What Is God And Why Am I Asking That Question?

[NOTE: These posts are an ongoing presentation, meant to be read beginning with the earliest and ending with the most recent. If not read in that order, there is a potential loss for the reader in an overall understanding of what is being presented. You have been warned.]

We appear to be living in a world of endless conflict. These conflicts run the gamut from disagreements between two individuals over absolutely anything one might care to name that allows for more than one perspective, to violent conflicts between elaborately organized belief systems. But whether a conflict has its basis in politics, religion, economic status, race, or cultural differences begs the question whether there is a common denominator that will allow us to more easily understand the world’s conflicts and thereby discover a one-size-fits-all solution, or at least a more rational understanding of these ongoing events.

Too often, in approaching a problem of conflict, it is possible to get caught up in the logic and/or the emotion of a viewpoint to such an extent that our ability to intervene in a positive way is greatly impaired. It isn’t always easy to remain totally aloof from owning a personal involvement in a conflict, particularly if one of the “sides” involved demonstrates characteristics and actions that run contrary to our own basic belief systems. We need a way to cut through outer appearances and expose the core of situations that manifest as conflict.

I’ve been able to do something similar to this when dealing with religious, moral and ethical dilemmas. Here’s how it works. I took the Bible’s creation story and in rethinking its elements discovered something very interesting where “sin” is concerned. Sin, by whatever name, has been identified to be at the basis of most of our problems as individuals and as a race. Our religious systems have developed elaborate levels of ways for identifying and dealing with sin. Our governmental institutions have created a labyrinth of laws to quantify sins and punish sinners. Even attempting to identify just exactly what sin is can lead to a cultural quagmire of viewpoints and beliefs that breed new sins of conflict while stretching humanity’s patience to the breaking point. For example: honor killings.

Now by this point, dear reader, you might be asking, “Just what in the hell are you talking about? I thought this was supposed to be about a political campaign, not some kind of philosophical discourse.” But politics is merely dealing with the results, or the appearances, of ideas that are based upon much deeper beliefs. Rather than getting bogged down in endless arguments over viewpoints about the effects of various political policies, let’s go back to the “starting point,” to rediscover our core beliefs and then to build upon them. Once we’ve created structures based upon sound beliefs, then we can determine what changes we may need to make to improve our current situations.

With that in mind, I want to talk about my own evolution of beliefs. Although I grew up in a home that instilled Christian beliefs, those beliefs were less dogmatic than many other Christian belief systems. Because I wasn’t raised in dogma, I didn’t always understand the differences between my beliefs and the beliefs of other Christians around me. However, my lack of familiarity with the slant of their particular beliefs didn’t dissuade them from grilling me to see if I was in total harmony with, and support of, their particular beliefs. “Have you been born again?” “Have you been washed in the blood of the lamb?” “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?” My answer to such questions was usually, “I don’t know,” but I was smart enough not to say that out loud. As long as I didn’t have to be around more dogmatic Christians, I felt comfortable with my beliefs. But when I was in their presence and they took the opportunity to “test” me with their invasive questions, then my resolve began to dissolve. And you have no idea how personally frustrating that was, time after time.

Well, one day, at the age of 50, I was accosted by a teller at my bank, a man who was obviously a representative of the Christian Inquisition who had been conditioned to blindly parrot an endless list of accusatory questions designed to expose sinners. After abruptly ending our conversation, and while leaving the bank that day, I asked myself why people like the bank teller disturbed me so much. My “self” immediately responded that my upset stemmed from the fact that I didn’t really know what it was that I believed. “Oh, yes I do!” I replied. “Prove it,” said the self. That interchange that day resulted in 10 statements that I now refer to as “What We Believe That Makes Us Different.” Now, I don’t intend to pedal my personal belief statements, at least not all ten of them. But I do want to talk about the first three for they lead to what may will be an astounding conclusion.

I began that day with the statement, “God is all there is.” This means exactly what it says. Everything that is is God. There is nothing else. And if God is all there is, then God is also the source of all that is. Now, I haven’t really liked the word “God” for a long time because it has different meanings for different people. But I use it here because it is most totally all inclusive in its acceptance by the majority of people. If you don’t like the word “God” then feel free to use whatever word is comfortable for you. The word that I personally prefer is “universe” because it helps me to remember the infinity of what I’m talking about when I say “all that is.” If you don’t believe in God, period, then think of it this way. Imagine everything that is. That’s what we’re talking about. I attached the name, “God,” to that “all that there is,” because that’s a common, familiar term for most people in American culture. Call it “Henrietta” for all I care. Just realize that all that is, is. I’ve always thought of it this way: the best definition I know of for God is that “God is.” Anything that one can tack on the end of those two words would only be a small part of what God is and therefore is a limiting definition.

My own meager calculations imply that there are probably over 70 septillion stars in the possibly visible universe, our own sun being merely one of them. In case you are curious, 70 septillion is 70 followed by 24 “0’s.” And all of that is God, or universe. But when we say all the stars, let’s not forget all of the planets and asteroids, and comets, and meteors, and other assorted space “junk.” That’s all God, too. So that’s about it right? Not by a long shot. Most of the universe is space. It’s what we call “empty space.” And that’s what most of the universe is: space. I don’t know if it’s correct to say that space “is” if, in fact, it is truly empty. Should we therefore say that space “isn’t.” Then we could say that God is all there is and all there isn’t. And that would be true, also.

Yet this is not all that there is to the “is” that we’re talking about, the “is” that this term “God” encompasses. When we think of what is, we’re usually thinking in terms of what physically is. What about all of that which is non-physical, that which can not be measured dimensionally, that which has no weight, that which has no temperature. What about ideas? What about love? What about non-physical communications? Just contemplating “ideas” we realize that they are quite probably infinite. And, therefore, so it is with this God that we speak of here that is all that there is. It, too, is infinite. It transcends space and it transcends time. This is not a new idea. In the Bible, a series of writings, incidentally, that are revered by over half of the people on the planet, that’s over 3 billion people, God is identified as “was, is now, and always will be.” Existent throughout all time. In the Near East from which the Bible springs, this idea is also expressed as “from the ages to the ages.

So we begin with “God is all there is.” Actually, in my ten statements of faith I say that “God is all there is: absolute, total, without exception.” That way there is no room for argument or misunderstanding. All that is, is. For want of a better word, we can call it God.

As a quick recap, we’re examining part of the process of the development of my own belief system and a surprising conclusion that resulted from that experience. Then we will take that analogy and apply is to our search for the basis for the systems that so often lead us into conflict today. From there, we will work our way through history to an understanding of why things are the way they are. Following that, I will share with you how things could be and why. Then we’ll talk about how to make that happen. Then, after all of that, I’ll tell you who I think is the most advisable person to vote for in the 2008 election of President, and why I feel that way. Finally, I’ll pick up my hat, dust it off, go to the poles and go home.

But for now, I think we’ll post this before continuing on with this line of thought.