Faith is an interesting thing the humans have, the belief that some being of great power is watching over them...keeping track of their every move. This belief has affected many things, including art, society and politics... as if I had to tell you.
It is not that this belief goes without challenge. In fact, many people have argued against it. The picture of the early 20th century existentialist atheist comes to mind, bespectacled and whatnot. The whole "God is Dead" thing Nietzsche brought about during his time - basically saying that we have outgrown and no longer need it as a social drive as it existed - comes to mind. There are a lot of philosophers who weigh in on the conversation about the existence of God or the definition thereof.
So, what is God? The western concept presented is "something that which nothing can be greater," with the qualities of omnipotent, omnipresent, all benevolent, all knowing, yadayada. You know the guy - God. Okay... so this God creates a Universe, and in this universe is the existence of evil, which is a counter-principle to the all-benevolent God. Why does God not eradicate this evil with his righteous will?
Well, as it turns out, when God created this universe, he gave mankind and all sentient species possible the gift of Free Will. Because we choose to do evil, it is our will that creates the evil. Because God is all-benevolent, he will not destroy the life creating the Evil, but rather asks us to apologize and not do it again.
But, if God KNEW giving us free will would create something counter to its ultimate will, and cause suffering among those of its creation, then why did it give us free will? Why not remove the free will altogether to save us the pain of awareness and existence?
Because it needs our true love, not forced love.
Wait a minute...what? So, this God gave us free will so that we could choose to love it, knowing that it would cause suffering and harm to its creation through evil. This either negates the omnipotent aspect of the God, meaning that God needs a specific type of emotion to sustain itself, or the all-benevolent, meaning it would sacrifice its own creation's well-being to ensure its continued power. If the first is true, then there is something greater than God. If the second is true, then God is not all-benevolent...why worship?
In comes the eastern based notion - a change in the definition of God: "The sum of all things."
I think somewhere it was written that what is done to one of God's people is done to God. If the new definition applies, then it makes sense in a very different way than before, doesn't it. What about the one about gathering the flock together - makes a whole new meaning.
In this definition, the "sum of all things" would include good and bad. The image of the Yin-Yang comes to mind. But good and bad are subjective qualities - what could be good for one may be bad for another. Why would an omnipresent, omnipotent being even consider what is good and bad when it is beyond morality? It would not consider a hurricane bad if it was created to release pressure in the atmosphere to avoid a greater catastrophe later. The "sum of all things" sees beyond the here and now, where we exist. To attribute human conditions is to deny the very existence of the being itself. If God is "the sum of all things" then we are one collective cell of God in the greater picture of the universe at large.
The Hindu philosophy has two separate entities of the God - one in the self, giving us awareness, and one greater collective ocean thing. The one in the self is the Will of of God, the other being the source of all life. If one were to believe this notion, and apply the new definition, one would find that philosophical thought has us all being God's hands on earth. If we are the will of God, then the collective decisions made are most certainly decided by God. Everyone would be considered a small piece of God's greater puzzle.
But the Christian churches don't like this idea. They cling to the old hierarchies even when their own philosophies mesh so well with the new definition. The Holy Trinity is a perfect symbol of the correlating relationships - God the source, God in Humanity and God through All. Christ, if one might believe in his existence, spoke of freeing the self through God - to love God with all your heart. mind, body and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. Would God being the "sum of all things," not correlate to mean that loving your neighbor as yourself would be to love God with all your heart, mind, body and soul?
So, yeah, the God argument. It's a wonder that we waste our time as a human species trying avoid this possibly imaginary being's wrath when it could be a falsehood. Who knows? Personal experience is the only deciding factor. This is where the art is found, in our willingness to believe regardless of doubt: the hope of a doctor who prays God helps him/her find a treatment (using medical science which was once considered impeding the will of God) that will work for their patient, or the biogeneticist who loses a brother due to the lack of donors for a transplant and swears to God he will work on a safe way to clone human organs so no one else has to suffer.
In the end, it is our decision what we believe. I think what I think, as do you. No one is wrong, no one is right. Whosoever discovers the truth will not be around to speak it.
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