How an Atheist Found God

I found out, you can disturb a lot of religious people by asking, "How do you know God exists?"

Perhaps they were wondering about my motives. Or maybe they simply had no idea how to answer. But, most of their responses were, "Well, you just know."

I wasn't trying to be difficult. But I certainly did not "just know." And I was hoping someone did!

After many months of this, I thought, "Here are the people who say they believe in God, but no one knows why!" I felt much like I did when I learned the truth about Santa Claus. It seemed obvious that God was completely fabricated. Maybe some people needed to believe in God. But clearly there was no proof. No objective evidence. I came to the most stark conclusion...God did not actually exist.

I held this belief for years, not expecting it to ever change. But then I met someone who caused me to become interested in the possibility of God. She was caring, kind, and very intelligent. It bothered that someone that intelligent could believe in God.

She talked about God like he was her dearest friend who deeply loved her. I knew her life well. Any concern she would take to God, as if trusting him to work out a way or care for her in some way. She would tell me, quite candidly, that she was merely praying that God would act upon her concerns. Every week I saw what seemed to be answers to her prayers. For more than a year. I watched her life through a myriad of circumstances. She was convinced that God did exist.

So, I wanted to believe in God on one hand, because I admired her life and her love for others. But I couldn't believe in something against my intellect, against my better judgment. God did not exist. A nice idea, but that was all. Wanting something to be true, doesn't make it true.

During this time I was developing (what I thought was) a very personally-built philosophy. Later I identified it as existentialism, pretty thoroughly.

However I did try something with these philosophies that I'm not sure many people do. Every few weeks, I would study a particular philosopher's take on life, and then try to apply it...Nietzsche, Hume, Dostoevsky, Sartre, Plato, etc. I was looking for the perfect, workable philosophy for life. I found over and over, that either their philosophies seemed lacking, or were too impractical to actually implement. But I kept searching.

Unwaveringly, I was challenging my friend with every question that came to mind about God. I would find myself writing out questions late in the evening. This went on for well over a year. One day she handed me a book that briefly answered questions like, is there a God; is Jesus God; what about the Bible. It presented facts. No comments like, "you have to believe."

The book delivered some evidence for God that was logical. I'm not normally drawn toward science. However, the parts particularly convincing to me were the chemical properties of water, and the earth's position to the sun. It was all too perfectly designed, too perfectly put together. And my faith in "nothing behind it all" seemed weaker than the possibility of God. I had fewer reasons to be certain of nothing, and more reasons to conclude that God might be there.

I then encountered a situation that fully challenged my well-constructed philosophy on life. What I had been putting my faith in proved to be completely insufficient. It shocked me to see that I was at a loss for an approach to life that was fully reliable. However, the situation resolved itself. And I moved ahead. I have a pretty steady personality. Throughout my life, I never really felt "needy." No on-going crisis. No big gaps or struggles. And certainly nothing I felt guilty about.

But the concept of God was something I couldn't get off my mind....was he there? does he exist? maybe there's a God.....

One night I was talking to my friend again, and she knew I had all the information I needed. She knew that I had run out of questions to ask. Yet I was still trying to debate. In one clear, abrupt moment, my friend turned to me and said, "You know, I can't make this decision for you, and God's not going to wait forever."

And I immediately knew she was right. I was playing around with a very important decision. So I went home and decided that I was going to decide. I was going to either ask God to come into my life, or I was going to end the subject completely and never allow myself to consider the possibility of God again. I was tired of dealing with this decision. I was tired of thinking about it.

So, for the next three or four hours, I reviewed everything I had read and observed. I evaluated it all.

I concluded that the evidence for God was so strong that it made more sense to believe in God than to believe he wasn't there. Then I had to act on that conclusion.

I knew that just intellectually concluding God was there, was way too light. It would be like deciding...airplanes exist. Faith in an airplane means nothing. However, if you need to get somewhere and an airplane is the way, you have to decide to act and actually get on the plane.

