We has humans can never fully understand or appreciate God or the divine. Even by giving the divine a name (like God) limits our potential understanding of the great mystery.
As I have stated before, I believe in God but recently my understanding of God has grown. I see God as more than a simple male deity. God transcends gender and human comprehension. And as I have stated before, I believe that God, or the divine, has taken different forms for different peoples. Or to put it another way, different people have interpreted the divine in unique, yet amazingly similar, ways. In Hinduism the great divine sprit is Brahman. From Brahman was born the Hindu trinity of Brahma, the creator; Shiva, the destroyer; and Vishnu, the preserver. These deities are all aspects of the divine. In Buddhism the divine is found through the Buddha and Bodhisattvas. Jews, Christians, and Muslims all see the divine as the God of Abraham and through his messengers/prophets. Taoists experience the divine through the ebb and flow of the Tao.
According to Barbara Bradley Hagerty in an interview on the Diane Rehm Show, the brain activity of Buddhist Monks and Franciscan nuns when meditating is the same. This seems to me to be striking evidence that these individuals are taping into the same divine energy. If that is the case, then how does one reconcile the fact that the Buddhists and Franciscans are praying to different deities?
It is my opinion that they are not. I believe that, for the most part, all religions are pointing to the same place. They are different spokes in of a wheel that all meet in the center, and that center is what I call the divine. This is the energy, spirit, deity, or however you want to describe it, that created the universe and instilled in each one of us the general morals and ethics of humanity that are expressed in the religions of the world. From this stand point, my outlook is much closer to that of the pagans of antiquity because I have a holistic view of spirituality. What it boils dow to is there are many paths to salvation and you must find the one that is right for you.
It is entirely possible that I am wrong and I freely admit this. I'm humble enough to know that there is much in this world that I know nothing about and thus that my opinions could be incorrect. But this is what I feel in my heart and in my mind based on everything that I have studied and learned up to this point. Could this change in the future? Absolutely. We are ever growing as humans and thus ever learning, so there could come a time in the future where I learn something new that alters my outlook on spirituality and when that time comes I will embrace it. We're never too old to stop learning.
4 comments:
"recently my understanding of God has grown"...
Actually, I'd say your understanding of religion(s) has grown most certainly from your research, but as to anyone's understanding of "God"... it's relative to your belief or lack thereof.
But... would you agree that there is only One God (not multiple Gods) or no God(s) at all?
Yes?
If there is only one God then at least one religion is right and the others not so much... (unless there is no God at all) yes?
If there is no God at all... then none of this matters in the least does it... we will simply cease to exist when we die and there is no lesson, no battle between good and evil and no afterlife. What a cruel joke that would be.
And if there is a God, then it's really important to pick the right religion isn't it?
Another good set of questions Red. I’ll do my best to answer them for you.
“But... would you agree that there is only One God (not multiple Gods) or no God(s) at all?”
As I’ve said I believe that there is a divine spirit/energy/entity that created the universe. What exactly that divine entity is, we will never know for sure because it is beyond our comprehension.
“If there is only one God then at least one religion is right and the others not so much... (unless there is no God at all) yes?”
I think that is a misnomer. Religion is a human device. It is used to help us understand the nature of the divine and the universe.
“And if there is a God, then it's really important to pick the right religion isn't it?”
Each religion is a different interpretation of the divine. Because of that, it is my opinion that (for the most part) none of them are any more right or wrong then the others. There are things done in some religions that are horribly barbaric (Islam is a good example) that should not be tolerated and were born out of the environment from which that religion was developed. This is where religion though becomes more about power and less about the spirit. So in a way, I think the answer to your question is that people should worry more about being spiritual, ethical, and moral then they should about which specific religion they choose.
ahhh so it doesn't matter if you follow one God or another since there are no consequences for worshiping the wrong God, a false God, Satan himself, or no God at all.
No consequences for not believing you think?
The consequences come from one's actions and not the name that one gives to God.
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