The problem with the concept of God
The problem with the concept of God– is exactly that– man's concept of Him. There is nothing wrong with God, it is the concept of God that has a problem. We see the reflection of that in various religions. I do not know enough about the God ascribed to by the vaster majority of religions, for me to speak of that, but what I can do is bring to light the concept of the Judeo-Christian God, as well as Allah, the God of the Muslims, and Zeus, the Hellenistic God.
To the Jews, God is primarily the God of the Jews. Every once in a while, you will meet very open-minded religious Jews who believe that all may come to the banqueting table of God, but then even those individuals still have that innermost belief they hold, that the Jews are the righteous race, above all other races. Which brings us to the Christians who also worship the God of the Torah (although New Testament is already now accepted and included); Christians, at least the devout and well-studied ones, secretly wish that they were Jews, because if they were, that would mean that they too are "chosen ones", highly favoured above all others! So this is the flow of thought here, I hope that you are all following easily. Now when we visit the concept of the Muslims, I believe it is more open compared to the Judeo-based beliefs, just because of the fact that Muslims really do want everyone to come and become Muslims, to "see the light", therefore, everyone is welcome! But then there is that twist– in many cases, it is a forced welcome (generally, they actively want people to become Muslims and know Allah), but on the other hand, isn't that not very far from the concept that Christians have (Christians also actively pursue people into becoming Christians). The means varies, but there is a common/shared goal!
I do not have an extreme amount of head knowledge regarding Hellenistic religion, but of what I do know, I am impressed in the sense that the Greeks may have acknowledged that their gods were the gods of all mankind and not just the Greeks, which is something unique and not often the case as we can see from what we've already discussed above. I do believe that to some extent, their gods were primarily Greek (they do live on Oros Olympos, or in modern-day times, have originated from there as souls), but there seems to be a slightly significant acknowledgment of the existence of other races and peoples. For one example, we can see in the Bible (the Christian sacred text) that it was the Greeks who came from afar to listen to Jesus' teachings! So obviously, they were aware of a world reaching further than their own borders, and were humble enough to seek wisdom from someone of a different race, actually traveling to that country in order to find him! Definitely in those times, the Greeks were worshipping their gods of Mt. Olympus, nevertheless, they saw with their own eyes that truth expanded beyond that, and possessed humble and willing hearts. Moreover, I know not of any stories about Greeks invading other lands, mass murdering civilians while demanding that the inhabitants worship Zeus (unlike the Catholics, Protestants and the Muslims).
The concept of God, is greatly flawed, in the perception that God is inherently more active in a single race of people, or within a single church or group of people. When is God the God of everyone that He created? Because that makes sense to me, really. If God were only the God of the Jews, then why did He create every other race on the planet? If God were only the God of the Muslims, then why did He create Jews? If God were only the God of the Christians, then why would he make the Greeks and the Celts and the Africans? If there is supposed to be only one kind of us, then why are there so many kinds of us? You know, it is a simple question, unfortunately it is one which is not often seen! And when you don't see a question, you don't ask it! When you can't ask a question, you don't find the answer to it! There are many kinds of us, because there are supposed to be many kinds of us. There are many religions, because people need to relate to God on a personal level, and it's difficult to relate to God on a personal level, when you are also thinking that He belongs just as much to everybody else who is different from you, as He belongs to you!
I believe that there is a truth which can be found, in many different places! There are answers that can be found, in diverse places! The Greeks have a truth, the Jews have a truth, the Muslims have a truth, the Celts had a truth (in some places, still have a truth), the Christians have a truth, the Buddhists have a truth... Everyone picked up a different part of the truth, and while observing it's beauty in the palm of their hand, was convinced that there could be no other like it, out there! The fact is, each piece was a piece broken off from the great big, beautiful mother-of-pearl shell that shattered and fell to the earth! I think I read something about that, somewhere, a long time ago. I'm not so sure and can't remember where or how, but the faint memory of discovering and realizing that, is in my mind.
So why would God not give the entire truth to a single group of people? Oh, probably because if He did, we wouldn't reach out anymore! We would cease to exist, because we would already have the entire answer! The reason why we exist and grow and multiply and continue on, is because we are still searching, we are still learning, we are still becoming better! Becoming better is an eternal process! You could spend a thousand years becoming better, and there would still be even more better to become (and that is a beautiful thought.) If God gave the whole shell to one nation/ one people, then why would everybody else be there, anyway? As onlookers? As collateral damage? Decorations? Just like we have different colors of skin, different colors of hair and eyes– we have different truths buried within us! The perfection comes when we all raise up our own piece of the shell into the sky, to be united with everyone else's, and we see, that it all comes together in a gigantic pattern! It's not that your piece of the shell is right or wrong, its just that it's not the whole shell. There's more, and we can put it all together! And the only way that we can put it all together, is by raising our hands as one!
