The question is, if one accepts the premise of the existence of a divine force in the universe, does "God" have the capacity to possess intentions, or even understand them..., or is HeSheIt just a powerful force that happened to have been the impetus for creation And continues to be? It occurred to me a few hours ago while in the middle of a few seconds of prayer. What if what we call God, what we innately and internally feel as God, is not as much a rational thinking source of intelligence capable of granting favors based on people's prayers and intentions as much as it is just a force or energy source that one can harness towards the achievement of said prayers or intentions...?
Many people are raised with an assumption that not only a God exists but that God is capable of hearing -- and sometimes even psychically knowing -- our innermost desires through our prayers. I must confess that at one point a few months back I had this thought that occurred to me that I should start praying out loud so that God and angels could actually hear me; it just occurred to me in the moment that with all the psychic noise being generated around the universe through potentially billions of sentient beings all praying at the same time that one would have a better of chance of being heard. And besides, what if God isn't even capable of hearing our thoughts? But only what we speak out loud? I mean where and when do we get this idea that God can just hear us if we pray silently in our minds? I figured either way it can't hurt.
Then this morning while engaged in a few moments of quiet prayer this thought came to mind: what if God is less a conscious favor giver than more of a force that we can harness. We already know through countless academic and scientific studies that prayer has proven to be effective in helping us achieve certain goals or intentions. Reports of miracle healings and the like are numerous. But what if the real mechanism at play is not so much that some intelligent being in another dimension is listening to every prayer that people are uttering in every moment and choosing which ones to honor or not, but rather that there's this energy force somewhere out there -- perhaps even in plain sight, like the Higgs Field for example -- that we latch onto through focusing our consciousness on a particular goal or intention.
As comforting as it feels to imagine a conscious kind and loving GodForce whose sole mission in life is to honor our every whim and prayer because HeSheIt has so much love for us, this second theory would make more sense in lieu of all we've learned over the last few years regarding conscious creation through vibration and or vibrational energy, something that is gaining more and more credence and scientific evidence in recent years specifically in the arena of particle physics.
Something to think about. Plenty of implications to still explore...
In contrast as a child I found the notion of a sentient God deeply disturbing. I mean that if this God character I was hearing about in Church was all knowing, loving, and powerful, then why is there suffering? The question perplexed me, why not just remove the devil? Why even create him? Why would an all loving eternal being demand his creation's obedience. If God forbid (forgive the joke) they did not provide it correctly, would have to suffer for eternity? If he created everything didn't he create that too?
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say my sunday school teachers grew quite tired of my constant inquiries. But none of them really had anything to assuage my internal argument. I began to construct a dualistic view of God and this anti-God, this self destructing, dynamically opposed God. As God was an antromoficised person I imagined that he must be inundated with all these people asking for stuff that he can't get it all done. I viewed prayer like a phone call. So i resolved not to pray unless i really needed something. I became deeply angry at God when i would pray and things they would go "unanswered".
In my anger I decided that atheism was the most likely truth but the problem with atheism is that it really doesn't do anything. It's like the cynic in the room that pipes up whenever any doubt can be found, but does not actually contribute to the conversation. The more I fell into this logic trap the more bleak and unmeaning things became.
Then one day on a walk it hit me. What if God was a concept! A presence! A feeling! Yes! This is not dualistic. Perhaps it was us humans that were attaching all these ideas of good and bad, right and wrong, good and evil. It was us who had attached form to the formless. Tried to label it, tried to qwel our fears by creating a protector. But the problem with creating a protector is that you simultaneously create something to be protected from. This was different than atheism, i still felt a God experience but the rigidity of his supposed form was broken. God became everything, or as i like to say God became one. In this viewpoint man is no longer separate from creation, man is no longer separate from God. The beauty is in individual recognition and inherent knowing but also our simultaneous incapability to fully grasp or understand. Everything that is becomes the body of God and a person in this recognition becomes reverent, not because of fear or guilt but naturally.
The funny thing about this viewpoint is that God becomes indefinable and unnamable, in establishing a name it ceases to be it. This is because when you name something you have also said what it is not and God is everything. I use the word "God" merely for the purpose of convenience. Remember the "I AM WHO I AM” of Moses?
Then what of prayer. What good is praying to a concept? I pondered this for some time... I arrived to a recognition that if everything is God, then so must consciousness be also. And if everything is God, then it all must be connected. Prayer was like asking our shared source to direct itself. But i could be wrong...
So, um, yeah... sorry for the large lead in.... My interpretation of the answer to your question is Yes and Yes. And Yes and Yes and Yes and Yes etc...