God. Whether one believes in "God" or doesn't, we talk a great deal about God. Atheists are as obsessed with talking about God as theologians are; in the sense, of either arguing for or against the existence of God. I have always thought the arguing against the existence of God makes one a theist as much as one who argues for the existence of God. It's simply a matter of having a negative or a positive opinion on the matter of God's existence.
I'm not convinced that believing or disbelieving in the existence of God is the real issue that people are arguing about. It seems to me that "God" is merely a term which is used to give identity to perceived and real problems related to theistic religion. Atheists and theologians, alike, are constantly addressing the problems that stem from theistic religion.
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When it comes to this word, "God," what are we talking about?
Are we talking about a "who" or are we talking about a "what?"
In theistic religion, God is understood as a "who;" a being that is a totally separate entity from other beings like us humans. This concept of God gives God a personality or sees God as a person one can relate to. This is the God of theistic religion, the God of theologians.
God as a "what" is a metaphorical expression rather than theological idea. In a scientific understanding 'God' is a force or is a term that can be used to describe the indescribable; as in, the"Theory of Everything," (TOE) the creative and governing essence behind all that is. In other words, God as a "what" is Einstein's God who doesn't play dice.
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That being said, there is another way to look at these two versions of God using biblical terminology. For instance the Holy Bible describes God as light and as love. God as light resonates not only with the God of theologians but also with the metaphorical "God" of science. This is the description of God as a "what," the mysterious creative energy born on light since the beginning of time that orders and brought everything that is into being and as the light of inspiration and revelation.
God as love is the description of God that answers "who," the emotive and relational God that humans throughout the centuries claim to relate to on a personal level, a God who understands our personal needs and to whom one can appeal. This is the God of religion, a God that stands apart from us humans yet watches over us and seeks a relationship with us. This is the God of the Book, the Bible, the Koran, and other ancient scriptures.
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God. I find myself uncomfortable with the term and have struggled with thinking if there is something better than the term itself. God is not a name. It is an attribute that defines the active source that creates and sustains all that is. I sometimes use Being or Being-ness to describe this creative being in which every being is a part of.
I like the description the Cretan prophet and poet, Epimenides, gave in his poem to Zeus, when he described Zeus as the "being in which we live move and have our being." This the description the apostle Paul later used in his defense to the Athenians in Acts 17. In a sense the answer to the questions of what God is and who God is the same, "Being" or "being."
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Astrophysics interests me. I'm increasingly inclined to see the term "God" as term used to describe the indescribable and inscrutable forces of the Cosmos that we seek to know. At best I'm a layperson who doesn't understand the mathematical language physicists work with, but I am able to grasp, minimally, some of what they are talking about when it comes to the macro and micro cosmos we are part of.
My first sense of such a world came to me one night while I was a student of what was then Concordia Senior College in Fr. Wayne Indiana, studying as pre-seminarian with the goal of becoming a Lutheran pastor. When I was supposed to be studying Greek and Hebrew, I was laying in bed thinking about the universe, how our solar system and our galaxy resembles the atomic world of the human body; that perhaps our lives are really a part of a much larger life that we call the Universe. At that point, I didn't know about quantum mechanics and only heard the term "relativity" without knowing what it meant.
I recall thinking about the linearity of time, a thought which seemed to come out of no where. I had no idea about the speed of light or it's connection to time. It was in that moment that God as a being in which our small world and our much smaller lives were part of struck me as a possibility but it was hard for me to escape the gravitational pull of the religion that held me in place for most of my life, Christianity. I believe this was the first time I was willing to intellectually entertain the idea that God was not an all powerful human-like being enthroned in a place called heaven with angels and archangels hovering around him. In that moment, ironically, God became truly immense. God became a universe or much bigger than the universe. As such God truly became beyond my ability to comprehend. I recall feeling very small at that moment and somewhat trapped by the immensity of it all.
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Being at an age when most people's religious beliefs become solidified, I find myself in a quite different mind frame. If anything, I'm skeptical about the long-held beliefs of my younger days; hence the title of my blog, The Faithful Agnostic. I'm more in line with Bertrand Russell's thinking who said, "I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong."
I still go to church, but the gravitational pull of dogmatic Christianity is considerably weak. While Christian theology has been an interest of mine for a long time, I don't place much credibility in it or in any other religion's theology or philosophy. Paradoxically, I'm comfortable with not knowing while remaining interested in finding out what there is to know. I have a lot more questions now that I'm getting old than when I was younger. Answers I come across generally result in more questions, and I'm quite comfortable with that.
Unlike some avid atheists or evangelists, I'm not at all interested in changing a believer's viewpoint of the God they believe in or don't believe in. I have friends who deeply believe in the concept of "God" they grew up with and grew old with. As I said at the beginning of this post, I don't see God as the problem as it is what religion does under the guise or in the name of God.
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In future posts, I will expand on some of the topics I have raised here about God and religion, in general.
Until next time, stay faithful.
Norm
