You may think this is a stupid question, but have you ever wondered why you think there is a God? I have, and my answer to myself is likely to be similar to yours —I was taught it by my parents and teachers in school. But just where did our parents and teachers come up with such an idea? Most likely, the same places as we did. But where did the idea come from in the first place? But also, there are some people who don’t think there is a God. Have you never wondered how that can be? As a small child who had been taught about God, I couldn’t imagine anyone not believing in God — nonbelievers had to be bad, evil people who would be condemned to hell forever — a terrifying thought — I felt so sad for them.
But then I wondered where information about God came from in the first place, and sure enough, I discovered it came from priests and preachers who had learned about it from the Bible and were ‘duty bound’ to tell us all about it. I didn’t question that bible information as a small child but, when I reached age twelve to fourteen on and began to learn something of the history of Greek and Roman gods, as well as the many diverse religions in the world, I began to wonder how and why that could be.
Of course, being raised in a strict Roman Catholic tradition which overtly professed to be the only ‘true religion which worshiped the only true God’, I was amazed that there could be so many bad people in the world. My ambivalence toward them contained a mixture of distrust of them and, simultaneously, sorrow for their wayward ways— they were all likely to go to hell or, at least, have a much harder time getting into heaven than we Catholics would.
It was about that age when I began noticing possible ‘cracks in the armor’ of my own religion. I had been taught that, when we prayed to God asking him for favors, he would answer our prayers. But what I observed was the complete opposite — he never answered a single prayer that either I, or our parish combined, asked for. It was so obvious and hurtful that I felt compelled to ask my parish priest why that was. He told me straight out ‘it was God’s Will”. I determined right that moment that my religion and likely all religions were ‘barking up the wrong tree’— God’s Will could not be changed. I didn’t know why but I determined right that moment to find out.
It took sixty-five years, but I did find out, and I discovered who the real God is. The God I discovered is a perfect Rational Being, not a wishy-washy, willy-nilly myth who could, not only be bargained with, but also could change his mind on a whim and give you a resounding thrashing for offending him. My God is perfect in all respects which means he cannot possibly change anything he has created. Neither can he change himself — no entity which is perfect can be changed. If it could, it would not have been perfect in the first instance and, certainly would not be perfect any more.
The implications of that understanding are staggering, not the least of which is the fact that ‘physical miracles,’ as depicted in the bible, are a pure impossibility and represent the mythical thinking of the ignorant, superstitious, and likely, biased people who compiled and rewrote the bible thereafter ad nauseum. We have absolutely no way of knowing what the original writings said — they could have, but not likely, given a correct assessment of God and events.
Those who formed the first official Christian religion were obviously ‘hell-bent’ on making their preconceived mythical ideas of a Messiah who would restore paradise just for them come true. So, it seems obvious to me that literally all their stories about Jesus’ resurrection, ascension, and expected ‘second coming’ are ‘fairy tales — God’s perfection demands it — physical miracles are an impossibility. A common expression among people is, ‘God can do all things.” That sounds good to the unsuspecting, but the truth is far different. God can do absolutely nothing that he has not already done, and, furthermore, that ‘something’ which he did 13.8 billion years ago was to release his Perfect Rationality in the form of perfect particles of energy known as quanta (plural of quantum) into our universe. He set the wheels of change into motion, and time began. Those are the ‘scientific’ facts.
So, the big question is, ‘why do we have a God anyway?’ All through recorded history, every group of people worldwide has recognized a higher power than themselves who controlled and influenced events in their lives. Some recognized gods in celestial bodies. Others saw god in other natural entities such a water, wind, etc. All, noting that both good and bad things happened in their lives, attributed those events to their imagined higher powers. So, they did the obvious thing. Since they had both good and bad happen in their lives, they assumed that god was responsible for both —pleasing god brought good things and displeasing him meant trouble. Most, then, came to the same conclusion —their god (s) needed appeasement —he needed his ‘feathers smoothed’ — sacrificial religion was invented.
