - I disagree with some of what Freud concluded, but other aspects of his perspective can be carried with truth.
You are right that the way I chose to phrase the article, and the construction of the context, eludes to a distinction between God and Devil, which is, as you say, problematic and infers that God is not with us during turmoil and misery. However, remember that we are all comprised of both types of energy, and both types are always with us; we always have the ability to choose to view things with their silver linings because we always have access to the energy of God.
In rebuttal to your other comment regarding cancellation of the two defined sub-categorizations of energy - this is not math - shadows exist because of the absence of light; I am not saying that darkness and negativity is a singular source of energy, as I have described the entity energy pool of God, but rather the lack of positivity, much like cold is the absence of heat and darkness is the absence of light. A lot of this is also diverged from metaphorical principals described in my other articles; for instance, the infinity complex of the energy therein is referencing a conceptual infinity, where the astral realm in which all existence is actually contained does not abide by physical constraints as have been created for our waking minds.
Some of what I say in this comment may seem contradictory to what I stated in the article. This is because of the metaphors I used, if you read between the lines and tie some of what I say in this article to a few of my others to further understand some of the more obscure statements, this explanation does fit.
God is light,Light is energy...
Thoughts and emotions emit energy...
Light is also knowledge(Words/Thoughts)...
God is also Spirit or Consciousness(Mind)..
God Is Love, which I believe to be force!
Nice thoughts. Now try the idea of "god" as a verb.
Interesting article ... good thoughts. My belief, arising from spirit communications, comes close to yours Nick; God is the Creative Principle and all is created in love and all, in the final analysis, is energy. The religions are of course all man-made approximations, and it is clear from the fact that they differ from each other that they are flawed. It amazes me that so many attend churches and pretend to uphold principles such as 'love thy neighbor' and 'thou shalt not kill', yet they vote for warmonger governments who threaten all with nuclear weapons. Surely, they waste their time in going to church?
*laughs* I'm glad you brought that up in the comments, George. I had avoided writing my views on church in my article since some churches are great for the community.
My basic view, though, even when I was prepubescent and still teething with ignorance, is that church is a man-made construct which was developed for the purpose of greed and is blasphemic in nature. Various parts of the bible state that we are the Lords temple, a true faithful person will not worship publicly, but within themselves. A prayer is meant to be whispered, intimately, not sung out amongst your peers. The church, at least as I've known it, seems to have been made as a means of proving our belief to one another, which is deemed unsavory by the biblical text being studied in these facilities...ironic...