IS THERE A GOD?
AND, IF SO, WHAT IS GOD LIKE?
CONTENTS
Yes, it is possible...
The odds
What would God be like?
The cruelty of taking away the "protection" of God
God, indeed, could be within
The alternative meaning of God
Does the universe have intent
But what is here is, indeed, more than enough
Our task and the final irony
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YES, IT IS POSSIBLE
Is there a God? There is no proof, other than "there must be a God, because 'x' happened." However, there is no proof the other direction either, as not one can prove a "not" in this realm.
There could be a God.
And God could have created the "set up" that would have the elements produce a seemingly miraculous process of the creation of life and evolution into the incredible body and mind we have.
We as humans seek to explain the unexplainable and to believe that our explanations are the truth. That is natural and definitely explainable, as is covered in this site's The Believing Brain, from which you might want to buy the book. This is an essential understanding for all humans to have, if they are to live the lives they are capable of. It is, it seems to me, a necessity to do our own examination of what is true or not and to decide what is a positive, possibly valid (even if not proven) belief - and that means to screen out any distortions that limited human beings wrote into the literature, as some beliefs directly contradict what are proven valid beliefs and/or make people unduly dependent or unrealistic about life.
THE ODDS
There is a very high chance that there is no God entity that is conscious. And, of course, that also means there is some chance, some possibility, that there is some entity that is conscious and created the world.
But it is entirely illogical and nonsensical that God created the Universe. Of course, the argument is that there is no other way it could have been created so marvelously. But then the next logical question is "who created God?" Maybe his mother, but who created her.
It seems vastly more logical that there is no power that is conscious and can see all the universe at one time and hear all prayers at once. It is more logical that the concept of God is just a continuation of mankind's creating such things to explain what is otherwise explainable, though we have gotten more efficient in that we don't have the multiple gods of ancient times.
Along this same mode of thinking we "personify" many concepts, such as the "devil" or even the "ego". Then those personifications act like human beings with specific agendas and limitations ascribed to them. That's nonsense.
WHAT WOULD GOD BE LIKE?
He would have to be incredibly intelligent and aware that he would never be egotistical, never be angry or vengeful. He would also not create a game where we had to have faith in him, along with the accompanying non-revealing of himself.
He would have been so wise that he would have built into us lots of our own god power.
But even the original writings in the Kabbalah say that God was imperfect and that he made some mistakes, which is certainly more logical than "him" being perfect. But people say that there is much we do not understand or see. Just as we don't understand the concept of infinity and how it could exist, the argument is that we also are unable to grasp that there could be a perfect being. Yes, there are always "could" be anything, but that doesn't mean it is actually in existence nor justify the idea of such perfection existing.
However, perfection would be irrelevant if he was so powerful that he could create the universe and all beings in it. He certainly must have been one helluva time and productivity manager to do all of that
THE CRUELTY OF TAKING AWAY THE "PROTECTION" OF GOD
Yes, it does seem cruel to take away the great comfort of the idea of having a Father in Heaven or an Allah who will take care of us. While this is comforting, it does, however, support a continuation of the idea that we are dependent and still like children in some powerless ways - and that idea undermines one's power as a human being - so that makes it deleterious to living one's best life
However, if there was a God that was so intelligent that he could handle all the details of creating the world and making sure evolution happened right, then it would also make sense that, not being at all egotistical, that he placed "God power" in each of us.
The way out of the "cruelty" charge is to note the logic that we have the power within us that we can rely on to take care of ourselves given that we are blessed with such an incredibly abundant world that has plenty for us to harvest. We do not need a God to provide safety or what we are missing. We are fully capable ourselves.
When we "pray" we are simply praying to our own "god" inside or our intelligence unobfuscated with primitive mind crappola.
WHY DO INTELLIGENT PEOPLE BELIEVE IN GOD
Many smart men and women still believe in God, but "why?" It seems that, to the primitive brain, it is associated with the very essence of "survival". In the system, we get to go to heaven or continue in consciousness "out there". We don't want to, and have difficulty accepting, die, as that is "going out of existence". But, as the Buddha said, that is just a part of life, though he later added some kind of reincarnation thing.
