On God

 

Do I believe in God?  Before I say No, I should clarify what God it is I am talking about.

The Hebrew God, the God of the Torah, makes Covenants, lays down Laws and is a rather angry, demanding and capricious chap.  He begins walking in the Garden with Adam, visits Abraham in the form of an Angel, wrestles with Jacob, talks with Moses, and speaks to the Prophets in their dreams.  That is, throughout human history he has removed himself further and further away from His grand creation, Mankind.

The Christian God, the God of the Gospels and the New Testament, is the God of Love and Forgiveness, and He is also the God of Eternal Damnation and imminent Doom.  And the God of two millennia of intolerance and bloodshed.  Not much of an improvement.

It seems that the Hebrew God can be talked with, reasoned with.  The Christian God is addressed in supplication.  Should I have to choose, I prefer the former, He is less perfect!  And while Christians revere the Book, Jews are the People of the Book; but Jews read other books too.

None of these Gods have much solid evidence to support their actual existence.  But then, isn't God's presence an article of Faith?  If we had scientific evidence of Him, we wouldn't need to have Faith in Him.

The God of Islam, Allah, seems as split as the God of the Jews and the God of the Christians, Muslims seem to enjoy killing one another (in addition to Christians and Jews) nearly as much as Christians.  As to the Gods of the East, of Tao, of Confucius, Buddha, Hindi, et al, these Gods seem, well, metaphorical and multiple.  Not at all like the hundreds of Monotheistic Gods of the West!

The real world tells me that God is a fiction that we humans have invented for our own comfort and solace.  We really don't like being alone in the dark.  But once we leave that fear behind, as we increase our understanding of our world, as we throw light on the dark, we seem to need Him less and less.  God is way easier to swallow than the complexities of scientific reality. 

On the other hand, atheist that I may be, I reserve for myself a SOUL, something in me that is more than the sum of my physical parts, more than atoms and molecules and DNA, and more than Nature and Nurture.  In the final analysis, against all evidence and reasoned belief, as my article of faith, I AM NOT A MACHINE!

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