While there is common ground between the different religions of the world, the variances have been punctuated by less than cordial discourse and even bloodshed. Surely this points to a debate over who's God is really God. Will the real God please stand up?
Perhaps if we had a more accepted set of terms, we would be able to come together on more points. While this seems an unlikely occurrence, I feel strongly that the idea should be written.
Such a discourse would fill at least one book. And, since you didn't surf to this weblog to read a book, I'll keep my comments as brief as I can (today).
In this short post, I'd like to begin to take a look at what keeps people out of the "God Camp". By this, I mean to convey the notion that there are those who say they don't believe in God, when actually they just have a different notion of God from what they may have heard others say or perhaps what they were taught.
I'd like to start with the assertion that no one owns the trademark on God. Although, I have seen a trucking company that owns the trademark (I believe) of "G.O.D.". That is a separate issue. If in your mind you have a notion of something that is beyond our understanding or ability to measure, and this thing embodies intelligence and impacts or has impacted our world - I believe you have the right to call that God, if you want. (note: this is a very quick and off the cuff definition. It may in fact be too rigid or not encompass enough.)
You might decide to call the thing you speak of as "Goontee Gabba Hey Hey" (or simply "Hey Hey" for short), but it doesn't matter. If you speak about him/her/it long enough, others will label your mind creation God.
As a self-proclaimed atheist in my teens and early twenties, I can say that the decision to not believe in God takes a toll socially. It even has political and economic ramifications. For example, to stay true to my belief as a radical teen-ager I considered boycotting the US Dollar because of the words "In God We Trust". Thankfully (or unfortunately) the desire for 7-11 Big Gulps won that inner conflict. Even deeper within our framework we see the overall premise of our "natural rights" as stemming from God. If one has zero belief in God, where do one's rights stem from? If your rights stem from society, and a "social contract", then society can take them away from you. If your rights stem from God, only God can take them away. That is a pretty powerful belief.
Although living as an atheist for some years, the reality was I had been caught in a war of words. I did believe in "something". I just didn't know what that something was. I knew it wasn't a grey bearded man sitting on a cloud using the earth as his private Sim City (a computer game). Because my idea didn't match up with what I had been taught God was, I backed off. I chose to go into a personal place of rebellion against the word: God.
Some might wish I had stayed there. But instead I continued to learn and observe the differences I mentioned earlier all around the world. I saw that while there was conflict, no one was outright saying they had a trademark on God. As it turned out, at least from my perspective, most people didn't really know much about what their "something" was. It seemed to me, suddenly, that I too had a right to God, if I wanted it.
So, in conclusion, I'd like to assert that you don't have to be a member of any particular club or suicide bombing radical faction in order to believe in God. You can start your own club or radical faction - or you can be completely solitary in your beliefs. I think we are meant to share things with others, but that is my view. I think that is how we grow. I heard a preacher say once that God put our tear ducts in our eyes, so that we could look one another in the eyes when we cry. In this way we could share our pain and sorrow, and through the sharing heal each other. He asserted that if it was supposed to be a personal, secretive, or solitary thing, God would have put our tear ducts in our arm-pits.
The literal image of those words makes me think of that grey-bearded man sitting on his cloud, this time with a Mr. Potato Head (a DIY doll). While I don't agree with that image, I do agree with the message. In the end, isn't that what it is all about?
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