I needed to make the decision to actually talk to God. I needed to ask him to come into my life.

After a few hours of thought I addressed God, "Ok you win. I ask you to come into my life, and you may do with it whatever you'd like." (It seemed reasonable to me, that since God exists, God had every right to influence and direct my life, if he wanted to.)

I went to bed and the next morning wondered if God was still there. And honestly, I kind of "sensed" that he was. One thing I knew for sure. I immediately had a huge desire to get to know this God whom I now believed in.

I wanted to read the Bible. When I did, it seemed that God was spelling out who he is and how he viewed this relationship with him. It was amazing. What really surprised me is how often he talked about his love. I hadn't expected that. In my mind, I was simply acknowledging God's existence. I had no expectations of him. But he chose to communicate his love to me. That was a surprise.

Now, my basic, skeptical nature was still there. The first few months or year, I would ask myself, "Am I really believing in God? And, why am I?" And I would methodically review five objective reasons why I believed God existed. So my "faith" in God did not rest on feelings, but on facts, on reasons.

To me, it's like the foundation of a building. The facts/reasons support my faith. It's like someone driving across the Golden Gate Bridge. They can feel whatever they'd like about the bridge. But it's the construction/design/materials of the bridge itself that allows them to safely get from one end to the other. In the same way, the objective reality of God--the logical, historical, scientific reasons to believe in his existence, are important to me. There are people who don't seem to need that. But I hate being fooled, and I have little regard for wishful thinking. The reasons for God's existence mattered to me.

Part 2

Since that time, now that I've been a Christian for a number of years----why do I now believe in God? What reasons do I have for continuing to believe in God?

I'm not sure any of these are going to be believable to you. But I'll try to put that concern aside and be candid with you. Previously my questions were about God's existence. After beginning a relationship with God, I then saw additional evidence that God is real. Such as...

1. When I have questions, concerns, or would like insight on a matter, God speaks to me through the Bible. What he presents to me is always perfectly suited to my question, beyond what I expected the answer to be. And it is usually a more satisfying answer than I deserve.

One day, my schedule, deadlines, and obligations were crawling up my neck and tightening their hold. You know that feeling when you're so overwhelmed, you don't know what to do first?

So I got out a piece of paper and pen, and asked God: "Just tell me what you want me to do, and I'll do it." I was fully prepared for shouldering 100% responsibility, and was basically asking God to just set the priorities, tell me how to approach it all, and I would.

I then opened my Bible and immediately read where Jesus was talking with a man who was blind. Jesus was asking him, "What would you have me do for you?"

I read it again. Jesus asked: "What would you have me do for you?" Rather amazed, I picked up my pen and began writing an entirely different list...to God. This, I have found, is characteristic of God. Reminding us that he is there. That he cares.

I choose that example because it's brief. But I could cite hundreds of examples where I was asking God a question and he perfectly, thoroughly answered me. It probably is the characteristic of God that I most appreciate--that he is willing to answer my questions. And it is very personal between us.

This isn't something I learned from other Christians. It's just how my relationship with God operates. I ask a question, with an attitude that I really want to give him freedom to tell me whatever he wants to....to correct my thinking, to point out an area in my life that isn't right, to show me where I'm not trusting him, whatever. And he always graciously speaks to me.

2. Similarly, when I need direction for a decision, he gives it. I believe that God cares about our decisions. I believe he has a plan for our lives, that he cares about who I marry, what kind of job I have, and some decisions smaller than that. I don't believe he cares what toothpaste I buy, or lots of mundane decisions. But decisions that will affect my life...I think he cares.

One time I needed to decide about a trip to the Middle East. There was risk involved, and I only was willing to go if God wanted me to go. It was important to me that I knew what he wanted.

Twice I asked God about a job. Both times his leading on it was so clear, that anyone would have concluded the same, with the same facts and unusual circumstances. Let me try one thin slice of an example.

