This is a posthumous Fog column.

People seem to exhibit equal distress in seeing Christianity attacked, as they do in seeing it actually practiced.

 

Defining "God"

This is about God...

...but don't run away....

...this God is nothing like the one you learned about in Sunday School...

...the one that so many people want to run away from...

...especially when the topics of God and religion are brought up.

So don't worry.

To start with, the popular conception about God just isn't working...

...it's not valid...

...which, as I see it, is at the root of a lot of our problems.

It's always bothered me is that after 2,000 years of Christianity and Christianity's view of God....

...we seem to be no closer to adopting -- I mean really adopting -- the central concepts...

...the concepts that we claim they embody.

Despite the clear words of the "Prince of Peace"...

...self-proclaimed "Christians" have throughout history been responsible for the slaughter and torture of millions of people...

..."infidels," non-believers...

...and even today, murder in the name of Christianity is very much alive and well.

Exhibit "A": Ireland, where the decades-old Christian-Catholic slaughter continues.

Just in case you think that kind of thing is only happening "a long way off"...

...and not too relevant...

...as we've explained elsewhere, right here in the U.S. of A., the states that have the highest rates of Christian church attendance...

...have the highest murder rates...

...and this reverse relationship between Christian church attendance and murder is also evident in other countries.

Beyond murder, there are the many other "sins and omissions" linked to Christian folk...

...especially Christian clergy...

...no, I'm not talking about the molestation of children...

...although I could....

...I'm talking about murder in the name of religion...

...by self-styled, Bible-reading, super-Christians...

...like the Rev. Jones who, who in the name of Christianity, got almost 1,000 believers to drink cool-aid laced with cyanide...

...or the good Christian believers who were wiped out in massacres at Waco, Texas and Ruby Ridge...

...or those Bible-quoting people a few years back who all killed themselves so they could join a passing comet.

The list could goes on and on...

...in the name of Chrstianity...

...but, we don't need to go any further down that road.

And, I'm sorry, I don't buy the idea of the Devil is responsible for all this.

Anyway, this obviously isn't the way it's supposed to be...

...something's definitely not working.

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.

You would think that at some point we would figure out that something has to be changed.

Really changed.

The answer, in my humble opinion...

...and in the opinion of quite a few notable people who have no reason to act humble...

...is that we are holding onto a very limited, non-workable, and even counterproductive definition of God...

...a definition that is inextricably tied in with Christianity.

So let's look at the definition of God...

...which also ends up defining God in our minds.

Throughout the ages our most revered spiritual thinkers have concluded that...

..."all is God, and there is nothing that is not God."

I'm told that's even in the Judeo-Christian scriptures somewhere.

Interestingly, our most revered scientific thinkers in quantum and theoretical physics have reached the very same conclusion...

...through generally through totally non-religious routes...

...and generally using a different term for "God."

Even so, their unified-field, all-is-one central concept comes down to the same thing.

One notable physicist said that the closer he gets to the reality behind "all that is" in the universe...

...the more it resembles a single thought.

Personally, I feel that the name, "God," now has so much misleading baggage attached to that it would serve us better to use a different term altogether.

And then there are our revered writers and poets...

...people like Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said that God is present in all of His aspects in every moss and cobweb.

Just another way of saying "all is One."

Although we may hear all this...

...and may not even object to the concept in principle...

...we don't want to accept its implications.

If all is God...

...that we, too, are God...

...but we just don't know it...

...have forgotten it...

...don't want to accept it...

...or, all of the above.

God is a constant that is constantly changing.

By extension, this means that we and our needs are constantly changing...

...even evolving...

...and thus we inevitably outgrow our old secular and sectarian rules and beliefs.

Look around; the ideas and beliefs we cling to are not working.

We prefer to think of God as a kind of personage outside of ourselves...

...a personal God...

...sort of a super version of our own father...

...that we can turn to...

...plead with...

...to which, unfortunately, we've assigned many of the same shortcomings...

...jealousy, anger, revenge, a need for homage...

...and even a need to be feared and worshiped...

...none of which, of you think about it, can logically be associated with an all-powerful, all sufficient, all-loving, all-knowing force...

...that by definition...

...doesn't need anything.

But, the implications that we, too are, in essence, God is just too much to accept...

...blasphemy!

In fact, throughout history quite a few people have been burned at the stake for even suggesting something like this...

...which is probably why, although the idea been alluded to by spiritual adepts throughout the ages...

...that it didn't catch on in any big way.

This in no way diminishes God...

...in fact, just the opposite...

...not to mention solving a lot of dilemmas in science, religion, and philosophy...

...that would take a good-sized book to cover.

This also means that we...

...all of us together...

...are responsible for things.

A scary thought...

...but an inevitable conclusion.

This means, for example, that as a global society...

...as well as a nation...

...we can easily put ourselves in our own graves...

...with noOne to bail us out.

Free will, God's greatest gift, also means that we are free to destroy ourselves without intervention. Anything else would not be free will.

Looking on the positive side, this also means that once we accept this, we have the potential of...

...being the master of our own fates and the creators of our own destiny.

Don't look "out there" for some personal entity; look deep inside and seek to be reunited with our all-encompassing essence.

How do we get to that point?

First, we must remember Who and What we are...

...let go of our perceived separation....

...and allow ourselves to be reunified with our greater Self.

In case you've forgotten it, the Bible says "The Kingdom of God is within."

Truth cannot be revealed to you, until it is revealed through you.

It comes down to an eventual ability to look into a mirror...

...or in the eyes of another...

...and clearly see the One singular essence therein.

It's worth pursuing.

How can you not love when there is one consciousness and you know that you and the other are not really separate?
— Amit Goswami, Ph.D.

 If you are interested in further reading in this area and can stretch your mind around some fascinating concepts in quantum physics you might want to consider the book The Self-Aware Universe — How Consciousness Creates the Material World by Amit Goswami.

Many of the same concepts are reflected in the best-selling Conversations With God series of books by Neal Walsh, which are a bit easier to get through. Even more to the ultimate goal is the book, I Am That, conversations with Nisargadatta Maharaj, which will pull the rug out from "reality" itself.