GOD IS LOVE

There may be reason enough to reject a religion but that is not a reason to reject God; Because God is Love. It is unfortunate that some persons regard some religion or the concerned preacher in consideration as an authority on God and rejected God because of that. Such persons make another error when they refer to God, as this god or that god because there is Just one God.

In a recent response to Stephen Hawking elsewhere who claimed that God may exist but theology was not necessary to explain creation, that could take place spontaneously by laws of gravity and quantum theory. I agree fully with Stephen Hawking. Theology of the many types that goes around is not necessary to explain creation, but Gravity is, and as mentioned elsewhere in this blog more than once, Gravity is one of the manifestations of God that makes Him create the universe spontaneously.

There are many other manifestations of God. Another is love. Without the motherly love, one of the finest manifestations of God, with which creatures of various sorts care for their young, sustaining life and evolution would be impossible. More has been written about that in an earlier post – Love is the basis of Life.

Unnecessary Apprehensions regarding God

My last two posts mentioned about different types of persons based on their belief in God. Besides the clear distinction between those who believe in God or disbelieve in Him, there are also a very large number of undecided persons who may fluctuate in their belief or have not made up their mind on the issue.

One apprehension that some persons have in accepting belief in God is that it might imply missing out on some of the fun the material world has to offer – sex, money and fame etc. In my experience this is a completely erroneous assumption. If a person is avoiding belief in God because of this reason it is an unnecessary and misplaced apprehension. The reason for this is explained in the next paragraph.

Once a person comes closer to God and becomes more spiritual the abilities of a person are enhanced and therefore material and physical thing come more easily within his or her reach. It is true that the tastes and preferences of such persons begins to change so that they would much rather go for love than lust, much rather enjoy a sojourn in a beautiful garden or forest than a Disco or the shopping mall, choose a job with less money in a quite green town rather than one with more money in a bustling city, much rather go for peace than fame etc. And, even though they can much more easily find access to the satisfaction of lust than others, truly spiritual persons tend to shun that experience because it tends to draw them away from their spiritual joy that is much more longer lasting. However it does mean that a spiritual person is able to satisfy his or her urgent material and physical needs much more easily (and they do this whenever necessary) than another that is not spiritual thus enhancing peace, happiness and security.

It is not as if God stops seeing and making a note of our deeds and thoughts if we try to disbelieve in Him. Persons who choose to believe in God face another dilemma, what religion to join especially when shortcomings of various available religions have become apparent to them. In this last they could do what I have done – follow the example of the founders of all great religions – shun the existing temples and churches and become an independent theist. That is what I have done. No one church or temple has a monopoly on God. He (using He for convenience since God is beyond this human specification) belongs to all and everyone has an equal right on Him.

Photo Courtesy of http://www.public-domain-photos.com

Of God and gods

Theists believe that God exists. My view of God is that He is the Infinite power that sustains the universe and that everything that we can observe in the universe is a part of Him. His consciousness runs through everything - all life forms, the earth, stones, sky, trees, the sun, stars and everything else besides. As distinct from inanimate objects life forms posses a free will as well as their independent and distinct desires that are unique to each individual, different from each other and different from the desires of God. As a being becomes more and more spiritual there is a greater unity with the desires of the Universal consciousness and a greater divinity.

Besides God some religious humans have also worshipped other divine beings or gods from ancient times and every civilized part of the world has their own favorite gods such as the Mazu of Taiwan, Konohana Sakuya Hime of Japan, Siva, Lord Hanuman and Naini the Mother Goddess of India as well as countless other gods, goddesses, angels, devas and countless other divine beings from around the world.

The divine power that illuminates these numerous gods and goddesses is the single supreme consciousness of God or the Universe. Therefore when we worship an angel or god or goddess we are in effect only worshipping a facet of the One Single reality of the universe or God although not directly. We have these countless facets of God reflected in the innumerable gods and goddesses because God is infinite

It is not easily possible for many humans to depend directly on the Supreme God, possessing a form beyond comprehension or formless, at all times. As an infant, a human depends on his or her mother and thus depends upon the divinity or love every mother expresses for her infant child. As we grow up we may learn to depend on others including the angels, gods or goddesses that we become familiar with and learn to love. In my opinion this is all right as long as do not forget that the power behind all is the one single reality of the universe or God. I too have learnt to love some of the gods and goddesses and they have seen me through difficult times in life as well as provided some exhilarating experiences of joy. I do not fully understand the origin or reality of these gods just as I do not fully understand the reality of God, yet some of my prayers and gratefulness is directed to these gods and goddesses just as it is to the Universal Consciousness at all times.

