God or the Divine: Part of Your Picture?
Many people have a worldview that includes belief in God or the divine. This allows believers to see the kind of world they want to see, and often for truly wonderful reasons.
Recently an uncle of mine died. He was very conscientious about going to church. His wife of fifty-plus years had died ten years earlier. He believed that she was in heaven and wanted to be as certain as possible that he’d go there too because he wanted to be with her again.
His belief that he was likely heading her way was a comfort to him as he lay dying from cancer. Religious and spiritual beliefs tell people that life really is the way they’d like it to be after all.
The Secret to God’s Popularity
Think of Jesus. Apart from belief in a resurrection that revealed him as Savior, it’s hard to imagine people coming to worship him. Jesus is worshipped as the bringer of salvation.
More broadly, the same can be said of the idea of God. God makes the world a hospitable place in the eyes of believers. A God who was no more than a finite higher intelligence without the power to preserve and fulfill the lives of believers wouldn’t be God – wouldn’t be an object of worship and couldn’t be an object of faith.
Past lives, special energies, nirvana… Human beings have a long history of telling and believing narratives that present the full story of the world as including divine forces that uphold us.
What’s Your Story?
If your worldview includes belief in God or the divine, how do you think it would affect you if you were to stop believing?
If you don’t believe in God or the divine, what perspective do you have on life’s joys and losses? Would you like to believe, or are you happy with your outlook?
Thoughts Prompted by Your Comments
Person A fervently believes in God and God’s forgiveness and leads a life of moral depravity. Person B is an adamant atheist and is thoughtful, kind, and contributes to the lives of others.
What primary meaning do you give to the concept of “religious” or “spiritual?”
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Please note – Declining computer time due to disease progression means having to focus on getting posts done. Much as I enjoy it, at this point I can’t reply to all or even most comments, but will certainly read them all and at times may take direction from them for upcoming posts.
Hope you’ll continue to participate with your insights and observations, and I’ll comment as time allows.
Recently an uncle of mine died. He was very conscientious about going to church. His wife of fifty-plus years had died ten years earlier. He believed that she was in heaven and wanted to be as certain as possible that he’d go there too because he wanted to be with her again.
His belief that he was likely heading her way was a comfort to him as he lay dying from cancer. Religious and spiritual beliefs tell people that life really is the way they’d like it to be after all.
The Secret to God’s Popularity
Think of Jesus. Apart from belief in a resurrection that revealed him as Savior, it’s hard to imagine people coming to worship him. Jesus is worshipped as the bringer of salvation.
More broadly, the same can be said of the idea of God. God makes the world a hospitable place in the eyes of believers. A God who was no more than a finite higher intelligence without the power to preserve and fulfill the lives of believers wouldn’t be God – wouldn’t be an object of worship and couldn’t be an object of faith.
Past lives, special energies, nirvana… Human beings have a long history of telling and believing narratives that present the full story of the world as including divine forces that uphold us.
What’s Your Story?
If your worldview includes belief in God or the divine, how do you think it would affect you if you were to stop believing?
If you don’t believe in God or the divine, what perspective do you have on life’s joys and losses? Would you like to believe, or are you happy with your outlook?
Thoughts Prompted by Your Comments
Person A fervently believes in God and God’s forgiveness and leads a life of moral depravity. Person B is an adamant atheist and is thoughtful, kind, and contributes to the lives of others.
What primary meaning do you give to the concept of “religious” or “spiritual?”
###
Please note – Declining computer time due to disease progression means having to focus on getting posts done. Much as I enjoy it, at this point I can’t reply to all or even most comments, but will certainly read them all and at times may take direction from them for upcoming posts.
Hope you’ll continue to participate with your insights and observations, and I’ll comment as time allows.
Posted by Paul at 1:58 PM Permalink
17 Comments:
I have no difficulty in others, who obviously get a great deal of comfort from religious or psychic belief, having such beliefs. What irks me is when they say that they are right and that I too must be governed by their belief. Well, no, that is definitely not part of my picture.
But to your broader Q: I take life's losses as they come. There is no rule or law that says life is meant to be fair, so sometimes the losses are unfathomable but, happily, the joys are always of my own making.
“God makes the world a hospitable place in the eyes of believers.” In a way, this is the crux of it, but you appear to have adopted a prosaically sceptical attitude, in the way you have written about it, in this piece. Only you will know why, or perhaps it will be revealed in subsequent essays.
What I have observed of “believers”, if we must use this word, is that God speaks to them and that is why they believe.
Now when I say “God speaks to them”, I am saying it in their terms, not mine. What I would say is that the God-belief makes sense of their experience - which is that on some level, everything is OK. I seem to recall that you have said this too, probably in your book?
In past centuries, as I know from both British and European history, particularly the medieval, you had no choice but to be a Christian in a Christian country, unless you had a strong army, because heretics who made a noise about it were routinely killed. And if did have a strong army, you would be a king, and you would want to be a Christian anyway, because then you could invoke the “divine right of kings” as a way of getting respect other than slaughtering your challengers.
