"God is Light"
1John 1:5
One of the most intriguing descriptions of God is the statement, "God is light." It is clear that in the context this statement was made in the first letter of John, light connotes a sense of God's right-knowing or righteousness: God is righteous and is the light to a lost people. People who seek or see the light are right-knowing or righteous as opposed to those who do not seek or see the light and lack the knowledge of what is right, who are considered unrighteous and remain in the darkness of sin. That's all good and well and a generalization of what John's use of light means here, but I am going to rip this statement from it contextual setting to examine the statement, "God is light" by using light as a direct simile for God rather than a metaphorical description of righteousness.
My reason for doing this is to once again consider the being of God or ways of conceptualizing God. God as light brings to mind the nature of light. In Quantum mechanics light can be viewed in two distinct ways. Light can be understood as a wave and light can be understood as a particle. The distinguishing factor is dependent on the question one asks. God may very well be like light in this regard.
In one of my earlier posts, I described God as a verb, as BEING. In that post I quoted Psalm 46:4-5. In this psalm there is a description of the City of God. In the midst of the City is a flowing stream, God. This psalm depicts God as a stream, or we could say a light wave. In that post, the wave-like nature of God is explored.(See God is a Verb)
THE PARTICULARED GOD
In this post, I will consider the particle-like nature of God. The likelihood is that most theists will have no difficulty understanding God's particle-like nature. Unlike quantum mechanic's determinant factor regarding light's property being based on the type of question one asks, whether God is viewed as as a wave or particle is determined whether one is asking a question about or of God. Once questioned, God instantly becomes a thing, individualized, a distinct other. In essence God is treated as particle, the creative factor by which all things came into being. As a particle, God stands outside of the created universe. As a wave, all that is, the entire cosmos is permeated with God. All things are in God and God flows; gives being to all that is. As a wave, God is ever-changing, ever-emerging.
As a particle, God appears beyond the entirety of the cosmos, as a constant, unchanging other. It is God as particle that most find accessible. The God-nature that is prayed to is by far more likely to be understood as the particle nature of God. Worship and prayer is evidence of this religious preference of a particulared God. Worship and prayer requires directionality. Even in spiritual religions; such as, Native American religion, prayer is literally directional, to all four geographical locations to ensure that the flow of the Great Spirit is encountered. Even in monotheistic religions like Judaism and Islam prayer is directional.
The particulared God has a direction, has a place; such as, heaven or as in the religions of antiquity where the gods were believed to occupy mountaintops or other geographical locations or had sacred places assigned to them. Over time the particulared God became internalized, residing in the heart or minds of the believer. Even this more spiritual understanding of God as present in multiple locales at one time remains the particulared God, acting as certain identical particles in quantum mechanics do, working in tandem at different, extremely distant locales in the universe at the same time, without having any apparent connection or reason for doing so.
The particulared God, is the personal God many monotheists envision. While this may be nothing more than a version of directionality and the need to provide an identity, the personage of God is essential in any act of prayer or worship. The intuition in monotheism that God cannot be turned into a concrete image, an idol, does not eliminate the particulared God. I feel that it is the particulared God that atheists struggle with most.
Even if one does not believe in God, it becomes difficult to not imagine God. I feel what most atheists and theists give little consideration to is the wave- like nature of God, which I will identify as the radiated God.
THE RADIATED GOD
As mentioned above, I have already discussed this topic in my post,"GOD IS A VERB." The wave-like property of God is so pervasive, so permeating that it cannot be adequately described or quantified. The very existence of the cosmos is so intertwined with IS-NESS of God that one cannot discern one from the other. The radiated God is ever-changing and ever-emerging, just as the universe is ever-changing and ever-emerging. The radiated God flows through and is present in everything that is. We radiate God in our being or, perhaps better said, God radiates through our being. Our being radiates the very BEING known as God. In us resides both the particulared and radiated God; the image and light of God. The radiated nature of God is the embracing aspect of God; that Being in which we live, move,and have our being (Acts 17:28), and the particulared nature of God is that aspect of God that can be embraced as the divine other.
GOD IS LIFE
God is both a particle and a wave; both particulared and radiated. Seeing a distinction between the particulared and radiant aspects of God is merely a matter of the question being asked about God. The radiant nature of God cannot be fully comprehended apart from all that is. In reality the distinction between these two perspectives of God is just that, a matter of perspective. It is the questioned God that is revealed as the particulared image of God. The radiant God is the unimagined God that permeates all that is. Yet God is one, the singularity from which all that is emerged and will emerge.
If God is light, then God is life. Biology will tell us that light is a necessity for life to emerge. Even those life forms that seemingly live in utter darkness are dependent on the life force generated by light. Theism gets this. Realizing that science has little or no use for the God concept as a way of explaining life and the universe, it is, ironically, the God concept that science is attempting to discover in its exploration of life and light.
