Good Morning,
This week son Michael posted a photo he took of the Texas Sky. I found it not only beautiful in its colors and composition, but it also had that quality I refer to as “God Light”. I’m pretty sure we all, or at least most of us, have seen similar moments where the circumstances are just right and rays of sunlight, for just an instant, pierce through the clouds as if Gods countenance is shining down upon us. I tend to take them in with some reverence.
I think it is in our nature to want it to be that way. That we want a higher power to be there for us in our times of need, provide direction and help us sort order out of chaos in our daily foraging through this life. Since the beginning of intelligent man, we have had our God(s) in some form or another. It seems we have always needed them to explain the unexplainable and place our faith in acceptance of the things we cannot control or comprehend.
Some cultures have had, and still do today, many Gods to handle the responsibilities of the world around us. The Greeks had twelve Gods and Goddesses (The Olympians) but the number of smaller ones seemed endless. Hinduism had thirty-three (deities), eventually which expanded to 330 million, where virtually everything has God in it.
If I recall correctly many of the American Indian cultures believed that there were spirits in just about everything around us. In that belief, you would at least respect the world around you. Something many of our cultures today could us a bit more of I suspect.
So the majority of God based religions today appear to embrace the “One God” (Monotheism) belief even though we are still killing each other over who’s God is the “Right One”. Now that is something I have a hard time getting my arms around. If most of us agree that there is only One God, (Jews, Muslims, Christians) wouldn’t you think that would be the end of it? Logically would it not have to be the same God, maybe with just a different name?
If you kill me in the name of your God, am I martyred because I believed in my God and died with that belief? If you die while killing me, are you martyred because I didn’t believe in your God? If I don’t believe in your God, does that mean that your God doesn’t exist and if you don’t believe in mine, does that mean that mine doesn’t exist? Or…are we both wrong and we should be Hindu? I’m just sayin’.
Personally, I believe that everyone should believe in something and a higher power can be a good thing as it provides reason and answers for the
unexplainable. As humans we need that in our lives when so many things are unpredictable.
What I do not believe is that we have to kill each other to strengthen our own philosophies. Are we that unsure about them, that we have to eliminate anyone that disagrees with us, just to prove we are right? Why cannot we let God sort that out after we die of our own natural causes? Anyway, that is the way I see it.
I have been around long enough to realize that there are a multitude of things I do not understand and probably do not possess the ability to ever comprehend. It only takes a five-minute gaze up into the night sky for me to realize that.
So what do I believe? I believe there is one God for all; that we should respect all living things, as we respect ourselves and that I’m not going to kill you, if you do not agree with me. It really should be simple; if there is indeed a God… then there is a spirit world, so then I must have a soul. How it is dealt with in the end, well… we all know that is up to the individual interpretation of the ages. Why make it more complicated unless your goal is to control me?
Love, Dad
Footnote: I know that some of you are very religious and hold strong to your beliefs. I, in no way wish to change that, nor suggest or cajole you to where you would see things from my perspective. These are my thoughts alone, things that I deal with and what I have chosen to share. I am still searching, as you may have guessed and will undoubtedly continue this quest until I leave this world of tears.
Photo of Texas Sky by: Michael Long
Photo of God Light: It is all over the web and I have no idea who took it.