During my senior year of college, I had decided to take a job with a Christian organization after graduation, that would require a move to California.

It was Christmas break, and I was now visiting my parents. One evening, I was alone and thinking through a long list of friends. I was wondering who I could talk into moving to California with me, to be roommates. One person named Christy, came to mind, who had already graduated and settled in a job in Iowa. I thought she'd be the perfect roommate, but I hadn't talked to her in several months. Just 30 minutes later, at my parents home, Christy calls me on the phone.

Her first sentence was, "I heard you are taking a job with this Christian organization." I was floored because I had only told one friend, in Ohio.

Her next statement was, "Ok, I've got the pots and pans and dishes." I said, "WHAT?!" She was moving to the same town in California and was calling to see if I would room with her.

Ok, so you see my point.

You might ask, why such a big deal, to even need God's help in this decision? I knew that my parents would be completely opposed to this job. I thought it might cost me my relationship with my parents forever. So it was not a light decision. I asked God to guide me toward what he wanted. And he did. There were about ten other events related to this job, such as clear.

Other reasons I still believe in God...

3. In terms of explanations about life--why we're here, what the purpose is, what is important in life, what to value or strive for--God has better answers than anything I've ever read anywhere. I had studied multiple philosophies and religions and other life approaches. What I read in the Bible, what I see in God's perspective, is like all the pieces of the puzzle fitting.

There is still a lot I'll read in the Bible and close the Bible saying, "I don't get it." So I don't mean to suggest I fully understand everything in the Bible. Instead, I'm saying that life only makes sense from the perspective of what God has revealed. It's like reading the operating manual to something very complex, only we are not left to merely follow the manual. The inventor is explaining to us how it all works, and then offers to personally guide us.

4. The intimacy with God is deeper than intimacy with any human being. And I say that married, with two children, and tons of very close friends. His love is perfect. He's incredibly gracious. He takes me right where I'm at, and as I said, speaks to me. He intervenes with actions that leave me amazed as the observer. He is not a belief or doctrine. I see him act in my life and speak to my heart.

5. He has done more with my life than I would have done on my own. This is not a statement of inferiority or lack of self confidence. I'm speaking in terms of accomplishments that far exceeded what I ever had in mind. He provides ideas, direction, solutions, wisdom, and better motives than I could aspire to on my own.

Knowing God Part 2 - Finding God Within Your Believing

We are going to do that now, so that you can have this experience of finding God, and of God finding you in your faith believing. Then, when you have found God and you know God is touching you, you can have other experiences where you can simply be still in the presence of God; or when you can be filled with God; you can be at rest in God; or, you can be very active and preaching and shouting in God; or you can even be like that man who just sat in God and gave only scant attention to the world.

There are two ways that God touches us. With the Holy Spirit he makes us into the sail of a boat and he blows into us-whoosh!-and moves us, and we are moved by the Holy Spirit and the giftings of the Holy Spirit are moved in us. When God does this we become footwashers, servants, movers and shakers in the kingdom of heaven. We change things, and we change them by God's power.

But then God moves us in another way also. He fills us like a bottle and we are not moving. We are completely still and we are filled in Him. If we open our eyes and we look at the world, all of God is looking through us and we are at rest in God.

So God gives us these two ways to be in him, and they are both complimentary of each other: rest, and movement; tranquility, and activity; pure worship in rapture, and pure work in the world of things and people.

If we want to do a mission, first we must come into rest. We are like Jesus who comes away from the people to be with the Father- and he might come away from them for several days at a time.

It might take a few days for him just to settle down into being at peace with God; to move away from being so active in God; and to let his body and his mind just settle down into the rest of God. When he is in the rest of God, then he is able to speak to God and they can together develop a plan.

And you are going to do this now. You are going to think of something that you want to do, or something that you want to have just in your human self. Then we are going to let God come and touch that so then your program also becomes God's program. When your program has become God's program, faith comes alive in that and it then becomes the mustard seed.