It is noteworthy that a respectable percentage of people do not accept the concept of a God. Also, it is noteworthy that no one can prove or disprove the existence of a God, but since I have defined the essence of such a God as ‘a Perfect Rational Being,’ I am demonstrating both a scientifically and philosophically sound basis for God’s existence— I still can’t prove it.
What I can show, however, is that there exists a perfect rationality which pervades our entire universe. That perfect rationality when ‘boiled down to its basics’ means that every event that has ever occurred or ever will occur in this universe always yields perfect consequences for its given set of inciting circumstances. If that were not the case, nothing could be predictable or trustworthy.
Our universe is so large that no human mind can visualize it in one scene — we have no yardstick. However, we are able to observe the same perfection everywhere we look. Therefore, we are allowed and even mandated to recognize that the entire universe operates under the mandate of a perfect truth system — there is no truth in this universe outside that perfect system.
Since I have defined God’s essence as Perfect Rationality and that Perfect rationality coincides with the observable Perfect Truth System in our universe, I believe it is not only allowed but also mandated that we accept a concept of God. Our God, however, is a far cry from the picky god presented in the bible — that god was wishy-washy who constantly changed his mind, whereas the God of our universe is perfect, stable, unchanging, and unchangeable. The biblical god is human-like because he represents the mythical imagination of his creators — human beings —beings which the ‘real perfect God’ allowed to come into existence.
So, certain conclusions should be obvious. Any and all religions which imagine that they can influence God in any way are both illogical and illegitimate. I do not know with certainty the details of other great world religion such as Buddhism and Hinduism but, as a cursory insight might dictate, I believe they are more contemplative in an attempt to understand the nature and desires of their gods, Buddha and Brahma. In contrast, the Abrahamic religions are in the business of appeasing and influencing their god— both for purposes of gaining favors and escaping wrath — their god can be really mean. Not only that, but there are at least 33,000 different versions of the Christian’s god, at least two versions of Allah, and an unknown number of Jewish gods —several to say the least.
So, why do we have atheists? I don’t know anyone’s specific reason but, I suspect many have observed the conglomerate of gods and their associated admirers and have concluded those gods to be fairy tales — on that point, they are correct. Likely however, they are not familiar with our Perfect Rational God who has no mandates except that everything shall perform perfectly in this universe. That God needs no appeasement and makes no demands other than Perfect Truth. He accepts everything as it is because he is in everything and everything is in him.
From a human aspect, I believe it would do us good if we would recognize God’s presence in everything and express our gratitude to God for our lives, our sustenance, and our eternal life in him. I also believe that recognition would bring us closer to the capability of honoring Jesus’ command to love both our God and our neighbor. All other animal groups seem to understand that and have structured, ordered existences— we call that instinct — I wonder what they really know and understand about God.
I am fully aware that what I have just said cuts through the heartstrings of ‘devout people who have been led to believe they can influence God’ — truth seems to always hurt. However, it is truth which liberates. By liberating, I mean, just as Jesus did, ‘pulling from you that terrible blanket of guilt, imposed originally by irrational religion for purposes of control, but which ultimately transformed into power and money. Dr Martin Luther King said it best, “The truth will set you free”.
Many of you know I have expounded and expanded that philosophy in my little books WILDERNESS Cry, Peace In Spirituality, and Provocative Catholic. In addition, I have published a semi-historical, semi-autobiographical book, Growing up In Fancy farm Kentucky. All are available Amazon-Kindle and from me, handg@comcast.net.
All comments or questions appreciated and will be answered if requested.
Buddhaism Christianity Eternity Faith Future of Christianity God God's Will gods Hilary L Hunt MD Hinduism HolyGhost Holy Spirit Islam Islam Christianity Jesus Judaism Judaism Buddhism Money Philosophy Power Religion religions salvation Science The Trinity
WILDERNESS CRY by Hilary L Hunt MD 