Saturday, April 21, 2012

A "Dear Divinity" Kind of Question

A dear niece, who is the mother of two young boys, wrote to me: 'I saw this on fb recently and thought it might be just the right topic for your blog about spirituality. A church sign had this quote on it- "God is more welcoming and likely to give blessings to a kind atheist than to a hateful Christian." your thoughts? I think it's "on point." bc of all the hypocrisy and judgement that so many so called Christians practice. It seems to me that God's rule of thumb and clearest messages have to do with "love thy neighbor" and "he who is without sin should cast the first stone." kindness and purity of intention and heart are what it seems Jesus tried to demonstrate most to man. What do you think?"


She went on to ask: "Who is more likely to burn in Hell, the Christian who judged and hated everyone proudly, or the Athiest who was more understanding and accepting and loving though he denied knowing God?"


This led me ask myself, "What is an atheist?" and what is a "Christian?" It seems to me that only an idiot would deny that there is a Divine Power that is so much greater than anything on earth and that imbues everything on earth. Is an atheist one who believes that there is no such Awesome Power? Or is an atheist one who doesn't believe that anyone has the absolute answer to what this Power "looks" like? Over centuries, people have recorded their perceptions of the manifestations of this Power in their experiences. We have accepted some of them as sacred scriptures; others we have rejected.


I choose to believe that any experience that leads people to be their best and treat all of nature with respect is sacred, and that Christianity is a method for following the lead of many manifestations of Divinity embodied in one man. Christendom, however, is a political system that forces acceptance of the codification of one set of scriptures into the laws governing all of creation. My "god" is bigger than this.


What do all of my spi(ri)t sisters think?

1 comment:

  1. It is impossible to know the mind of God. We are too small.
    We cannot even know the mind of fellow humans. The smiling nice guy, may be a crook at heart.

    Looking into minds, God's or Mans is dangerous.

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