Suppose There Really Is A God

To begin, let's suppose there really is a God.

Or, to sharpen the point a bit more, let suppose there really is a world, a universe - "out there" - existing separately and independently of whatever my own personal experience - thoughts / feelings / beliefs / etc. - of it may be.

Allowing that there may be a reality, a something "out there," that is separate from my experience and beliefs is becoming an increasingly non-functioning concept in our current life. Watch or listen to almost any of the now legion talk shows, and you would be hard pressed to believe that NOTHING is real except what *I* personally think or feel or believe or experience. If *I* think it, then it is real and factual. It is certainly true to my experience.

However, if there really is a reality "out there," separate and independent of my experience of it, then my experience may in fact NOT be an accurate reflection of the thing as it actually is in itself.

For example, how long ago the earth came into being is a reality that exists quite independently of my beliefs about that. This is something about which everyone may have different personal opinions. But everyone may not have their own set of facts. The age at which the earth came into being is inherent to the earth and the universe. And unless we are prepared to give up on the idea that things exist separately and independently of our experience and beliefs about them, then we need to strive to make our experiences and beliefs be as accurate as possible - to be "true" to what is "real." This striving to be true to what is real is the great gift of modern scientific method to humanity. In my humble opinion, religions, at their best, also share this great gift - striving to be true an actual reality "out there."

Which brings me back to where I began: Let's suppose there really is a God. Because if there really is a God, then God exists separately and independently of our thoughts, feelings, experiences, and beliefs about God. My *ideas* about God, are *not* God. My experience of God is not God. My community's 4,000 years of teachings about God are not God. My strongly held core beliefs about God are not God.

Saying this can be something of a shock because I am saying that, for example, my community's 4,000 years of teachings about God may - or may not - be accurate; may, or may not, be true to what is real about God. In fact, given that my community's 4,000 years of teachings about science, medicine, children, women, sexual orientations, etc. have all not been fully true to what is real, I'm pretty sure that at least some of those same teachings have also not been true about the reality of God.

On the other hand, I am also saying that if there really is a God, then who God really is isn't changed just because some - or all - of my *ideas* about God were wrong. There is, I think, a tremendous freedom and relief in knowing that the reality of God doesn't depend on my ideas about God. Doesn't depend on my experiences of God.

If there really is a God, then God is completely free, separate and independent of my opinions, and it means then, that "God" is not merely and idea or a belief about God. It simply is not true we are all entitled to our beliefs about God. Well, yes, we are entitled to our own beliefs, we're just not entitled to say that all beliefs about God are equally valid. If there really is a God, then some ideas about God will be more accurate, more true to what is real about God. (And some ideas about God may in fact be dangerous and harmful.) I think we should be curious and conversational about our different beliefs and not murderous and conversional. And we should all be interested in discovering how to deepen the  truths of what we believe; to bring them into closer alignment with the actual reality of whatever is "out there."

So let's begin by assuming there really is a God.

Comments

[Mazarine]

If you suppose there really is a god, then how are you going to reach the atheists, the apatheists, etc?

Mazarine
http://wildwomanfundraising.com

Ps. Hero of Doom? nice title on Linkedin!

[David Ewart]

This post is the first of what I hope will be an on-going - though irratic - series of thoughts about the possible reality of God.

I'm not really trying to "reach" anyone - though I have my own faith community in mind as I write.

What this post is trying to argue is that there really is an actual, factual reality "out there" that is independant of our personal / cultural / historical conext.

And consequently, this "out there" reality calls all of our persoanl / cultural / historical opinions and beliefs into question - requires them to explain themselves; to account for their truth / their validity.

I think atheists, etc. would agree with this. It is a common ground we might begin with.

The tricky part - as always - is to have a civil conversation about what we BELIEVE (not KNOW) is "out there."

Thanks for writing - and for noticing my title. I kinda chuckled myself when the idea of it occurred to me.

[George]

Finally noticed this excellent question and it gets at the heart of faith - while we are all tempted by the idea of projection we know that our subjective experience does include an objective reality. Thus the question of God's ontology is crucial and not all theological constructs will help us bring the experience of God to consciousness. God is in the world and the world is in God and God is more than the world.