God?

My mother, the poet, says that even as a child, my awareness, and appreciation of God was mildly creepy. As a believer, I've had doubts, questions, frustrations--and there have been a few days I wanted a nice helping of atheism with my pancakes. A break from believing means a break from the accountability, and the responsibility of investigating who God is. But it would always go back to the cell for me. Let's say we could trace all of life back to a single cell--who made the cell? What if "energy" came together in one aimless, spontaneous, and hap-hazard event--and poof!--LIFE! That sounded a lot like science fiction--or a miracle. Intelligent Design was the only thing that ever fit the Origin puzzle for me. I always knew God to be real.

I see the forums on hubpages, and the ones on God, faith, and religion are by far the most popular--and the most volatile. Whatever the beliefs of the people posting are, clearly this subject itself is one that matters to a lot of people. Religion has been responsible for dealing one of the biggest death blows to God for many individuals. It literally causes fighting in the street, wars, and tremendous bloodshed. In the name of religion, people have been led to the madness of atrocious, and inhuman acts. Maybe we just shouldn't talk about God and religion--it tends to ruffle feathers, and we certainly can't have that. I apply that notion to health, and as a health care worker, if I casually mention to a patient that we have a host of different treatment options for their condition, and that I'll have the unit clerk select one randomly--that will likely not go over well. When that doesn't go over well, I can then offer to just select the treatment the patients' parent had--for tradition's sake. This will also will likely not go over well. The average patient of sound mind will want to hear all of the options out--the smart ones, the difficult ones, maybe even the crazy ones. Ruffled feathers and all, we have got to talk about God--not to the point of oppression, but if God, GOD, is taboo...where are we headed?

Communal worship has huge sweeping flaws, including the propensity for piety, hubris, pride in one's own perception of righteousness, and the mistreatment of others who dare to contradict what's being said in the room. Communal worship also has many advantages including--learning and growing in a way that a person can not on their own, a community of support, and a break from opposition to shared values. I think many acknowledge, and perhaps even accept the idea of Intelligent Design, but later undermine it, by taking the intelligence out of it. Sure, there's a God, but clearly He has Dementia. Clearly, He can not figure out how to run things.

For all the ways I explored the subject of God, and of faith, I just could not get behind the idea of Happenstance the God Clown--a God lacking purpose, direction, and any concern for people. I have ADD, my God does not. I know a God of love, intelligence, and deliberate acts. I learned about Him through observation of creation, and after searching through many a holy book, found the Bible to be the most convincing testimony of what God has done, and will do. That's what I found.

Maybe God is intelligent, but we're smart too...maybe we can outsmart Him.

Maybe we can outsmart Him with science. Only, science is so deeply flawed, and still so theoretical in many respects that, at least in medicine, the line between cure and cause is a very blurry one. There's a comedian who does a bit on why he doesn't believe in science, citing, in part, the fact that he'd heard on the news that scientists now believe we are billions of years off on our calculations of the origin of the earth. He wondered why these guys hadn't been fired from science if they were BILLIONS of years off.

Maybe we can outsmart God with politics. I don't even think I need to write much here, the world sort of speaks for itself on the subject on whether or not mankind as a whole has done well running the earth, physically, socially, or economically. The flaws in politics would fill volumes that would never be able to be contained by Earth alone.

Maybe we can outsmart God with philosophy. I love philosophy. I think of thought as an art form, and treat it as such--to be observed, pondered, and appreciated. But much like art, some of it is complete rubbish. Many are arriving at new age conclusions--"what I believe....it makes no sense...but NOW it doesn't have to. Now that I'm enlightened." Sensibleness goes right out of the window when you're zen and centered and...what is it about this kind of centered that seems a little crooked?

But still, there's all these bad things in the world, these things that aren't explained well by belief in a loving God. I won't pretend to have never gone through a trial, but I have never, ever been failed by my God. If you're being failed by your God--if you find yourself saying things like--'there goes Universe and its dirty tricks again', or 'there goes that absent-minded, and sick-humored wizard up to no good,'--I suggest you keep on shopping in the Faith mall. You probably haven't found the right one yet. Why not do as some of the prophets did and get mad--challenge God to tell you something better.