Believe it or not?

 

 

Belief in Gods and faith in God

 

Believe it or not?

 

We might think that we can divide all human beings into two groups: those who believe in God and those who do not. Often in conversations, one person will ask another, “Do you believe in God?” and receive a simple yes or no.

 

But that way of thinking obscures the vast complication of the question.

 

 For “God” means many things to many people. There is the highest Hindu god, Brahma, who resides far from the realm of human thought, beyond light and darkness, beyond good and evil. There is Zeus, the king of the Greek gods, who gets jealous and angry, commits adultery and tosses lightning bolts at people. There is Aristotle’s Prime Mover, the first cause of everything, who nevertheless does not know or love anything on the earth. There is the God of pantheists like Plotinus, Spinoza, and Hegel, who are identical to the world and the world to him.

 

 There is the God of deists like Lord Herbert, who thinks that God made the world run according to natural laws and never interfered with it again. To some, God is a benevolent grandfather figure or grandmother whose love excludes any kind of punishment or discipline. To some, God is a blessing disperse-r who gives people everything they want as long as they pray with enough faith. To still others, God is a cosmic policeman who stands ready to pounce on anyone who makes a moral mistake.

Then there are the gods of the amateur theologians, the ones who say, “Yes, I believe in God,” and immediately follow that with, “My God is like this,” or “My God would never do that.” 

Clearly, it is not the case that all these “gods” are different names of one being. These “gods” are vastly different. Also we can similarly dismiss the common comment that “under the surface, all religions are the same.” Worshiping Aristotle’s Prime Mover is clearly distinct from worshiping Baal or Aphrodite.

 Consider an accomplished, many Oscar-awarded Actor or singer like Taylor Swift. Such are often worshiped as deities or gods. Then there are the sex goddesses of the New Age kind. What of the survivor–gods and money- gods or power or fame? Clearly they are worshiped as gods. Then there is the god of science and technology. Or the universe which many contend acts like a god.

But who is your ultimate god and have you heard of the “one true God?”