Today, though, with certain exceptions, we are free to believe in God or not, without disadvantage either way. I take it that lip-service and superstition are much less prevalent than in the Middle Ages.
I think it is apparent, if we look dispassionately at the matter, that people have a natural religious feeling, inclined to pray for help and give thanks for mercies; and inclined to share their sense of divine presence in their lives, with others.
Some attribute it to God. Some don’t believe in God and the whole set of religious beliefs, being either simpler or more complicated in their life-illusions.
I think the key to all this is “life-illusion”. We all interpret life one way or another, perhaps clinging fast to a belief, perhaps letting experience change our model of what’s happening. I don’t really care what life-illusion people have. If it makes them violent, then of course I want to stay safe, but apart from that, let them be whatever way they want.
“How do you think it would affect you if you were to stop believing?” In general I avoid believing in anything, but inevitably I have my own life-illusion, which is fed and reinforced daily by experience: that everything is fine, that I don’t matter much, because I am just a part of the whole, that I best serve God by being me and enjoying this life whatever it throws at me, that I feel very happy about using the word God without believing in God in the way that others might. I’m getting older, I don’t fear death, but it wouldn’t be much fun to be victim of a progressive disease and almost immobile; but I wouldn’t know if I could handle it till it happens. God bless you Paul, and all who come here.
but apparently some times its the words of my athiest father that takes me through....Its all in God's scheme of things, I believe
btw, again long, really long since i came this way...my prayers and thoughts remain, Paul...be well :)
best wishes,
devika
all the sayings.. 'good will come to those who wait' and 'for a better good', etc., seems like a ready answer to anything that we cannot answer.
in other words, to stop from losing 'faith', i have stopped questioning, and just live from day to day, trying, as you say, to hang on.
believing in something, or god, is like a clutch. if i believe in nothing, i might get all suicidal. not that i already am not. eek.
What sort of truth?
Is this a belief?
As for a perspective on losses, they are what they are. One gets through them by acknowledging them, accepting them, and moving on. There are no shortcuts through pain. One endures. As for joys - they often double simply by being grateful.
Vishesh, how do you decided whether a thing done by an other is silly or not??
Doing aarti, paad pooja etc is something i find the most silly in worship...Can i say those who do are being silly??
And believe me -- if I go to a temple, i myself participate in all that wholeheartedly.....I can't even call myself silly for doing that..Thats the norm of the place :)
I would like to know a context that you are talking about :)
wishes,
devika
Today we suffer because we do not understand what God is/ the use of religion...We have terrorists who blow up lives and disrupt economies, we have God men making money out of poor people and we have many people(especially women) being denied even the most basic of human rights in the name of religion/God.
Again coming back to aarti etc, I do not do pujas as such, because I do not believe in idol worship, but others in my house do do it..In case of the aarti, when done in the proper way, it tries to show the presence of light and the exact movement which is followed in meditation..idols were created by Vyasa to help people meditate(reason being as the society developed people had less time to concentrate on meditation)..They symbolize many things and to be used as cues..
Hope this clarifies what I call silly...
those are terrible violences....when you said 'silly things' with a smile...it sounded like something 'seriously'
silly :))
rest-- meditation, worship even God, its all a personal choice as you too say :)
wishes
devika
PS: Paul, this has a become a platform for reader to reader communication...hope you don't mind :)
Hinduism is much politicised as Hindutwa today..but, yes it could make for an interesting study....i myself wish to take it up...but then its now only the lay reading i do :)
wishes,
devika
Very interesting article you wrote and an awesome discussion by all here who have contributed too.
I used to be religious and then I "woke up" as I say, and now I am spiritual. (Maybe this would go better on your previous post)
But anyway, what would happen if I stopped believing in everything that I have come to believe, minus the religion - well it has made life pretty darn amazing, so amazing in fact that I do consider this heaven. I believe we make it what we want to make it.
So if I stopped believing all that I do, I don't think it would be the beautiful place that I see it as today. I definitely don't ever want to impose my beliefs on others, but at the same time, I would like to keep the beliefs I have. Of course with growth and the potential for change always in mind. If I get stuck in beliefs, than to me that would be like going back to a religion - and I just wouldn't want to do that anymore.
I'm 58, and for 44 years I was an agnostic or atheist (starting age 12). I wanted to believe for many years, but did not. Rational thinking ruled me. Once I became an atheist it was easier, I no longer looked for god/spirit.
then I was pushed into my current shamanic explorations, and what I see and feel in those adventures is quite unlike what I'd once hoped to 'believe' in, and quite unlike any real concept of spirit I'd had before.
it's difficult to think I'm making things up when I see things that are beyond my prior imaginings. It's difficult to feel delusional when others confirm healings. It's difficult to feel delusional when I ask for help and receive it, against all odds! The experience itself is sometimes frightening, but more often is a feeling of formless love and care.
bodies are real. but not eternal.
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