My God and Your God Aren’t The Same And We Are Both Right
“God” is one of those names that ignites the entire spectrum of emotions and conversations. From the superficial to the theological, it generates all kinds of reactions and debates.
- Is it a He or a She?
- Is it Personal or Not?
- Does it even exist?
- Is there one or more?
- Which religion is right?
As the 1st entry of The Seeking Catholic, I deem it necessary to express what I think about God, up until now.
This is my way of setting the foundation for future conversations and sharing my perspective not to persuade or declare righteousness, but for you to know more about me.
I – Whatever you believe about God, You Are Right, But I’m Right, Too
To be clear, I believe in God. The question is: which one?
I say “which one?” because the more I read, study, and talk to others about it, the more I notice we all have different opinions about it.
No matter how educated someone is about God, there’s always disagreement about something.
These differences of opinion are present among religions and within each of them. Everyone has an opinion and everyone wants to be right. From the atheist to the most fervent believers, there’s constant chatter about who’s right and who’s wrong.
Rather than entering the debate, I choose to ask a better question: does it truly matter whose God is the right one?
When I started my journey as a believer, at 17 years old, I would have argued that it matters. Today, I don’t think it does.
Yes, I could argue that a certain religion, like Roman Catholicism, is the original Christian faith, but plenty of monotheistic religions existed before it.
What I see is that what matters for a life of joy is if your beliefs about God are serving you for the better or not.
It only takes a moment to look at the major monotheistic religions to notice that there are good and bad followers in all of them. But something is clear, the good followers appear to have a very pleasant life regardless of which version of God they follow and the circumstances they live in.
So, my question to you is: how is your version of God working for you?
I claim that we are both right because I have come to see that our beliefs are bound to our version of the world. They are conclusions derived from our perception of the world around us and our interpretation of life’s experiences.
You may have heard about God but if you have nothing hinting at His existence in your life, or you have zero interest to find out, there’s no reason for you to believe in Him.
Side note: I have attached a masculine gender to God out of habit and for simplicity of communication.
I believe that if I were to experience your life exactly as you have, and had the same patterns of thinking, I would have reached the same conclusions about God as you.
All this may sound like semantics, but it is not to me.
What I am pointing to here is two concepts:
- What you believe about God creates your reality
- If your version of God serves you well, who am I to argue with it?
I’ll expand on these two concepts in future entries. For now, I share four key things I believe about God.
II – The God I Believe In
My view of God is heavily influenced by my Roman Catholic upbringing. That said, I probably don’t follow the Catholic descriptions to the letter.
Today, I share some of the core beliefs I have about God.
- There’s only one
- He is always present and all-knowing
- He is pure energy with masculine and feminine expressions
- Always for creation and expansion versus limitation and contraction
1. There’s Only One
My upbringing influenced this idea but, the short answer is: it’s challenging enough to believe there’s a god, why get into believing there’s more than one?
What’s the longer answer?
Humans are hierarchical creatures. Believing in One all-encompassing Creator makes the most sense.
This implies that I’m a believer in a Grand Overall Designer instead of the universe being a result of random chance and the Law of Large Numbers.
To use an imperfect analogy, I visualize God as the head designer and owner of a video game called “The Universe.” He may have a team but there’s no one else above Him.
The game is open world and self-sufficient. Everything in it is bound by the game’s rules. If the Designer decides to intervene in the unfolding of events, He acts through existing elements in The Universe and available rules of the game.
Since He is the head designer, He can see everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen because the code tracks it all.
The Designer is also not bound by the rules of the game because He is outside of it. He may have an avatar inside the game but the Designer himself isn’t bound by the Laws of Time and Space of The Universe.
Since the game is self-sufficient, the characters in the game are free to do as they please while bound by the rules of the game.
In my view of the world, I am a member of The Universe.
2. All-Knowing, Always Present, All-Powerful
These are characteristics mentioned throughout time which I think are a logical conclusion of #1. A creator with limitations doesn’t make sense.
Granted, it all relies on my belief in a Grand Overall Designer. A belief that can be debated to no end.
That’s not why I’m writing this post. I’m sharing how I view it…nothing less, nothing more.
A game designer isn’t part of the game itself. Since the rules of the game don’t apply to Him, He can see what’s happening, be everywhere, create an avatar of his in the game, etc.
Many objections can be made about this idea, but the most common one I see is “why doesn’t He intervene directly?”
I have pondered this question and noticed that I have also enjoyed creating something and stepped back to see how it all plays out.
We can see the effects of over-protective parents on children. We can see examples of amazingly positive things that come from adversity.
Just because someone has the power doesn’t mean they have to use it all the time.
There’s always a bigger picture at play. God keep that in perspective.
3. Pure Energy With Masculine & Feminine Expressions
This subject is one of passionate discourse. Many have taken the approach of fighting against the “He” by calling God a “She.” Others get into the sexism debate and claim that the only reason God is a “He” is due to the writing about Him being from a Patriarch society.
The Bible refers to God in the masculine. The teachings of The Church have always referred to God The Father.
I step away from the gender debate and take a more spiritual view.
Whether you want to use He, She, It, or Them, is not a concern of mine because those are probably words used to describe the expressions of God in the world.
As far as I’m concerned, calling The Creator “Father” makes sense to the human mind because of how we think an ideal father should be. It’s not about patriarchy, although the influence of the society at the time is undeniable, but about what humanity expects a Creator to be for us.
I compare it to how we expect a father to be with his children. There are common expectations across cultures.
- Protection
- Guidance
- Provision
- Foundation of the family
I venture to say that we perceive God’s expressions as fatherly most often.
On the other hand, there are situations where God acts with more of a “motherly” touch:
- Compassion
- Comfort
- Caring
- Nurturing
The way I see it, God is pure energy. It doesn’t have a gender because it’s not of this world but, whenever it interacts, it is through the rules of this universe.
Hence, we are bound to experience it through the concepts and feelings we know. We fit our words to describe it. It’s only natural to attribute male or female characteristics to it because we don’t have anything better to use.
God’s presence is felt not talked or thought about. It’s more about feelings than logic. Words aren’t sufficient to describe Him.
We can only do our best.
This is a nice transition to my last point for today.
4. Expansion & Creations Not Limitation & Contraction
This is a conversation on its own but I’ll keep it short.
Over the years I have concluded that the things of God are for expansion and positive creation.
This is not necessarily about feeling good and pleasure.
To me, the things of God give me a sense of expansion and creation of greater things even when I have no idea how to do them or do them wrongly in the beginning.
In contrast, earthly or ego-driven things seem to generate stress and a sense of obligation or restriction.
In both cases, the outcome can be good or bad, but the internal experience is not the same. On one side, there’s peace and excitement regardless of the circumstances. On the other, there’s a need to trick or force yourself to do it.
In my experience, the things of God many times don’t make sense but FEEL right. Whether I follow through with them or not is a different conversation.
Maybe, this idea won’t make sense to many, and that’s okay. What I know is that we all have a moment in which we know the right next thing to do even when we cannot explain it.
I think that’s enough for today. Maybe, I’ll expand on these concepts in the future.
Feel free to share with me your questions, comments, and what you have experienced.
In peace,
~Juan
