All of us have an idea of God. Even a convinced atheist has an idea of what he or she is denying to exist.
I think everyone shares the idea that God exceeds our imagination. But still, we have our thoughts and imagination; be it philosophical, emotional, in prayer.
Who would like to share?
At one point in my spiritual quest, I got into a very balanced, very even-keeled state of mind, and decluttered my ideas, as it were.
I wasn't looking for God as much as for anything dependable, or true, or timeless. Anything which would give me a point of reference. At that point, I did not care any more if it would turn out to be religious, or philosophical, or scientific, or artistic, as long as it was a basis for me to rest on.
So, decluttering, I threw out everything that did not measure up. If it was, as Thomas likes to put it, contingent, then it could not be IT.
In the end, nothing remained. Not even my consciousness which I used to perform this evaluation. I must have blanked out for a moment.
When my consciousness regrouped, and with it the knowledge that there is a universe to be conscious of, I felt completely satisfied that I had done everything that could be done with regards to this quest for a foundation, or ground, or source.
I don't deny any God. There is no point in denying what is so utterly incongruent with cognition, perception, consciousness, or existence.
I don't claim to have any mystical insight. Rather the opposite. There is nothing to know, nothing to see. So I moved on.
I find myself in this place full of fellow human beings, animals, plants, minerals, air, stars above - endless possibilities. Everything is just as it is, not otherwise, perfect in its evident presence.
And yet, I am able to conceive of what could be, what ought to be. I am able to perceive an ethical dimension to my humanity, a power to bring about change in conformity with what I understand to be right. It is a faculty of being able to look into the uncertainty of the future, into the as-yet unformed, into chaos, and to imagine order there.
This view of the future, with its orientation along ethical ideals, is a very dynamic, and changing, and conflicting mode of being, with regards to the present, which can never be other than what it already is.
This tension between the perfect current moment and the aching ethical pull of what ought to be, is the closest thing I know of to a ground or source or motor or reason for my being here.
The thing is, this ethical dilemma is such a deeply human experience, that I think you will all agree that it is nothing like what God could be said to be like. Hence, I call myself an Atheist.
Sorry for rambling. As others have noted in this thread, it is notoriously hard to express this kind of thing.
and everyone else's are lies. Convincing anyone of that here? Not happening. People don't come here unless they totally believe what they believe. But I am curious like I said.. my friend is JW and out of respect for each other we don't discuss our beliefs. I will ask her how she gets around her kids not having their birthday celebrated and she says they get gifts throughout the year and they aren't lacking like that. She's a wonderful mom and i love her to pieces!
