And what about "God"?
(Do we need it?)
Hi friends,
First of all, I love you! What a rare gift to find this kind of inspiration in the comments section. After we discussed the present moment, many of you shared what spirituality means to you. Through poetry and profundity, I noticed a binary among your responses: spirituality as relationship with a higher power versus simply that which is beyond the material. These definitions are not mutually exclusive, of course, though the apparent divide calls up a fresh question: What about “God”?
This week, I’m wondering: Do we need “God” to create a common sense conversation about spirituality, or are we better off rejecting the word altogether? (If you’re in the mood to share a longer answer than that one: What does “God” mean to you, and how has your relationship with the term changed over time?)
As an atheist, I have to excuse myself from this topic. 🙂
The desire to believe in God is understandable. We wake up on this planet as orphans, at least with respect to the idea of God. It's natural to imagine a loving Father in heaven who is watching over us. For reasons we don't understand, he had to abandon us, but will be returning soon. Some religions even furnish a Mother in the equation.
I once heard a story, actually something David Letterman mentioned. He referred to babies in an orphanage nursery in Russia, where the little cribs could be seen gently rocking with no one attending them. The babies were rocking themselves for comfort, recreating the sensation of being in the womb.
That story always brings tears to my eyes. But it's also a profound illustration of the determination of the human spirit to find a way, to endure, to make it through any adversity.
My feeling is that we are nothing more than extraordinarily complex chemistry. "Complex" is an understatement. But that's about it.
The closest I come to believing there is something beyond the physical world is in the realm of quantum physics. That world is full of mystery and uncertainty. It makes me question almost everything I think I know to be true... or untrue.
I don't believe in god. I was in 5th grade when I learned about the Holocaust and asked my deeply religious father how god could allow six million Jews to be annihilated and he had no answer and was disgusted that I even asked the question. That closed the door on believing in god.