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What is God?
I'm told that God is unconditional love, but also a Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I am told that the bible has his word (along with other religious texts), and those words should be followed. I am also told that science has replaced God in modern society.
I am told that faith is a leap of believing something without actual proof. Yet, also, that without proof, we are idiots for following something blindly.
In my regular questioning of my own faith over the years, I've found comfort in the ways of my religion. I've found real community, and a guideline for at least a minimum of humanity in living, working, playing, and loving those around me.
Call it whatever you want, but I believe in God as the spirit that connects us to each other and to everything around us. I believe because I see God's existence behind the eyes of my wife and children. I see it in people as they help one another through crises. I see it in the way most people at least try to get along. I even see it in nature itself with it's wonderous mysteries that science still cannot explain (and in the things science hasn't even discovered yet). I even see it in the endless search in human beings for something bigger than ourselves. I see it even still in people choosing to get up again and again through pain and disappointment to ultimately win in their lives.
But what of the suffering? How could a benevolent God leave so many of the world's people starving, sick, homeless, committing suicide, drug addicted, parentless, grieving, poor, desolate, and all the rest. It is a dilemma. Is there some mysterious force called God that should be taking care of us?
Is the definition of God as Love an ideal we have created to define what we believe to embody what is good and pure? Are religious teachings about a God's unbreakable laws (and/or the spirit of those laws) and how they teach us to strive for perfection in how we handle our lives? (even though we KNOW we can never be perfect.)
God exists in...
I am told that the bible has his word (along with other religious texts), and those words should be followed. I am also told that science has replaced God in modern society.
I am told that faith is a leap of believing something without actual proof. Yet, also, that without proof, we are idiots for following something blindly.
In my regular questioning of my own faith over the years, I've found comfort in the ways of my religion. I've found real community, and a guideline for at least a minimum of humanity in living, working, playing, and loving those around me.
Call it whatever you want, but I believe in God as the spirit that connects us to each other and to everything around us. I believe because I see God's existence behind the eyes of my wife and children. I see it in people as they help one another through crises. I see it in the way most people at least try to get along. I even see it in nature itself with it's wonderous mysteries that science still cannot explain (and in the things science hasn't even discovered yet). I even see it in the endless search in human beings for something bigger than ourselves. I see it even still in people choosing to get up again and again through pain and disappointment to ultimately win in their lives.
But what of the suffering? How could a benevolent God leave so many of the world's people starving, sick, homeless, committing suicide, drug addicted, parentless, grieving, poor, desolate, and all the rest. It is a dilemma. Is there some mysterious force called God that should be taking care of us?
Is the definition of God as Love an ideal we have created to define what we believe to embody what is good and pure? Are religious teachings about a God's unbreakable laws (and/or the spirit of those laws) and how they teach us to strive for perfection in how we handle our lives? (even though we KNOW we can never be perfect.)
God exists in...
