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Before we can answer your question,
Do you believe in God?, you need to define what you mean
when you say "God." Are
you talking about a fickle, angry, jealous, vindictive, wrathful, vengeful, super-human being sitting on a cloud
somewhere? Are
you talking about a
god who (for reasons that
completely escape human understanding and with what seems like arbitrary
unpredictability) heaps great
good fortune onto some, horrendous misery onto others, and
pretty much ignores everyone else?
Are
you talking about a
god with an ego so great that he demands our worship and
a self-image so small that he demands our obedience -- a god
so weak that he needs our help to punish the unfaithful -- a
god so weird that he murdered his own son as an expression of love
-- a god so angry and unforgiving that he's still punishing people
today because a long dead ancestor ate fruit from a
forbidden tree -- a
god so small He can be found only inside of just your religion
-- a god
so ridiculous that he abandons and condemns to never-never
land literally billions of humans simply because they never
got sprinkled with or immersed in water what by the correct
holly man? If that's your definition of God, then
the answer is no. I don't believe anything
which fits the above description could possibly be God. I'd sooner believe
that the tooth fairy and the
Easter bunny were living in my attic and having an affair with
Miss America.
When
you ask, "Do you believe in God?" if you are
talking about the infinite source of creation that transcends our
understanding -- if you are
talking about the sum total of all that is --
the source of everything we are and everything we
experience -- if you are
talking about a
God that neither rewards nor punishes, but
rather
offers a set of seemingly
invisible laws
-- laws that are as immutable as the law of gravity, laws that we
each can intentionally use to create our own personal
experiences (or ignore at our own peril) -- a
"God" that we are each an eternal part of -- a
"God" that manifests itself in each of us as
whatever we choose by our thoughts, beliefs,
emotions, words, and actions -- a God that allows us
complete freedom to unconsciously create pain
and misery or to consciously create love, joy, and beauty in what we call the physical
world? If
that's your definition of God, then the answer is
"DEFINITELY YES,
I DO BELIEVE IN GOD!"
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