When it becomes the mustard seed you are starting to do the will of God. You and God are working this together in a strategic partnership.

The world might try and come against you as you live out whatever it was that you and God planned to do together, but because you have developed this program in faith you have the power of God to protect you as you move through it in actual living. The perfection of God's love will always succeed-and God's mustard seed is a seed of the Father's perfect love.

Once we see these kinds of outcomes in our lives, then we start to see the ministry of Jesus differently. We see that from the time of his baptism he is drawing people in to know God so that they can have the power to make a program with God. When we are making programs in our heart with God and we are living out those programs, we become perfect. And that fulfills the highest value in the holy bible.

If you go to your bible and have a look at Matthew chapter 5, verse 48, you'll see there that Jesus is saying,

"You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Jesus can say that because he is perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect. But what is the way to be perfect? That's the burning question in our hearts today: how to be spiritually perfect; and how to find ways to help others to be spiritually perfect like God.

Come into your heart in your faith and develop a program. Let God touch your believing in that program and then live out that program. Then you will find even if you are a young person or old person, boy or girl, you will find that perfection will start to operate in your life. Now you are on the road like Enoch and Elijah and Jesus.

If you do that one time today, you will have this moment of perfection. God will touch you and you will be with God. If you do this two times next week, you will have these two times of perfection. If you do this ten times over the next month, you will have all those times of perfection to your credit.

As we practice in our hearts, making programs with God, we become perfect, and we learn to take God's perfection into more and more places in our lives until we have gone into all of the places in our lives that have the potential to make us perfect.

At that point we come to the place where God can say to us, too, "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased."

So, let us do this now. Let's look now into the Scripture at Matthew chapter 18, verse 18 through 20 in your Bible. We see a special formula here from Jesus. He says,

"Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."

To bind something here on the earth means to stop something from happening. We stop it happening by heaven's power to stop things happening.

To loose something here on the earth is to create some new thing here on the earth. We create that new thing with heaven's power to create it. An example of that is heaven's power to create the mustard seed into a mustard tree. The plants grow not by the earth's power, but by heaven's power creating them.

So I am asking you to think of something that you want to do, or something that you want to have. It will probably be something that you want to loose here in the earth and if God touches your desire, then God turns that into a heavenly empowered seed and our Father will make it happen by heavenly power.

Turn to Mark chapter 11 and to verse 24. In English we see here,

"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

This is what you are going to do. Remember, you are wanting to find God, and one of the ways that Jesus lets us find God is by losing something here in the earth. This is what's going to happen. I am wanting something. Let's say, "I want to build a big church here and it has electricity, water, a concrete floor, plenty of chairs, a good roof, and plenty of shade." Let's just think, "This is what I want."

Jesus says, "If you believe you have received that thing you just thought of, it will be done for you."

If you believe that God has loosed it in heaven for you, then it will arrive here in the earth for you. Then the people will come together and we will find, "Oh, that church you dreamed of back then, it's starting to be built now."

"So now, I am going to get one friend and tell that person what it is that I am believing for. Then I am going to believe that God has given this to me," and my friend is going to believe that God has already released that for me also. We are both believing that God has given this thing to me.

Together, with myself and my friend both believing that I am receiving this thing from God, we are going to keep believing until God invades our believing.

When God invades our believing, we will know God and we will know him in our faith, amen? And he will touch our believing and turn it into his seed and we will feel him do that.

Then we can stand up and say, "Praise God! he has touched my believing!"

And you can speak to him, "My Father, you have touched my believing," and you are in the direct presence of God.

At that moment, he is holding you and you are holding him, and you know that he is touching your faith and he is filling your mind and his blessing is pouring into you.

At that moment, in your heart you know, "Yes, this is God."

It is more important to find God than to even do the works of God. To do the works of God without ever having found God is to put things backwards.

But let's do this now. You are going to tell your friend, "This is what I am believing for."

