Do you know how we’re told to have an unshakable belief in God?
Well, a lot of the time I do. Oh I genuinely do. The spirit shaking, deep conviction, teary-eyed type of belief, the works, basically.
And then sometimes I just don’t — at least not in the way I’ve been taught and cajoled and persuaded that I ought to.
Lol.
You see, instead of that deep religious conviction, what I tend to have in these moments is an acknowledgment of the existence of a superior, incredibly powerful force.
This force must have triggered life as we know it but isn’t ‘God’ in the purely religious sense we’re familiar with — rather I choose think of this force as a form of pure energy, completely unemotional and removed from our ideas of right and wrong. Only knowing what it wants and moving towards it with us humans (and our tiny little planet) as pawns (distractions/baubles??) on the way to its ultimate goal(s).
This force also has to be removed from our concept of time, seeing as what we understand time to be implies a beginning and an end — for what is a beginning if there is no commensurate end?
If the force is moving towards a goal(s), then it has to be along a plane of reference that we couldn’t possibly have any understanding or comprehension of.
Lord, I’m beginning to ramble now, aren’t I?
Well, maybe this simple illustration will help.
Us, humans, are three-dimensional beings and live in a three dimensional plane of existence: length, breadth and depth (at least as far as we can perceive).
Now, we are capable of creating, let’s say, two-dimensional fictional characters within a story on a two-dimensional plane (length and breadth).
What is to say that every time we engage in said activity, we are not perceived as a form of ‘god’ to these characters and that they do not have some form of awareness of our power over them (world building, story rewrites and retcons, birthing and killing of characters, etc), but obviously couldn’t comprehend completely the nature of our existence?
Make any sense??
If your answer is yes, then good!
Returning to my initial argument, one could say that the story writer (God) is in a sense towards a predetermined goal (concluding the story? — G.R.R. Martin, I’m staring squarely at you) on a plane of reference that the two-dimensional characters created in the story can’t possibly comprehend or understand as they cannot know the complexities and intentions of their creator?
In this light, as authors of our stories, we assume a god-like role over the products of our imagination. These characters, gain some form of sentience that you have unwittingly granted them by creating and furthering their stories in their own realm, and they exist and evolve through the depth and direction we impart.
This then raises a thought-provoking question: could our reality be similarly orchestrated? Are we just mere characters in some elaborate ‘story’, governed by a being or force that is completely unaffected by our desires or our ideals of good/evil, whose motives transcend our understanding of morality and existence and who just pushing its ‘story’ to its desired (or perhaps, expected) end??
See it now? Yes?? Good!
So, what then becomes the foundation of belief? Is it the acknowledgment of a grand designer, indifferent to human notions of morality, or something else entirely?
The way I see it, God is not ‘good’ or ‘evil’ by any standard by which we judge or determine said ideals. God just IS.
But that’s just me. This is not just a philosophical query for the reader but a personal journey of discovery. Your belief, your understanding of this cosmic narrative, is yours to determine.
What do I believe more in then? What do you believe in??
You decide!