Read the page on how death is acceptable and ok - Death.
Few people apply their higher reasoning powers to the question because of the resistance discussed in the prior paragraph (they don't want to disprove God!) and because of just plain lazy thinking. Whatever we leave up to the primitive brains remains in a vague, unthought out mode.
Of course, quite a few people do start to "doubt God", but they are told to have "faith." Ooooookay...
THE PROBLEM OF BEING DYSLEXIC
Dyslexics have an enigma that adds to the complexity of this philosophy, as they believe in "dog" and pet their "god."
This is serious and must, indeed, be dealt with promptly.
GOD, INDEED, COULD BE WITHIN
If God is more of a concept that means something like powerful and intelligent, then we certainly do have that within us. It is obscured by the automaticity of the primitive brains, misperceiving and sending out lots of signals that cause stress and are quite unintelligent.
So, we are merely accessing our own higher brain when we are "talking to God".
THE ALTERNATIVE MEANING OF GOD
Many people, I think, are using the term "God" figuratively. It could mean the wonderfulness of how the world works and how bodies and brains have been created. It could mean a "higher state of mind".
DOES THE "UNIVERSE" HAVE "INTENT"
"I will put it out there to the universe and it will bring it to me" and other statements like that, related to The Law Of Attraction and "The Secret". That's also wishful thinking as the universe is just a bunch of atoms with no real consciousness, operating in a physical balance that is rather marvelous - there is a reasoning in physics that validates that the universe must have some order in order to be able to exist - but that is a rather complicated discussion.
No more than there is a God out there, there is no conscious universe that has intention that one can influence.
BUT WHAT IS HERE IS, INDEED, MORE THAN ENOUGH
But that's fine, as we can rely on our own intention and consciousness to create all we want in a world that has far more resources than we could ever possibly utilize.
Indeed, abundance does clearly exists. Indeed, we have evolved into a miracle of a body, everything packed into a small space and operating with tiny computer equivalents and adjustable to changes and outside events. Indeed, we have evolved to have a seemingly miraculous and powerful brain, containing 70,000 times as much storage as a 500 GB computer and able to operate 1,000's of times faster. Indeed, it is a miracle that life ever evolved, in the sense of the odds of inanimate materials combining into an energy converting entity at all. Indeed, among all the creatures on earth, we are vastly, vastly more evolved and so fortunate to be at that level. Indeed, we are so incredibly blessed because of our inventions, such that we are so much better off than cavemen.
OUR TASK AND THE FINAL IRONY
Our only task is now to intelligently harvest all that, rather than create stress and lack amid abundance and blessings.
It is ironic, though understandable that we have not evolved that far yet, that we have so many fictional problems and so much stress when we are actually, in reality, so much better off.
If we get rid of the self-created problems, all that is left is to create what is good for us all in the long run - thriving, fulfilling ourselves, loving, and all the actual good, enduring stuff. Indeed, life is good. (Read Why Life Is Very Good and Why I Am Very Good.)
FURTHER READING, RESOURCES
I'd recommend reading the following book not just for the section on religion but also for understanding how we create beliefs and find non-existent patterns:
The Believing Brain, Michael Shermer: In chapter 8, "I have built a strong case that belief in a supernatural agent with intention is hardwired in our brains, and that the agent as God was created by humans and not vice versa." [I beg to differ on an error in his "facts", where he, in his book, suggests that we not believe in our explanation of the unexplainable as fact. It cannot be known that "a supernatural agent with intention is hardwired in our brains"! It might be, instead, that we are wired to survive and therefore we do what we can, even if we have to make it up, to feel safe and to have a sense of certainty so that we lessen our fear. Make sense?]
See the article on this: The Believing Brain.
RELATED
The Believing Brain -How we make up things and then believe them as truth
Religion - Structured Frameworks And Delivery Of Beliefs - Religion, while causing some harm, has provided a place to learn how to be good and live a good life, and to have a community.
More related to God
People fail to adequately define "God":
Does God Want Us To Self-Sacrifice To The Point Of Suffering Or Doing Harm To Ourselves? - Putting things into proportion, getting clear on this life altering factor.
Relevant - related to the same need
The need: to be happy.
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