God

Occasionally someone will ask me if I believe in God. I often hesitate to answer because there will be an assumption that we are talking about the same God. Which, of course, we’re probably not.

Unless the asker is a one-true-God person, we could be talking about any of the myriad Gods that humans have worshipped throughout time—what Joseph Campbell so insightfully called the Masks of God. Since no one really knows the true nature of God, we have to acknowledge that cultures create the God images that best access God in their time and need. After all, since these are human imaginings, it’s impossible that any can encompass the true fullness of God.

My best conception so far is that God is in each of us. That way we are just as responsible for God as God is for us. It also makes it more difficult for us to escape our responsibilities as God-connected human beings.

The other aspect of this concept that is that when the fullness of God in each person becomes connected to the fullness of God in every other person, we have achieved Oneness. And that is God.

This concept is very easy to understand, but very difficult to actualize. So yes, I believe in both God and the human need for God.