Defining God

In order to have a proper conversation about God, we should first define what we mean by the term “God”. The different beliefs regarding God can roughly be broken down into 4 categories:

Theism is the term attributed to the belief in a personal God. God is believed to be actively involved in our lives by answering our prayers and blessing people at his will. It is believed one can have a relationship with God through prayer and worship.

Deism is still the belief that God was the first cause. However, deism entails that God is not actively involved in our personal lives; rather God set up the laws of the universe to function on their own and does not intervene.

Agnosticism is the belief that the answers are beyond our comprehension. The truth is either unknown or unknowable.

Atheism or anti-theism is the rejection of any personal God.

For the most part of this conversation, I will be defining and discussing God in the term which I think is most prominent and relevant in today’s society. That is monotheism, the belief that one personal God exists, created this universe and is actively involved in answering our prayers and watching over us. This belief is the corner stone of the three major religions of our world which include Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This belief is held dear and cherished by many. Again it seems I must stress that my aim is not to offend. For many God is a personal subject and a great source of comfort in people’s lives, I completely understand this. My search is simply in light of a truly honest enquiry to find truth. If you are easily upset by reading contrasting viewpoints about God then perhaps you should stop reading. If however you enjoy the freedom that accompanies sharing and conversing with others who share different viewpoints to yours, you’ve come to the right place! I suppose the next question that follows, what do I currently believe?

If you had asked me if I believed in God a few years back, I would have answered with an uncompromising yes! As a committed Christian, there was not a shred of doubt in my mind that God existed. I could have told you not only that I knew with relative certainty that God existed, but exactly who he was, what he wanted from you and why he made us, in other words, I thought I knew the mind of God and was quite happy to act as his spokesman. But as I was slowly forced by the outside world to justify my religious faith, it began to dawn on me that maybe faith on its own wasn’t enough. If my beliefs were really true than surely if I searched deep enough I could find something more solid. So I set out on the monumental task of finding proof for what I already believed. However as my search broadened, as I began to listen and read books about beliefs and opinions from all walks of life, and I as I gained a little more life experience about the world around me, bit by bit my certainty was stripped away from me until I was left with the position I hold today.

While I relate to deism in some regards, ultimately my position is agnosticism. I believe there is absolute truth; however I think that the answers surrounding the origins of the universe and God are currently beyond our comprehension. Rather like the mysterious world of micro biology was completely inconceivable to our ancient ancestors, who through lack of knowledge attributed disease to curses from the gods or evil spirits. Maybe in the future we will have a better understanding of our origins and truth will reveal itself, but until then I feel forced to withhold judgment. Ultimately I am a seeker, and I don’t feel I can be honestly searching for truth if I already have a definitive stance. So I just have to be honest with myself and all of you:

Does God exist?

... I don’t know.

And from my observations and studies of the many different world religions and views surrounding God, I doubt that any of us do. The fact that different cultures all around the world can form such radically opposing and conflicting beliefs about who or what God is tells us something important, the answer isn’t obvious! In my search I’ve talked and listened to a lot of really intelligent people with very different views of God. Muslims, Jews and Christians enter the conversation at different angles and through the ages have developed doctrines that assert claims that are incompatible with each other. Yet despite these incompatible doctrines I believe there is something at the core of our theological differences that needs to be addressed.

When you contemplate the great mysteries of the universe, you can’t help but wonder, what is all this? What’s it for? Unfortunately no one has concrete answers to these most mysterious questions. And through this mystery our beliefs are born. We call the collection of beliefs surrounding God theology, and when theology is organised and ritualised, we call this religion. Religion is simply the name we give to those competing spiritual ideologies that claim to know the truth about God and usually the right pathway we need to take in order to find salvation (Ironically salvation we need because of our religious beliefs). While some theology is without a doubt appealing and pulls on our emotional heart strings, we still can’t escape the fact that at the end of the day these beliefs arise from our ignorance of the world around us. Unfortunately, unlike science, we don’t have a good system to objectively asses’ the truth claims of theology. This is what makes many religions and denominations possible. Religious belief appeals to the unknown, and when we conceptualise the unknown and start throwing the word “personal faith” around, one can believe almost anything!

Now there is nothing wrong with having personal beliefs about God, meaning and the afterlife. I have them, and I think it can be argued that certain religious beliefs do genuinely give us a more consoling and optimistic view of the world. However, when people start slapping the word truth to their beliefs, when people begin to push their unjustified beliefs onto others in the name of God and when people begin to see themselves as somehow superior, saved or chosen above other human beings, is when our beliefs become tribalistic. And one of the biggest dangers we face in the 21st century with the rise of destructive technology, is tribal religion (I would include political tribalism in that boat as well). But I believe when religion is stripped down to its core, we find a belief system that is desperately trying to understand the mystical, the sacred and the spiritual aspects to life. Something I think all of us are trying to do in our own ways.

So while I wouldn’t say I believe in God, I would say I am open to the mystery that we call God. I just don’t feel the need to conceptualise God like so many religions do. Religions attempt to define God and in doing so place limitations on God that I don’t believe are necessary. Quite often we hear religious people claim that God can do anything, but when pressed with questions quite often retort to the limitations of their sacred texts or spiritual leaders. I’m quite content to just allow God to be whatever or whoever God is. If God so chooses to reveal truth to me then my heart and mind are always open. One of the most liberating experiences of my life was when I let go of my long held and cherished beliefs that all we know about God could be contained within the confines of an ancient, human constructed book, and began to honestly and openly search for answers free from limitations.

Another reason I shed my religious beliefs is because I wanted to start a fresh. I wanted to attempt to rid myself of any emotional or personal baggage that could possibly be blinding me from seeing the truth. I wanted to start from the beginning. I begin each of these conversations as a seeker of truth, as someone who does not have the answers but has plenty of questions. It is through questioning the world around us that has driven us to explore, and more importantly, discover!

Much love
Jase

Coming soon
Part 2: Science & God.

Does God exist?

One of the biggest questions one can ask themselves on the subject of truth is:

Does God exist?

In fact, I think it can be argued that there is no bigger question. People define themselves, their beliefs and even their lives on this central question. For many God is as real as anything else in this world, to others the idea of God seems completely implausible. Our different beliefs concerning God have been the cause of some of the greatest conflicts in the world as well as being the source of much of the world’s greatest inspirations. All other questions about truth, morality and meaning seem to hang from this most important question, Does God exist?

No other question fascinates nor excites me more than this question. It is the subject of the vast majority of my reading and lies at the core of my desire to find truth. If there is a God, an eternal source to all that exists, than I can only hope that by trying to understand God to the best of my ability, I can perhaps get a little closer to truth. Of course the task ahead is well beyond me, and I wouldn’t dream that any of my thoughts would add or subtract too the millennia of human ideas and beliefs regarding God. But I believe with each new generation, the question must arise a new and we must search for answers ourselves. So I invite all to come and share in this important discussion. Whether you’re a believer, non believer or something in-between, your opinions and questions matter.

Because of the sheer number of topics covered when talking about God, I have decided to break my thoughts into several parts. The first part can be found here:

Part 1: Defining God

Much love
Jason