Then the two of you now can start believing that God has now done that for you, and you will quietly keep believing until God enters into your believing. Then, when that has happened, your friend will also know that God has entered into his or her believing for you. You will both have God's confirmation.

Okay, let's begin.

Heavenly Father, you have heard my Word and you have sent me here into this place, Lord. I pray now in Jesus' name that you will honor your Word, Lord, and you will enter into their believing and you will release the heavenly power to make their desire loosed here in the world. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Now you can begin-the first person and then second person. It should only take a few minutes per person, but take as much time as you need.

AFTERWARDS

God has put his power into your believing. He has put his power into your believing in the same way as he put his power into Jesus' believing. God is no respecter or persons, amen? God will honor all faith, amen? We cannot please God unless we are using faith. Amen?

And so, what God the Father has done with Jesus Christ, he is doing now with you also. He has touched your faith and he has touched Jesus' faith-it is the same faith.

Therefore, now you should remember what you have desired and what God has touched. Remember it in your mind. Remember it in your heart. Write it in your bible: "Today the Father's perfect love has touched this particular desire in my heart, and because he has turned it into a divine seed, it will happen. Not only that, for a moment I knew God intimately, and I savoured his presence and his perfect love."

Then when it happens, when this thing comes into your life, come back to your bible and you can write underneath what you just wrote: "Yes, it has happened now! According to my bible faith and God's promise to touch my faith, and by his perfect love by faith I planted my seed and it has now produced its crop, and I have this thing for which God and I made the program."

When you do this in your moment of prayer, let God touch you. When God can touch you, you can know His presence. When you stretch that time together out into a little meditation, in this way you can know God.

Does God Exist?

"I don't believe in God. I believe in something, just not in God".

When questioned about their belief in God, a lot people seem to have a very narrow view of what God is supposed to be, inextricably linked to organised religion. When they cannot reconcile that narrow view with their own belief system they state that they do not believe in God and therefore have no relationship with the divine. That relationship may still be desired, as it could bring security, unconditional love, support at times of need and a sense of belonging, but it would constitute a lie to oneself and can therefore not be maintained. Many who claim they are non-believers however, are still left with the feeling that there is something bigger than ourselves, something they would like to connect to at some level, just not within the traditional context of organised religion.
As I see it, there are many ways to approach the concept of God and organised religion is just one of them.

Organised religion generally poses the personal God, usually male, an omnipotent (all powerful) being who rules the world and who, by allowing human beings the freedom of choice, also allows the existence of His Antagonist, the Devil. This God wants His subjects to come to Him of their own free will, but when they don't, they will spend eternity in the flames of Hell. There is only one life and it must be lived by God's rules. Within Christianity, there are ways of purging sins, through confession and true repentance, in which case an officially assigned representative of God can grant you forgiveness and cleanse your soul. If you can not get access to such a representative of God before you die, tough luck, you die and go to Hell whether you are repentant or not. Up until very recently, the Catholic church did not allow stillborn babies into heaven, they had to stay in 'Limbo' for eternity because they were not baptised before death. ('Limbo' is a place just outside Heaven, away from Hell but also away from the presence of God.)

I personally believe that this is a very limited view of God. This God is not omnipotent; there seem to be enormous shortcomings to his power if he is incapable to grant forgiveness to a repenting soul, without an intervening human representative (e.g. priest) acting on his behalf. This God is not omnipresent (present everywhere at the same time) either: he is absent in Limbo, absent in Hell for eternity and absent until access has been granted through baptism, again performed by an officially assigned human representative. Choice is relative, here: 'you do as I say, or you will burn in Hell for eternity'. After death, this God refuses shelter to anyone who has not abided by his rules; the concept of forgiveness is pretty short lived.