Copyright © 2012 C. JoyBell C. All rights reserved.
To the Jews, God is primarily the God of the Jews. Every once in a while, you will meet very open-minded religious Jews who believe that all may come to the banqueting table of God, but then even those individuals still have that innermost belief they hold, that the Jews are the righteous race, above all other races. Which brings us to the Christians who also worship the God of the Torah (although New Testament is already now accepted and included); Christians, at least the devout and well-studied ones, secretly wish that they were Jews, because if they were, that would mean that they too are "chosen ones", highly favoured above all others! So this is the flow of thought here, I hope that you are all following easily. Now when we visit the concept of the Muslims, I believe it is more open compared to the Judeo-based beliefs, just because of the fact that Muslims really do want everyone to come and become Muslims, to "see the light", therefore, everyone is welcome! But then there is that twist– in many cases, it is a forced welcome (generally, they actively want people to become Muslims and know Allah), but on the other hand, isn't that not very far from the concept that Christians have (Christians also actively pursue people into becoming Christians). The means varies, but there is a common/shared goal!
I do not have an extreme amount of head knowledge regarding Hellenistic religion, but of what I do know, I am impressed in the sense that the Greeks may have acknowledged that their gods were the gods of all mankind and not just the Greeks, which is something unique and not often the case as we can see from what we've already discussed above. I do believe that to some extent, their gods were primarily Greek (they do live on Oros Olympos, or in modern-day times, have originated from there as souls), but there seems to be a slightly significant acknowledgment of the existence of other races and peoples. For one example, we can see in the Bible (the Christian sacred text) that it was the Greeks who came from afar to listen to Jesus' teachings! So obviously, they were aware of a world reaching further than their own borders, and were humble enough to seek wisdom from someone of a different race, actually traveling to that country in order to find him! Definitely in those times, the Greeks were worshipping their gods of Mt. Olympus, nevertheless, they saw with their own eyes that truth expanded beyond that, and possessed humble and willing hearts. Moreover, I know not of any stories about Greeks invading other lands, mass murdering civilians while demanding that the inhabitants worship Zeus (unlike the Catholics, Protestants and the Muslims).
The concept of God, is greatly flawed, in the perception that God is inherently more active in a single race of people, or within a single church or group of people. When is God the God of everyone that He created? Because that makes sense to me, really. If God were only the God of the Jews, then why did He create every other race on the planet? If God were only the God of the Muslims, then why did He create Jews? If God were only the God of the Christians, then why would he make the Greeks and the Celts and the Africans? If there is supposed to be only one kind of us, then why are there so many kinds of us? You know, it is a simple question, unfortunately it is one which is not often seen! And when you don't see a question, you don't ask it! When you can't ask a question, you don't find the answer to it! There are many kinds of us, because there are supposed to be many kinds of us. There are many religions, because people need to relate to God on a personal level, and it's difficult to relate to God on a personal level, when you are also thinking that He belongs just as much to everybody else who is different from you, as He belongs to you!
I believe that there is a truth which can be found, in many different places! There are answers that can be found, in diverse places! The Greeks have a truth, the Jews have a truth, the Muslims have a truth, the Celts had a truth (in some places, still have a truth), the Christians have a truth, the Buddhists have a truth... Everyone picked up a different part of the truth, and while observing it's beauty in the palm of their hand, was convinced that there could be no other like it, out there! The fact is, each piece was a piece broken off from the great big, beautiful mother-of-pearl shell that shattered and fell to the earth! I think I read something about that, somewhere, a long time ago. I'm not so sure and can't remember where or how, but the faint memory of discovering and realizing that, is in my mind.
So why would God not give the entire truth to a single group of people? Oh, probably because if He did, we wouldn't reach out anymore! We would cease to exist, because we would already have the entire answer! The reason why we exist and grow and multiply and continue on, is because we are still searching, we are still learning, we are still becoming better! Becoming better is an eternal process! You could spend a thousand years becoming better, and there would still be even more better to become (and that is a beautiful thought.) If God gave the whole shell to one nation/ one people, then why would everybody else be there, anyway? As onlookers? As collateral damage? Decorations? Just like we have different colors of skin, different colors of hair and eyes– we have different truths buried within us! The perfection comes when we all raise up our own piece of the shell into the sky, to be united with everyone else's, and we see, that it all comes together in a gigantic pattern! It's not that your piece of the shell is right or wrong, its just that it's not the whole shell. There's more, and we can put it all together! And the only way that we can put it all together, is by raising our hands as one!
Copyright © 2012 C. JoyBell C. All rights reserved.
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