MEANING

Life is short but not worthless. It is intrinsically good not certifiably good.  Infinity extends at least two directions so God COULD have already existed an infinite amount of time.  Having already been infinite it pleased him to become temporal and so he exploded into a million billion little God pieces now scattered across the universe.  He will take now an infinite amount of time to get back together.  The Big Bang was not necessarily “the beginning”.  There may have been an earlier bang.  God writes the rules of the universe so he can, at his discretion, re-order the parts.  Currently God is present in your neighbor’s heart, so you should try and find him there.  Naturally you should look in your own heart too.  When hearts get together-God quickens, that is why love is so satisfying.  Many hearts as one acting in harmony suggests divinity.  This Humpty-Dumpty metaphor suggests WE will never put God back together again.  We will have to be satisfied with the shards of the Godhead.  Worship then would not be about us “pleasing God”.  It is about sharing hearts of hope and love.

     Christianity is somewhat oppositional to the Humpty-Dumpty metaphor; thus, God is good, personal, just, and exists.  There are then two realities in the Christian model:  the infinite God reality (the one we will someday join) and the almost insignificant concrete reality we experience every day. In other words “spiritual world” like some dark matter filling the universe and the time bound visible world.  The H-D metaphor is a God-with-us, not “above”, caring and/or controlling, but here. We are participants in the spiritual force.

How does God 'act'? Secularists, like myself, say he does not “act” though He could empower human hearts with right desire but he does not, Zeus-like, throw a thunderbolt. Will he, can he make things right?  That is our deepest need-justice-for what we have experienced here.  If all go to heaven, it doesn't matter what we experience here, we have yet an infinity of ?pleasure?.  Since we don't know, best to assume the best.  The worst usually comes round a few times. 

So what we believe about God only has relevance for us and how we touch the hearts of others. My belief, your belief- vapors.  God did not exist, like it is suggested he does now, when dinosaurs roamed the earth.  Now we are asked to read Bibles and sit in pews to find him but that will not be necessary when the kudzu covers the steeples.  So whether we have a God whose gentle breath blows our little boat toward home or not, we are all stuck by gravity to a revolving ball and our human similarity will always be greater than our differences.

My problem with religion is exclusivity and the false apprehensions that lead to idolatry.  The religion, the means of seeing or linking becomes more important than the spiritual fact:  God-Reality.  PEOPLE consider me Presbyterian because I sit in a pew with that label, not God.  Presbyterians have an unusual way of "seeking" God.  They look in a book and they worship together. God is not in a book, he's not in the tomb, and if he's running things--it's an interesting but piss poor job.  If this world doesn't have any meaning then the pain is just an "experience" like Jesus suffered through. Our deepest need, more than love, is justice.  Justice will requite the love we have shown.  Finally, if this is all there is--we'd better keep trying to find our better selves.....