Access to heaven is, up to a certain point, simply luck of the draw. It is not granted on the basis of your contribution to the world as a caring, loving, non-judgemental human being, who is never afraid of helping out other people, and making right and just decisions, rather than ones driven by personal gain. This may play a part, but not the most important one. Access to heaven is gained mainly by baptism, worship on Sunday, by praying and reading your bible, by telling God you think he's great, you love him and can't live without him. So if you happen to be born in a place that has never heard of this God; if you die alone; if you cannot get access to one of those representatives before you die, who can grant forgiveness for your sins and cleanse your soul; if you die angry with God because you have been hurt and abused, you are not allowed to be with God. You go to Hell.
Life in this context is not a process of growing: it is a cruel and unfair test, with most people in this world seriously disadvantaged, or even incapable of passing, through circumstances beyond their control.

Organised religions are frameworks, encompassing theological theories about the nature of the divine, usually represented as absolute truths, and rules about approaching and incorporating the divine into one's life, usually predicting dire consequences if these rules are not adhered to. The most important thing to understand about organised religions is that they have to keep their institutions alive and as such it is within their best interest to stipulate worship through their facilities, using their people. The need to be needed in order to survive must prevail, because otherwise, they will cease to exist. That is why giving money to religious institutions, in collects or as gifts, is considered a divine duty, why one can only receive true salvation through the institutions and why members are ordered to keep coming back, every morning in the past, and now, as most congregations are waning, at least once a week. Institutions, at their best, do wonderful things. Through them, wonderful people help other people in wonderful ways. But they remain organisations whose belief structures and divine rules are coloured by a need to survive.

I believe that the problem many people seem to have with the concept of God could be due to a failure of organised religions to move with the times, theologically. Many individual representatives of the churches do not subscribe to the idea of hell as they used to, nor to the idea of God as a vengeful, punishing force. Many even acknowledge the possibility of a relationship with God outside the confounds of church and traditional worship, but in essence, the churches still put forward an imposing patriarchal society in all aspects of religious life: a personal male God, benevolent father, head of the household, prescribing a framework of morals and lifestyle rules and restrictions as well as regular worship within religious institutions.

The feminine is still entirely absent from the divine. Mary has never been granted divinity; she may be the 'mother of God' but she is still considered human. The archangels are male; Jesus is male. Nobody in this divine family has ever had sex because sex, although quite necessary for the survival of the human race (we can not all achieve 'immaculate conceptions'), is still dirty and, at the heart of it, sinful. At the heart of most religious life is still worship, rather than love for one another in day to day life. Why would God care so much about being worshipped and thanked all the time? Does he have such a big ego?

Monotheism is the existence of a single omnipresent, omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent deity, or God. It is claimed that Christianity is monotheistic, but there are some problems with this claim. In practice we do not see an omnipotent and omnipresent God, as discussed earlier in this article. His omniscience is questionable also. Firstly, his perspective is limited by his sex: he is male and therefore lacks female perspective. (Although in the Old Testament this view of God as solely male is contradicted, e.g. Gen 5.1-2: ... When God created man, he made them in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created.) Secondly, there are many occasions in the Old Testament where God asks questions in order to get answers, e.g Job 1.7 (To Satan:) "Whence have you come?" (God does not know where Satan came from) or: Gen 18.26: And the Lord said, "If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake." (God does not know how many righteous people live in Sodom). But even if we are to take the bible as written by fallible people, rather than God himself, it is still hard to sustain the notion that this God is truly monotheistic.

So why is this an issue at all? Well, it is an issue because there is an inherent contradiction in organised religion. We are told on the one hand that this God is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient, but on the other hand, the entire frameworks prescribed to us by organised religions tell us that he is none of these things. The theology limits God's power, God's understanding, God's knowledge, God's reach. The fact is, that many people who claim they 'don't believe in God but believe in something' believe in God as something much more than that.

