One of the questions I had was “if God gives me the ultimatum of choosing Him or hell, then is that not a violation of my freewill?”
Is freewill not our desire to choose to our own path, and our own destiny? This perplexed me, and it took a long time before I came to the answer.
The reason most people have never experienced God, or communicated with Her on a personal level is that they have failed to realize that God does give us freewill and thus does not interfere with our lives. We are not puppets on a string, waiting to play out some mater plan. Rather we do choose our own path, and that plan can include God or not. There is no consequence of hell for those who do not choose to believe in God, for we are given many lifetimes, and we all eventually realize that our ideal life, the life each of us truly desires is given once we seek and know the true nature of God and understand how He created the universe so that we can have our freewill. This journey may take many lifetimes but we all eventually come to this truth, so there is no rush.
The only rush is that we can start living a better life now, or we can continue to beat ourselves up. We can continue to blame the bad things that happen to us on God or the devil (who is not real, but rather the manifestation of our own negativity, thus creating a hell on earth) or we can take accountability for how we are leading our life. The fatalist approach is not working.
There is a diffence between attacking something because we believe it is wrong and simply realizing when something is not working. Begging to God to deliver us from evil and provide for us is not working. This goes against the nature of God. Think about this for a second….Look at the world around you and the amazing things within it. God has already provided everything we need, it is simply up to us to take it and use what he has given us. This includes our talents, skills, personality and material things. It is all there, right in front of us, so why do people keep asking for something that is already given. If anyone bothered to listen to God right after they said their prayer, they would likely hear God say “It is right in front of you already, you know how to handle this situation, and attain what you desire.”
If you believe that you are part of God, then you should know that you are deserving of anything this world has to offer. It is all here for us. It is people who believe they are worthy that get what they want. Some that attain a life we are envious of did not attain it a way we agree with, but they still believed they deserved it. In this sense, they are more advanced than many devout religious people how beg God for things, but do nothing themselves to aid in the problem they are seeking answers to.
We have freewill, for God gave it to us knowing that eventually (possibly over many many lifetimes) we will all realize a better path and that path will lead us back to the realm of bliss. God is not going to send anyone to hell, rather we create our own hell for ourselves by failing to realize that God is not the God the god of religion. Rather God is simply everything and the quicker we come to that realization, the quicker we can begin to enjoy our life and enjoy all things in a guilt free fashion.
Hmm.
God can simply be explained as a concept made up by man in attempts to explain the unexplainable.
If you look at all the religions, all the myths and folklore that exist to explain the creation of the universe, you will see more similarities than differences. Yet each one believes theirs to be the one true truth.
Most “religion” is used to control and condemn and more wars have been fought in the name of religion than any other cause (see Christopher Hitchens for a full history of religious wars).
Frankly, if there was a God, I could not see him/it/her being okay with that occurring in “his name”
Is there something out there that we do not understand? I absolutely believe so. Do I think we have absolutely no idea what the truth is? Absolutely! To believe for ONE SECOND that “GOD” and the wonders and mysteries of this universe can explained within a strict doctrine of religion is naive and I believe ultimately harmful.
Religion has driven generational rifts among people, caused people to believe they are SINNING to love someone of the same sex. ANYBODY with an ounce of education would know that there are biological, evolutionary and neurological “reasons” for homosexuality. How can a “religion” have the right to persecute another HUMAN BEING?!
It is actually quite insane when you truly think about it the brainwashing that can occur when trapped within a dogma of religion.
Is there spirituality that exists? Of course? Is there energy that pours forth from each person and therefore a very strong energy flow throughout the world; I believe so. Is there things we can’t explain? OF COURSE! BUT, I think the minute we think we can say all inclusive statements that “we know what God is” or “what religion is right” then you claim to know as much or more than God.
I think you have it right, that “God” is everything..or a sense of spirituality or mindfulness..the feeling of being truly content or happy with one’s life and their journey.
BUT can we be sure…
of course not…
and maybe that is the beauty of it, because it keeps us searching and always looking deeper and gaining more self insight
You are absolutely right, we can not understand God (the idea of something bigger and outside our world of relativity) in the sense of the absolute. We live in a world of relativity, so the absolute best we can do is say that God (or the idea of something like the idea of “God”) is LIKE something we do know. But That can also be reduced further. Even what we think we do know is subject to debate, because the more we think we find out the more that seems not to make sense. Cells and organisms and molecules continue to get smaller and smaller the closer we look. And even if we isolate the smallest things, we view it through another object which is in turn viewed through our eyes, which after that signal is interpreted by our brain. Thus almost nothing is definable in the strictest terms in this very moment.
But this reduction, which may be helpful down the road in coming to complete peace, does not help us in stepping out of some of the delusions we have created for ourselves that cause us to not enjoy life. It also does not even help someone who is happy but clings to an illusion which must be broken from within before they can understand what is outside that bubble of illusion.
Thus, in my humble opinion I think it is important to work within terms and language that is relateable to people within their own frame of reference at this time. This includes using words like God. While we can know God in the absolute sense, only get glimpses at what God might be like, we can use this language to help people.
Then, as the person moves into a more positive state they will likely be more open to exploration of “truth”. Truth is an individual thing. As the Buddhist says : A finger ointing at the moon is not the moon (my wording may be off, I am just going from memory here). So we each need to find our own moment of clarity. People can only help others to get close to that clarity but ultimately clarity is indescribable. As soon as we try to describe it, or have a thought that we have found clarity we move out of that state. So language can be used to get us to the edge, but it can not take us over the edge. That must be done on a completely personal level.
So this article was meant to start people on a path, using language they understand, to realize that using even their current language and ideas, by tweaking them a little a profound change in levels of enjoyment in life can be attained.
I do believe “God” is everything, and therefore not a single word or single being in how we traditionally think of it. But if it helps to describe it as a single being, then I don’t see too much harm in it. Regardless of what we “liken” God to, I don’t believe It would want wars or death or harm to others in its name. For if It is everything, then everything is one and it does not make sense in our physical body to intentionally harm another (part of me, you, all).
It is interesting you mentioned the homosexuality. My numbers may be a little off, but homosexuality occurs in every society, regardless of views or religious views, about 10% of population. Thus you right, how can we judge something seemingly happens naturally in this world? It is also important to not that if you believe in reincarnation (or even if you don’t) just as much can be learned and gained from a life as a prostitute, a stripper, a waitress, a janitor even though commonly we only seem to think that those that are doctors, lawyers and people with good paying jobs have it right in life.