I BELIEVE IN GOD...

The Hand of God Pictures, Images and Photos

I can only say I believe in God if I redefine God.

If I say that god (note the dropped capital) is a force of nature governed by the laws of physics then I can believe in the concept. It makes sense. It doesn't depend on some ill-defined magic to explain reality.

But redefining the main object under consideration is cheating because most people think of the biblical creator when they use the word god (with or without a capital), so that's what the word means. It's like me trying to say that black is really white. And the believers incorporate three thousand years of hocus pocus into the word god. They believe that heaven and hell are actual places, though they're not quite sure where they are. They believe there was a six day period when everything was created by the Word, though they know it doesn't make sense because archaeological evidence points to life being abundant for millions of years before that six day event supposedly took place. They believe there was a first man and a first woman created as the triumphant climax to that six-day week, though they can't say who Adam and Eve's children mated with in order to produce the human race. They believe that a young girl got pregnant without having carnal relationships with any man though a magical bloke with wings put in an appearance. And what's more, she actually produced their god's only son in a spectacular virgin birth in a stable. That and lots more is the hocus pocus and I can't accept it.

They believe that old, old stories are actual truth probably because they're old. But there are much older stories, yet if I suddenly declared them to be true I'd be laughed out of town! Long ages of developing civilisation produced a wonderful assortment of fireside yarns centuries before the Jews hit Egypt and devised their god, and nobody's believed them for millennia. They're forgotten. But to those who whispered them round camp fires I guess they were real.

So if I'm ever going to say that I believe in god I've got to redefine the popular concept of a deity. I've got to strip away the hocus pocus. I've got to be rational and call god a series of natural physical laws in which gravity and atomic properties figure prominently. I've got to bend my mind in the direction of natural selection, which is the true child of gender.

But that's cheating by any other name, and I can't call it god.

Comments: 28

Anthony W Allsop Feb 27, 2012, 7:48am UTC

The goddists have it that the biblical/Torah account that creation happened only six thousand years or so ago. They completely ignore the fact that there are places in Britain and other parts of the world where human habitation has been discovered that predates their creation by some thousands of years or so.

I even have underwear that's almost as old as their account of creation and not once have I seen underwear mentioned in Genesis.

Peter Rogerson Feb 27, 2012, 8:07am UTC

Adam and his boxer shorts, Eve in her girdle? That's be an interesting variation and given long enough of telling and retelling might actually become part of the myth.

Anthony W Allsop Feb 27, 2012, 8:25am UTC

Beats those damn fig leafs. Or should that be fig leaves? I'm not quite sure.

Peter Rogerson Feb 27, 2012, 8:36am UTC

I never did understand how a first ever couple could have kept their dignity intact in autumn...

Anthony W Allsop Feb 27, 2012, 8:59am UTC

I think autumn would have been my favourite season back then.

Peter Rogerson Feb 27, 2012, 9:06am UTC

We gents may have found it a little drafty round the nether regions, Tony.

Anthony W Allsop Feb 27, 2012, 10:16am UTC

I don't give a fig. We'd have our loving to keep us warm.

Peter Rogerson Feb 27, 2012, 10:30am UTC

You old romantic, you!

Anthony W Allsop Feb 27, 2012, 10:42am UTC

I'm not THAT old!!

Peter Rogerson Feb 27, 2012, 12:16pm UTC

You almost old romantic then, Tony.

reply to this comment

Bernard C. Feb 27, 2012, 1:52pm UTC

Couple of things spring to my mind whilst reading this - one is that God is an entity and therefore not understandbly human in any shape nor form - secondly that religion is the word of the day -the means of spreading the word - lets call it the Sun on Sunday if you like - its a publication - folks could not read, they knew very little of or about each other and communication between folks was probably and most likely given by teachers of Jack-The-Lad types who gotaway with just about anything in order to make a dis-honest shackle. Therefore it is believed the two are totally seperate and never the twain shall meet. We can all speculate about its beings - come on - your mother who is married to your dad has never had a bit of hows your father - well, not with him of course..but with Jack the next door neighbour who was feeling oh so lonely and fancied a bit of rollocking...only on the hush hush don't let you mother hear sort of thing. God exists - then he had very large loudspeakers hidden behind the bushes making one heck of a din..and nobody understood a word that was said..it being mono and all that :-)) Well, you can adam or eve it - still think its a marvelous story - as for the fella upstairs....how come he didn't make the airplanes, computers, motors way back when the obviously needed them..come to think of it..what is in our future..we are at the beginning of technology..and had to do it all ourselves in a collective interest. As for entities- the more you think of them the bigger the hole gets..

Thanks for sharing and submitting to
The Surreal Circus.

Peter Rogerson Feb 27, 2012, 2:21pm UTC

There are quite a few marvellous stories in every corner of civilisation, and as long as they remain stories they entertain generations down many long years. But they moment they enter the realm of supposed reality they can become dangerous.
Thanks, Bernard.

reply to this comment

Phillip DeNise Feb 27, 2012, 4:28pm UTC

judge not... actually a pretty potent technique for unraveling inadequate perceptions of another; facilitate more of the data streaming in to get incorporated in a larger definition; get ourselves many steps closer to an epistemologically impossible reality; begin to create opportunities for loving goodness to come out of someone whom society has labelled incapable

Peter Rogerson Feb 28, 2012, 4:09am UTC

Definitions should be comprehensive but not roam outside the understanding of a mean average language user.
Other than that I'm not quite with you. I needed a dictionary, too!

Phillip DeNise Feb 28, 2012, 10:57am UTC

I think I was in villain-mode when I wrote this.

reply to this comment

August Lady Feb 27, 2012, 4:47pm UTC

Gave you a recommend for now, not sure how I want to respond just yet...

Peter Rogerson Feb 28, 2012, 4:00am UTC

That's okay, August Lady.

reply to this comment

Larry J. Feb 28, 2012, 2:37am UTC

Well, I see I have to get serious about saving up for that plane ticket and coming to see you! :) Have room for me to put up a small tent in your back yard so I won't be a bother to you and the Mrs.? Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen--wouldn't want you to suffocate; I'd have a terribly guilty conscience, Peter. :) Now, let's see, if I should manage, I ask for Mr. Roger Peterson, correct?

Peter Rogerson Feb 28, 2012, 4:01am UTC

That's it!
But joking aside I guess your don't altogether agree with me?

Larry J. Feb 28, 2012, 5:26pm UTC

Your logic is flawless, but you are correct, no, I don't agree with you. We depend more on faith. It is a sad commentary on most of Christianity that a lot of you atheists know more about the Bible than most Christians do. So here's one for you from Hebrews (chap. 3, I believe): Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not (yet) seen.

Peter Rogerson Feb 29, 2012, 4:39am UTC

Are you responsible for the bracketed "yet", Larry? It does change the meaning of the original slightly.

Larry J. Feb 29, 2012, 11:45pm UTC

Yes, Peter, that's me. I added that myself. That is my understanding of that particular verse. I'd probably get kicked out of the Baptist church if I publicized it widely, but where's the fun in conforming all the time? :)

reply to this comment

I BELIEVE IN GOD...

4 people recommend this post

Comments: 28

Join the Conversation