True monotheism, which Christianity claims to be but is not, encompasses a God that is truly omniscient, neither male nor female, and at the same time, both; a God that is truly omnipotent, who controls all and yet nothing because the world would run this way because there is no other way; a God that is omnipresent, who is all things and yet, nothing, because the very nature of being is already finite. This God is past, present and future, and all at the same time because this God is time and beyond time. This God is so all encompassing that we cannot escape it, no matter how 'bad' we are or how much we deny its existence. To deny this God would be to deny ourselves. This God does not need or demand worship, nor praise or prayer, because this God has no ego. Rather, we are the ones that need prayer, in order to connect back with what is true. Connecting to this God would mean connecting with what needs to be, to embrace life. Hell is merely an illusion, a state of denial, an absence, rather than an active force of being. Hell does not truly exists because God is omnipresent and therefore a place without God can not exist.

So in answer to the main question: does God exist, we might say this: the concept of God as an all-encompassing thing, or life itself in all shapes and forms, embraces any view of the world around us. There is no limit to what you can believe or disbelieve. We know so little and we are so little, in this world. One might say that angels and ghosts and fairies do not exist, because there is no 'real' proof. There is even less proof that they don't exist. One might say that reincarnation is just an inability to accept that when we're dead, that's it, we're really not that important. On the other hand, not believing it might just be an excuse not to learn what we need to learn, because if we don't, we will have to in the next life. The existential doubt of the existence of God has always struck me as slightly odd. The sun rises every day, doesn't it? You are breathing, aren't you? Do you deny the existence of the universe, just because we can not measure it, just because we do not understand?

So what about that relationship with God? How can you connect to all these things at the same time, and why would you bother if you don't believe in the grey man on the cloud?
Well, the answer is simple. You don't have a relationship with God for God, that would be ridiculous. You have a relationship with God or 'the divine' for you, in order to find a moment of peace and tranquillity and in order to feel connected and in control in a very demanding, stressful world. Addressing God in those brief moments does not automatically mean you believe God is a man on a cloud. You could pray, you could talk to God when no one can hear you, write a letter to God, do yoga, meditate, take some quiet time of contemplation. You won't be lying to yourself. You can have your theological cake and eat it. And at its best, maybe that is what organised religion manages to offer to some of us: an almostm tangible relationship with something that is ultimately beyond definition.

Why Doesn't God Heal Amputees?

Perhaps you have heard this question posed by those who desire to show that God does not exist.

The rationale is this:

Since God answers prayer, certainly there has been a believer who has had enough faith to pray for healing (really re-growing) of an amputeed limb. Since there are not any recorded or verified instances of a person having a limb grow back, this shows that God doesn't exist. No limbs grow back, because God does not exist to grow them back.

In answering this question, we should realize that this is not really a test of God's existence, but rather a test of His character. God could well exist, but for various reasons not heal any amputees. This argument is putting the cart before the horse. First one should find out if God exists, then see how He acts. It's also not wise to set up unbiblical tests for God to perform to see if He exists. This is both highly problematic and subjective.

It's true that we never see this type of healing in the Bible and this is very interesting. In the Bible we see Jesus healing all kinds of people- the lame walk, the blind see and even a couple of people are brought back from the dead. But there is no record of any amputees' limbs being restored.

Why do we not see this type of miracle?

3 possible responses:

1. You could technically say that an amputated arm or leg is healed. The damaged or diseased part can be removed and what is left can be healed. So, in that sense the amputee may be said to be healed.

2. Miracles are rare. They are not the norm. For example, how many people are referenced in the Bible who have gone to Heaven without dying? Two. How many times does the Bible state that God created from nothing? Once. So again, miracles are by their definition rare.

Also, according to the Bible, there is a huge difference between God answering prayer and God performing a miracle in answer to a prayer. Biblically it is not correct to say that God answering prayers and performing miracles as being on the same level. Countless prayers are answered daily while true miracles are rare.

3. Just because you haven't heard of an amputated limb being restored, doesn't mean that it hasn't happened. But, if there were evidence of such a healing, would that cause an atheist to change his or her mind about God?

Another problem with this line of reasoning is that it is illogical.

