Articles - God
Who or what is God?
| Who by Him do believe in God, that
raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith
and hope might be in God. (1 Pet. 1:21) |
Ever since I can remember, I have
pondered that same question and it wasn't until my son died that
I really wanted to know. As a result, I started asking myself
questions, like -
* Is God a person, and if so, where
is He?
* Does He exist today, or is He
some pre-fabricated idea that each culture hands down from generation
to generation?
* Is God a He?
* Is God a Spirit - you know, like
the Bible says - "... and the Spirit of God moved across
the waters ...", if God is a Spirit, what does that Spirit
look like? Can we see said same with the naked eye? Can we feel
God near us?"
OMG (pardon the pun), where on earth
was I going to find the answers to those questions?
Let's start with the bible -
Genesis
1:2 - And the earth was without
form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And
the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
1 Corinthians 2:10 - But
God hath revealed [them] unto us by his Spirit: for
the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
What does The Bhagavad Gita say?
Lord Sri Krsna is speaking to His
dear friend Arjuna:
I am the taste of water,
the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om
in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability
of man. (BG: 7.8)
I am the original fragrance
of the earth, and I am the heat in fire. I am the life
of all that lives, and I am the penances of all ascetics.
(BG: 7.9)
I am the original seed
of all existences, the intelligence of the intelligent, and
the prowess of all powerful men. (BG: 7.10)
I am the strength of the
strong, devoid of passion and desire. I am sex life which
is not contrary to religious principles. (BG: 7.11)
What do Buddhists believe?
We don't believe in a god because
we believe in humanity. We believe that each human being is precious
and important, that all have the potential to develop into a Buddha
- a perfected human being.
We believe that humans can outgrow
ignorance and irrationality and see things as they really are. We
believe that hatred, anger, spite and jealousy can be replaced by
love, patience, generosity and kindness.
We believe that all this is within
the grasp of each person if they make the effort, guided and supported
by fellow Buddhists and inspired by the example of the Buddha.
As the Buddha says:
"No one saves us but ourselves,
No one can and no one may."
We ourselves must walk the path,
but Buddhas clearly show the way.
Dp. 165 (http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/qanda03.htm)
And Science?
* “This most beautiful system
of the sun, planets and comets, could only proceed from the counsel
and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.”- Isaac
Newton (“General Scholium,” in Mathematical Principles
of Natural Philosophy, Isaac Newton. 1687)
* Probably the leading paleontologist
alive today, Simon Conway Morris, the scientist who discovered the
significance of the Cambrian explosion of animal life, writes in
his seminal book, Life’s Solutions, that he is “convinced”
that nature’s success in the lottery of life has “metaphysical
implications.”
* “I find it quite improbable
that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing
principle. God to me is a mystery but is the explanation for the
miracle of existence, why there is something instead of nothing.”-
Alan Sandage (winner of the Crawford prize in astronomy)
* "As a man who has devoted
his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of
matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this
much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists
only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to
vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together.
We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and
intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.”-
Max Planck (founder of the quantum theory and one of the most
important physicists of the twentieth century)
* “Astronomy
leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of
nothing, one with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly
the conditions required to permit life, and one which has an underlying
(one might say ‘supernatural’) plan.” - Arno Penzias
(Nobel prize in physics) Margenau, H and R.A. Varghese, ed. 1992.
Cosmos, Bios, and Theos. La Salle, IL, Open Court, p. 83.
* “There is a wide measure
of agreement which, on the physical side of science approaches almost
unanimity, that the stream of knowledge is heading towards a non-mechanical
reality; the universe begins to look more like a great thought than
a great machine. Mind no longer appears as an accidental intruder
into the realm of matter. We are beginning to suspect that we ought
rather to hail mind as the creator and governor of the realm of
matter—not of course our individual minds, but the mind in
which the atoms out of which our individual minds have grown, exist
as thoughts.”- Sir James Jeans knighted mathematician, physicist
and astronomer who helped develop our understanding of the evolution
of stars, wrote this in his book The Mysterious Universe (Cambridge,
1931).
Hmmm - interesting :).
Both Buddhism and Scientology do
not believe in God, but they do purport an energy force of some
kind; and according to the bible, God is a Spirit - a ghost-like
figure - an energy force with no physical body; and Lord Krsna is
telling me that He is NOT the physical, but the energy behind the
physical.
I, then, personally believe in God
and all the many different concepts that people have of Him (some
of which are mentioned above). It is okay to have an idealism because
at the end of the day, that idealism will help us to aspire to a
higher vibration and in doing so, we reach a 'truth' - our truth!
Peace and Light
Amelia
Robinson
www.myspiritualuniverse.com
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