The Independent Theist

At the present time our world has various types of people based on their religious beliefs or disbelief.

First there are the atheists who do not believe that there is any significant higher power in the world than that possessed by humans. There is another category of atheists that admit to the possibility that their might me more advanced life forms on other planets in the universe and these might be more powerful or intelligent but as such there is no God or gods. There are some atheists who do not believe in God or gods but affirm their faith in science. However many of these latter persons are themselves not scientists and do not have a complete understanding of science. As regards the scientists themselves many are firm believers in God.

Theists or those who are not atheists are of several types. First there are persons who belong to a religion, not just notionally because their parents belonged to that religion but who have themselves affirmed faith in that religion as adults. There are a variety of religions on our planet from the mainstream religions of the majority to the fringe religions of a minority. There are other theists who do not belong to any religion i.e. they believe in God or gods but do not conform or agree to everything in any one of the existing religions. They may however accept some parts of one or more religions and develop their own independent system of beliefs based on their personal experience and knowledge of different religions, philosophy and even science. These last may be called independent theists. I for one belong to this last category.

An independent theist is like an independent professional. He may rise to great heights in the practice of his or her profession or sink into virtual nothingness. Another professional who belongs to an organization has the support and safety of his or her organization. It is so with independent theists too. Freed from the shackles of an organized system of beliefs they may attain a profound understanding of the universe or they may sink into foolishness and ignorance.

There is an old saying in Buddhist literature (Dhammapada) as well as Christian one (the Ecclesiastes) that a fool is to that extent wise that he knows he is a fool but a fool who considers himself wise and his knowledge complete is indeed a fool. Independent theists must always be on guard that they do not sink into this last category. On the other hand a person belonging to an organized religion may suffer the erroneous beliefs of his religion or if he begins to disbelieve in some of them, while not walking out of his religion, may miss whatever spiritual benefit that faith or religion has to offer as well the spiritual benefits that an independent theist can acquire on his own.

Independent theists who attained great heights in their spiritual quests are the founders of religions that exist on our planet. In my opinion they had a far greater understanding of spiritual matters than those who came after them to form religious organizations or to interpret the words of the founder. That they made errors in this process is without doubt a certainty because if they did not they could not be human. By definition there is only one power or being in the universe that is completely error free and that is God.

The photo shows Colorful Tulips And Hyacinths by Petr Kratochvil from
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/

Afterword added on 7Th of November 2010

After writing this post entitled independent theist, I wondered what others may have thought on the subject and looked up the search terms ‘independent theism’ and ‘independent theist’ on google. Most results that turned up was of this blog post. It seems that terminology has not been used much. However another closely allied term was found called philosophical theism at wikepedia that meant nearly the same and the reader may regard the two as more or less the same and read more about it there. The definition at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_theism was

“ Philosophical theism is the belief that God exists (or must exist) independent of the teaching or revelation of any particular religion. It represents belief in a personal God entirely without doctrine. Some philosophical theists are persuaded of God's existence by philosophical arguments, while others consider themselves to have a religious faith that need not be, or could not be, supported by rational argument.”
And
“ Philosophical theists may accept arguments or observations about the existence of God advanced by theologians working in some religious tradition, but reject the tradition itself. (For example, a philosophical theist might believe certain Christian arguments about God while rejecting Christianity.) Philosophical theism conceives of nature as the result of purposive activity and so as an intelligible system open to human understanding, although possibly never completely understandable. It implies the belief that nature is ordered according to some sort of consistent plan and manifests a single purpose or intention, however incomprehensible or inexplicable.”

There are only minor differences between independent theism and philosophical theism and the changed statement as implied for independent theism in this blog is:
Independent theism is the belief that God exists (or must exist) independent of the teaching or revelation of any particular religion. It represents belief in one unique God of the universe. Some independent theists may be persuaded of God's existence by philosophical or scientific arguments, while others may consider themselves to have a religious faith that need not be supported by rational argument or tradition.
Independent theism may accept arguments or observations about the existence of God advanced by theologians working in some religious tradition , but reject all or part of the tradition itself or it may accept the possibility of existence of God through scientific insights of scientists. Independent theism conceives of nature and universe as the result of purposive activity and so as an intelligible system beyond full human understanding. It implies that nature is ordered according to some sort of consistent plan however incomprehensible or inexplicable. Independent theists are free to vary from this definition in its details since that is what independent theism implies - being free of any prescribed dogma or pre-existing definition while professing belief in God as the supreme intelligence and power behind the universe.