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Motto: Writers Helping Writers |
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MANKIND’S EFFORTS TO DIMINISH GOD
A reading of most ancient religious texts and those currently used, that are based on those old writings, speak of a GOD who is likened to humans with some special powers, abilities and understandings. In the Christian Bible, that most religious orders in America and Europe use as a basis for their religious worship and practices, mentions of GOD almost always as a human-like being with “hands”, “feet”, “voice”, etc. GOD is referenced as showing special favors and preferences to a specific race or ethnic group. Those groups make claims that GOD tells them to kill or mistreat other ethnic groups who they think may pose a threat to them. This concept has been the primary cause of countless wars and conflicts not only in ancient times but even in the present we find our nations fighting each other for these same reasons. Those groups who claim that privileged relationship to GOD seem to cherish their self-assigned status as “GOD’s people” but fail to recognize that GOD is the Creator of all people. That point of view suggests egomania carried to the Nth degree. Most religious sects have built their churches, synagogues, temples or other structures which are declared as the special “place of GOD”. These are the places where people are told to go when they want to worship, pay tribute or commune with GOD. Many of these structures are truly beautiful and inspiring but, make no mistake about it, no one has built anything that will serve as an enclosure for GOD and never will. Who is GOD? It seems there are many diverse points of view but most people will say GOD is the Ultimate Being who is eternal and exists outside the bounds of time and space—whatever that means. There seems little doubt that this Ultimate Being does exist, contrary to the ideas of a few people who seem bound within the physical realm of existence and always deny that anything exists that cannot be detected by physical experimentation. So long as we are bound by the limits of the physical realm, it does seem unlikely that we will ever obtain empirical proof of other realms of existence. However, what has been determined by physical examination and testing clearly indicates that the universe we observe did not just happen as a result of a “Big Bang”. Without an intelligent design, a big bang would only have caused a chaotic reaction. The Creator, whatever we prefer to call GOD, used only four, possibly five forces of nature to cause the physical universe to evolve into what we mortals can see today with our physical eyesight. More forces may be involved of which we have no evidence or understanding. Rest assured, today we only see a minute amount of what was created. Over many centuries humans have made attempts to estimate the age of our universe. Many of the religious writings include descriptions and time-lines of how this universe and our earth came to be. Some people still believe the earth to be approximately four thousand years old. With the determination of the speed of light--approximately 186,000 miles per second--and the discovery of background radiation emitted at the time of the “Big Bang”, the most recent scientific estimate of the age of the universe is approximately 13 billion years. That doesn’t mean the earth is that old since it took a few billion years for the initial energy to form atoms of matter and for the matter to convert into stars and planets. Our Milky Way galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars and throughout the entire observable universe there are hundreds of billions of galaxies each of them having their own hundreds of billions of stars. If only one out of every ten thousand stars has planets and only 5% of those planets are in the “livable zone”, the probability that other intelligent physical beings exist “out there” is indeed quite likely. Further, scientific studies of the cosmos have found possible evidence that we inhabit a creation that contains “Multiple Universes”. Considering just what has been discovered, we must admit that we know an extremely small amount about what there is to know about THE INTELLIGENT CREATOR, THE UNTIMATE BEING, GOD. Where is GOD? Most answers to this question are “everywhere”. No evidence has been found to the contrary but why can’t we see GOD? My conclusion is that GOD exists in an unbounded spiritual realm while every physical being, including all humans, as well as everything else that came into existence at the point of creation, are limited to a physical realm. But why, some may ask, can we not experience the spiritual realm since we are also spiritual beings living in a physical body? Perhaps we can if we find the way to move our thoughts into the spiritual realm. This is more than a little difficult to do since we have lived in the physical realm since conception and we are so accustomed to reacting to physical stimulation. We depend on all our senses to make us aware of what is happening around us and to us. Since our beginnings we have learned to react to this physical stimulation and it is almost impossible to move into a spiritual state where we can rid ourselves of the tendency to react to physical stimuli. Sometimes we do, but are not fully aware of it. Each of us has at times received a thought totally unexpected not knowing where it came from. Often times it is something we haven’t even consciously thought of before but suddenly, there it is. Still, most of the time we push such thoughts aside since we don’t know why it came to us and we consider it insignificant. Perhaps we should give them more credibility. Maybe, when we complete our time in the physical realm and our souls move into the spiritual realm we will truly “know as we are also known”. Why do humans tend to diminish GOD, the Ultimate One? At least four reasons are obvious. First, most people rely on historical teachings (ancient writings) rather than seeking evidence to support an updated version. Religious organizations of all denominations rely on writings considered “Holy Scripture” written about humans making claims to having had direct contact with GOD or having received messages they claim to have been revealed to them, especially for them, from GOD. Most of these “contacts” were written several generations after the alleged incidents reportedly occurred. We certainly cannot prove that the recorded incidents did not occur any more than we can prove that they did. We are told to believe these scriptures based on our faith. However, true faith allows us to accept new evidence which is based on more recent findings and to let go of those concepts which do not agree with the new evidence. A second reason why we tend to diminish GOD is because we just feel more comfortable believing in a Being we can understand. We have assigned to GOD many of the characteristics we see in ourselves. Our concepts speak of GOD’s hands, eyes, feet, heart, etc. but these are human characteristics, a part of our physical being. We speak of GOD sitting on a throne in a human form, probably because history speaks of human kings sitting on thrones ruling over their physical domain. Considering the character and distorted egos of many human kings, it seems likely GOD may feel insulted to be compared to them, even in title. A third reason, somewhat akin to the second, is our own human egos. Some scriptural writings state that we humans are made in the image of GOD. The concept probably varies from person to person. Most would believe that since we have physical bodies GOD must be somewhat like us. However, Jesus said that “GOD is a spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit.” This says to me that our likeness to GOD is our own spirit and we simply inhabit a physical body—temporarily. One other possible reason for diminishing GOD is that throughout history religious organizations have used a concept of a human-like Creator as one of the bases for asking their followers to give of their wealth to the church, synagogue, mosque, etc. I fully agree that religious people should support their organizations financially and through service, but what we give is to the religious organization, not to GOD. As the Ultimate Spiritual Being, GOD is the creator of everything physical and has total control of all those things. So it seems the plea to give should focus on giving to the organization. GOD already owns and controls everything. If GOD needed money, all physical material could instantly be converted to gold, silver, diamonds, dollars, yen, euros, francs, pesos, or GOD could even establish a totally new medium of exchange. In the spiritual realm, such is not needed. Let’s worship GOD “in spirit and in truth” and acknowledge that our Creator is infinitely greater than we humans can ever imagine so long as we inhabit this physical realm of existence.
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Motto: Writers Helping Writers |
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Rome Area Writers MANKIND’S EFFORTS TO DIMINISH GOD By Richard J. Ingram |
