IN GOD'S IMAGE
Johannes Kepler: "There is nothing I want to find out and long to know with greater urgency than this... Can I find God, whom I can almost grasp with my own hands in looking at the universe, also in myself?" WHO OR WHAT IS GOD? Such a question infers that the answer will indicate someone, or something, apart from the one asking the question. The questioner often feels that he already knows the answer--God is someone out there someplace--yet he seeks a more specific answer other than God is a very wise old man with a long white beard who sits on "cloud 9" someplace. Surely a better answer will include the latitude and longitude! Should someone answer "God is Spirit," there will follow another question and so the dilemma continues. The tendency on the part of Mankind has been to equate God as being in the image and likeness of itself; an all-powerful someone who looks down on us and responds with credits or demerits according to our deeds. Such a conclusion illustrates Mankind's ego which assumes that God must be like us--only bigger! Thus has the human race built for itself idols and statues in the image and likeness of itself, being unable to envision what a Spiritual Being would look like. Ludwig Feuerbach has theorized that if Mankind created God in its image, then it is easy to understand that religion was explained on the basis of psychology rather than theology. He explains that"manifests Himself in nature" and continued in the tradition of "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" Without realizing it, such rationalization has lowered Mankind's understanding of its true Beingness as Spiritual Entities made in the Image and Likeness of THE SPIRIT as the Source of that Creative Energy we call God. Therefore has Mankind lived in the shadow of the dark ages (a state of consciousness) for eons of time. Each day, via comments made by others or in the media, we ask the question--"What's going on?" No need for many answers--there is only one--it is now being revealed to us the degree to which the "dark ages" has solidified itself in the scheme of things as a "galloping plague". The first time we experienced such a dilemma was evidenced in "The Flood!" To the three major faiths, God is "the creator and ruler of the universe" To others He is a superhuman being worshipped as having power over nature and human affairs Some interpret God as "He that moved and the heavens came into being," "God is Spirit" or, on the back of a minivan: God is Me" From an art and business magazine: "There exists a force that we are all part of that consists of thought and light. The best way to describe this force we call God or Buddha or whatever, is the IS." Billy Graham says that God created us so that He'd have someone to love Him back. Consider: Would that which IS the ultimate source/creator of LOVE have a need to be loved? Only Mankind desires to get something when he/she has given something out! I suspect that the simplest statement comes closest to the truth--but the choice is yours. If we accept the premise that God is out there someplace, is separate from that place where each of us now stands at this very moment, we consequently blame all of our problems as having been caused by something, someone, someplace, outside of ourselves. Eons ago, the Wise Ones, knowing full well the innate nature of Mankind, decided that the ultimate wisdom and knowledge must be hidden from them. Where do you suppose they decided to hide it? They decided to hide it within the consciousness of God's children for THEY WOULD NEVER THINK TO LOOK FOR IT THERE! Is it more than just coincidental that the above tale and the one told regarding the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is trying to tell us something? Perhaps it's true that Wise Men who reveal such concepts to us realize that it is human nature to misuse The Creative Energy of God until Mankind has had sufficient experience to even glimpse the Truth that it was made in the Image and Likeness of THE SPIRIT that dwells within and without. FOR THAT IS EXACTLY WHERE YOU AND I WILL LOOK WHILE SEEKING AN EXPLANATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOD AND ITS IMAGES! Because of the possibility that we have accepted as truth one of the many concepts presented to us by others who, being also human and therefore fallible, have led us astray, let's look at other points of view that may draw us closer in our relationship to what I refer to as THE SPIRIT and ITS influence on that Creative Energy we call God. The first "thing" created by Souls was a concept of who and what God is. How many Souls? How many concepts? In the Nov.'90 issue of LIFE Magazine, there appeared an article entitled "Who is God?" Many strangers on the street contributed to this dissertation and LIFE commented on the fact that it would appear that the "Face of God" has recently been somewhat obscured. In the Soviet Union, "God has been in hiding as an outlaw." In the U.S, God plays the role of a political candidate judging such issues as abortion and school prayer." One 67-yr old woman dying of cancer asked: "What if there really is a God?" Won't that be extraordinary!" Archbishop Desmond Tutu commented that when he was young he thought of God as a grandfatherly figure, but now he envisions an "imageless conception--a dark light, or a light darkness." A born-again Christian believes that God created man because He wanted someone to love and talk with. A Presbyterian minister with AIDS: "God hasn't given me this.. God was crying right alongside me. God was greater than AIDS. God heals." A young lad who was raised a Hindu believes in many gods and you have to pick the one who more nearly fulfills your needs. One God is boring--it takes more than one in order to have more fun."
A molecular biologist feels that there is no major conflict between science and Christian faith as far as ultimate realities are concerned. "You'll never prove religion from science." Over eons of time, the Created Ones made use of the various energies inherent within the electromagnetic fields of that Creative Energy we call God. Therefore does there exist that field of play upon which the Creative Forces, having received their ability to be creative via the activities of the Mental/Mind processes of the Created Ones, respond to the desires and motivations of their Creators. These "forces" are the source of the words within this book and, if reading the actual book, the process that created the paper, the growing things that were used to provide its substance, and those individuals who "invented" it via their use of The Creative Energy including the paper mill, the pulp and the massive machine that provided the finished product. The accumulative effects of all of these activities are enhanced by the accompanying Entities within and without, around and about who act as guardian angels, or guides and guards, or perhaps only in fascination with that which motivate the activity, for OF OURSELVES WE CAN DO NOTHING! Even as Newton was caught between his own power of calculation and the unknowable power of God, we, "although fearful of lifting veils," (Alan Lightman) continue to seek to comprehend the Nature of God and, even as Henry Adams concluded: "English thought had gone on impatiently protesting that no one must try to know the unknowable at the same time that every one went on thinking about it." Stephen Hawking, in his book "A Brief History of Time" said: "But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end--it would simply be. What place then for a creator?" Yes, that would appear reasonable is God had been content to simply "be" and had not "moved" and brought into being Images of Himself. However, THE SPIRIT is not self-centered...keeping Self to Self but rather chose to share ITSELF; therefore, is there a need for a "central headquarters" from which come rules and regulations that maintain "decency and order." May I expand on Hawking's statement: "The evidence is that (the universe) evolves in a regular way according to certain laws. It would therefore seem reasonable to suppose that there are also laws governing the initial conditions, by boldly inferring that you and I, as Spiritual Beings made in the Image and Likeness of God were included in that process as we held on to that "designing hand of God!". The faux pas of the ages is Mankind's lack of recognition of what is implied in that simple statement from Genesis. The only other time such a statement was made was,,, "And Adam...begat a son in his own likeness, after his image." This is an explicit example of my theory that what happens "below" (finite life) has already happened "above" (Infinite life) and that we have constant access to such a Pattern in that we may choose to include THE SPIRIT as we make use of The Creative Energy. The "genes" (seeds) of The Creator (God, Adam, or you and I) will bear fruit via offspring--for the process continues as "in the beginning." In truth, there was no beginning--but that requires another book! And so it goes. Now its your turn: WHO OR WHAT DO YOU THINK GOD IS?
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