Religious and spiritual
teachings are one of the nine categories of
evidence that we each are indestructible
spiritual beings,
timeless souls,
deathless beings manifestations of energy.
A discussion of the
nature of God is obviously important for
this topic.
In the past, God was
often depicted as a big bearded man sitting
on a throne in the sky somewhere. He--for
no female
deity could imaginably
do such things to her children--was busy
smiting and consigning souls to heaven or
hell for eternity.
Much collective
evidence indicates that this is not an
accurate portrayal of the Divine. Humanity's
spiritual growth has suffered for too long
by making God in our image instead of
realizing we were made in God's image as
beings of Spirit.
In theology school, God
was defined as the highest power of which we
can conceive. The greatest image of God is
that of
love, peace, justice,
energy, beauty, wisdom, power--the Life
Force behind all creation.
Joseph Campbell,
brilliant scholar, author, and interpreter
of sacred traditions, states in "An Open
Life": "The divine lives
within you . . . the
separateness that is apparent in the
phenomenal world is secondary. Beyond, and
behind, and within, and supporting that
world is an unseen but experienced unity and
identity in us all."
These descriptions of
God are, needless to say, quite different
from those that many of us were taught at an
early age. Do the
words 'wrathful,
judging, and fearsome' sound familiar? Some
denominations still teach about a God of
unfathomable love and then, in the next
instant, warn that this same God will send
us to, or allow us to choose, a fiery hell
for eternity.
Can you say
'schizophrenia'?
We need to reconsider
our notions about God, to refute half-truths
and mistruths that we were taught in the
guise of truth. When we do, we discover an
all loving, all powerful, and all knowing
Spirit
that is all and is in
all. That includes inside and all around
you and me.
(excerpts from "Soul
Proof" by Dr. Mark Pitstick)