Whether scientists would identify or recognize this as a goal of scientific exploration and research, is irrelevant. The work of science is vital to understanding who we are, the universe, and helps us to understand that God is light.
Until next time, stay faithful.
My reason for doing this is to once again consider the being of God or ways of conceptualizing God. God as light brings to mind the nature of light. In Quantum mechanics light can be viewed in two distinct ways. Light can be understood as a wave and light can be understood as a particle. The distinguishing factor is dependent on the question one asks. God may very well be like light in this regard.
In one of my earlier posts, I described God as a verb, as BEING. In that post I quoted Psalm 46:4-5. In this psalm there is a description of the City of God. In the midst of the City is a flowing stream, God. This psalm depicts God as a stream, or we could say a light wave. In that post, the wave-like nature of God is explored.(See God is a Verb)
THE PARTICULARED GOD
In this post, I will consider the particle-like nature of God. The likelihood is that most theists will have no difficulty understanding God's particle-like nature. Unlike quantum mechanic's determinant factor regarding light's property being based on the type of question one asks, whether God is viewed as as a wave or particle is determined whether one is asking a question about or of God. Once questioned, God instantly becomes a thing, individualized, a distinct other. In essence God is treated as particle, the creative factor by which all things came into being. As a particle, God stands outside of the created universe. As a wave, all that is, the entire cosmos is permeated with God. All things are in God and God flows; gives being to all that is. As a wave, God is ever-changing, ever-emerging.
As a particle, God appears beyond the entirety of the cosmos, as a constant, unchanging other. It is God as particle that most find accessible. The God-nature that is prayed to is by far more likely to be understood as the particle nature of God. Worship and prayer is evidence of this religious preference of a particulared God. Worship and prayer requires directionality. Even in spiritual religions; such as, Native American religion, prayer is literally directional, to all four geographical locations to ensure that the flow of the Great Spirit is encountered. Even in monotheistic religions like Judaism and Islam prayer is directional.
The particulared God has a direction, has a place; such as, heaven or as in the religions of antiquity where the gods were believed to occupy mountaintops or other geographical locations or had sacred places assigned to them. Over time the particulared God became internalized, residing in the heart or minds of the believer. Even this more spiritual understanding of God as present in multiple locales at one time remains the particulared God, acting as certain identical particles in quantum mechanics do, working in tandem at different, extremely distant locales in the universe at the same time, without having any apparent connection or reason for doing so.
The particulared God, is the personal God many monotheists envision. While this may be nothing more than a version of directionality and the need to provide an identity, the personage of God is essential in any act of prayer or worship. The intuition in monotheism that God cannot be turned into a concrete image, an idol, does not eliminate the particulared God. I feel that it is the particulared God that atheists struggle with most.
Even if one does not believe in God, it becomes difficult to not imagine God. I feel what most atheists and theists give little consideration to is the wave- like nature of God, which I will identify as the radiated God.
THE RADIATED GOD
As mentioned above, I have already discussed this topic in my post,"GOD IS A VERB." The wave-like property of God is so pervasive, so permeating that it cannot be adequately described or quantified. The very existence of the cosmos is so intertwined with IS-NESS of God that one cannot discern one from the other. The radiated God is ever-changing and ever-emerging, just as the universe is ever-changing and ever-emerging. The radiated God flows through and is present in everything that is. We radiate God in our being or, perhaps better said, God radiates through our being. Our being radiates the very BEING known as God. In us resides both the particulared and radiated God; the image and light of God. The radiated nature of God is the embracing aspect of God; that Being in which we live, move,and have our being (Acts 17:28), and the particulared nature of God is that aspect of God that can be embraced as the divine other.
GOD IS LIFE
God is both a particle and a wave; both particulared and radiated. Seeing a distinction between the particulared and radiant aspects of God is merely a matter of the question being asked about God. The radiant nature of God cannot be fully comprehended apart from all that is. In reality the distinction between these two perspectives of God is just that, a matter of perspective. It is the questioned God that is revealed as the particulared image of God. The radiant God is the unimagined God that permeates all that is. Yet God is one, the singularity from which all that is emerged and will emerge.
If God is light, then God is life. Biology will tell us that light is a necessity for life to emerge. Even those life forms that seemingly live in utter darkness are dependent on the life force generated by light. Theism gets this. Realizing that science has little or no use for the God concept as a way of explaining life and the universe, it is, ironically, the God concept that science is attempting to discover in its exploration of life and light.
Whether scientists would identify or recognize this as a goal of scientific exploration and research, is irrelevant. The work of science is vital to understanding who we are, the universe, and helps us to understand that God is light.
Until next time, stay faithful.
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