A New Vision of God

When we look all around us, we can notice there is a certain type of order and complexity, which allows things to function. There is also a dependency among all living things that expresses an equilibrium that is innate to their very existence. Plants depend on the soil, sun, water and oxygen. Animals depend on plants, soil, water, oxygen and other animals, and we depend on all these. Planets rotate around the sun; the sun and solar system revolve around its galaxy. Even when we look at our bodies, each system knows what to do and collaborates with other systems to allow the body to function properly. In this web of complex structures that we observe in our surroundings, there is an obvious Order. If choosing between randomness and intelligence for the origin of all creation, intelligence seems to be the better choice. #godisomnipresent

Now the obvious question to ask is what is this intelligence, what does it look like? Traditionally some religions have depicted the creator of the universe as a Being, which resembles a person that can act on will, being loving at times and punishing at other times. This will lead us to ask other questions, such as what is fairness? What is justice? This image of a creator is limiting and clouds our ability to understand more about our existence and what has created it. It may even lead us to believe that none of this is true. It’s much easier to say there is no God.

But what if we thought about the concept of God differently? What if God is not a Being, not a man/woman or other physical form that is in a designated place looking down at us? What if God doesn’t only love us when we behave in certain ways? What if most, if not all, of what we have learned about God is simply not true? Let’s take a different perspective of God. Considering we call God the creator of all that exists, we can assume that God is very powerful and must know and understand all its creation. #godisommiscient This would mean that God can exist in all the creation and not only where we are. And this would also mean that God need not resemble what we see around us but could be quite different and beyond any images our limited minds may come up with. The portrayal of God that has been historically given by some religions seems to reflect human behaviors and therefore can be considered very flawed.

Theoretically, we can say that any beginning must have had a moment prior to existing. This would lead us to always ask, what came before? If we were discussing the Big Bang, we would ask the same question. What came before the Big Bang? Where did all the gases come from? What formed the elements? We can say there were many Big Bangs, but we’ll always come back to the same question of what came before. Following this train of thought, we can consider that there is such a thing as eternity. There was always a before and there will always be an after. If that is so, then God must be eternal with no beginning and no end.

To be a supreme source of all things, God must be absolute, demonstrating perfection so there is nothing else better or greater than it because if there were, then that would become God. And to have this absolute quality would mean that God would remain God forever, so that God never changes into anything else. God is always God. #godisomnipotent

So, what does this tell me? I can conclude that God cannot resemble a man/woman that is looking down at me, sometimes showing love and at other times rage. A man (I will use man to represent human) has flaws and is limited. A man has fluctuations in his emotions, wants things to go his way and imposes his will on others. Man behaves one way with what he likes and another way with what he dislikes. He is not always fair and just. The way God is often viewed reflects what currently exists on our planet and is not necessarily a reflection of any other part of the creation. God cannot be in one place, only watching over certain groups or even just our planet and its humanity, as if nothing else existed. God cannot have moments of wrath when also considered to be all-loving, perfect and absolute. That is something humans would do. The common perception of God is a mere personification of who we are and have been and demonstrates our inability to reason beyond what we have been told. It illustrates our lack of interest in seeking other perspectives to the ones we hold and highlights our persistence in believing we already know it all.

God must be so much greater than we can conceive in our minds. We can perhaps describe God as an energy that exists in all of creation. The major religions and spiritual philosophies agree that God is Love, and that love is the basis of Unity. This energy manifests an Order and has Intelligence. Aside from this, we may not be able to describe exactly what this energy is, but we can begin by deciphering what it is not. As a start, we can consider that if God is love, absolute and perfect, then God cannot be a man, woman or have human characteristics, does not punish, is not unjust, does not judge, is not separate from us, does not selectively love only some, and does not love us only under certain conditions. #unconditionallove

But let’s not stop there. Once we understand this, we can consider deepening our awareness of this energy we call God by embodying it to the best of our ability. To truly begin to know God is to experience what this energy is. One thing is to say that God or the Creator is all-loving, merciful, and compassionate, but another is to be able to feel these qualities within us and express them in our actions towards ourselves and others through all that is presented to us.

A new perspective of God may lead us to begin understanding a different reality on who created all of us and enable us to form and strengthen our relationship with our creator not as an entity that is separate from us, but an energy that is One with us. #godunity