One logical fallacy that this question breaks is called the Excluded Middle (False Dichotomy, Faulty Dilemma, Bifurcation): assuming there are only two alternatives when, in fact, there are more. In this case, assuming that since God has not healed any amputees (in the Bible or elsewhere to our knowledge.) God doesn't answer prayer and therefore doesn't exist. This is faulty reasoning.

The pattern goes like this:
1. Since God can do something, therefore God should do something.
2. Since God should do something, therefore God must do it
3. If God does not do something that He must do, then God does not exist.

or

1. Since God can heal amputees, therefore God should heal amputees.
2. Since God should heal amputees, therefore God must heal amputees.
3. If God does not heal any amputees, then God does not exist.

This is bad logic in and of itself. Just because God can do something, it doesn't mean that He should or must do something. God is a sovereign being. The Bible does not say that because God can do something, therefore He must do it. This is people putting conditions on how God must act, which is preposterous.

It's easy to set up a condition for God's existence and then if God doesn't meet the condition, conclude that He doesn't exist. In this particular example, the condition is: if God exists, then He must heal amputees.

But this is just one example, any could be used. Some are more intellectual than others. For example, you could say that if God exists, He should strike me dead in 5 seconds. According to the Bible, God has the right to take a person's life, so He wouldn't be unjust in doing so. 5 seconds pass, you are still alive, therefore God doesn't exist.

Or, I could say that if God exists, He should prove His existence by causing all the leaves on the bush behind me to fall off in 15 seconds. Now I could believe that God can do this and I could pray for this to happen with an open and honest heart. 15 seconds pass, the leaves are still there, so God doesn't exist.

Does it say in the Bible that God has promised to heal amputees, anyone? No. Does it say in the Bible that God must heal amputees to prove His existence or love for humanity? No. Does God say that He will perform any type of miracle or healing to prove His existence? No. Does God guarantee healing to anyone, even if they have a large amount of faith? No. In fact, some who were martyrs for their beliefs did so at a young age and had great faith.

Along with amputees, there could be any number of diseases or sicknesses which God has never miraculously healed. That doesn't mean that God doesn't exist, since no one is guaranteed of a healing or a miracle.

To perhaps get to the heart of the matter, let me ask, "Why should God jump through our hoops to prove that He exists? Does God have to perform every type of miracle or healing before one will believe in Him?"

What if there was a documented case of God restoring a limb? For the atheist, ask yourself honestly, would you then believe in God? Or would you just set up another hoop for Him to jump through?

This brings us to a larger issue. That is, the amputee and similar questions work on the following premise- "If I can think of a question that no Christian can adequately answer, then this means that God doesn't exist. Or at the least that Christianity is false, untrue."

4 brief responses:

1. What if the answer exists, but you haven't found it?
2. What if someone gives you a correct, pro-christian (biblical) answer, but you don't accept it?
3. What if no one can answer the question now, but in 1 month or 1 year someone comes up with the answer? Then will you believe or just ask another question? Then when this gets answered, will you ask another question and it just keeps going?
4. What if the correct answer that you would accept isn't available now, but is given in 150 years? Long after you have died?

Even if this or another question is answered to your satisfaction, can I, you or anyone know everything about God or how or why God acts? Why does a three year old die of cancer? Why are Christians with strong faith struck with chronic pain for years? You don't know and I don't know. But what's wrong with that? Why does, "I don't know" have to equal "God doesn't exist."? That's too simple, too easy an answer.

When looking at Christianity, any thinking person will inevitably come across something that is difficult to understand, doesn't make sense, even seems contradictory at first glance. Given enough time, reading and life experience, this is inevitable.

Now, given that, we have two options when we run into something we don't understand:

1. I don't understand, therefore I won't believe.
2. I don't understand, but nonetheless I choose to believe. And as I read and talk to people and pray and grow in my faith, I hope to find the answer to my question. But I know that I may never know or never be told the answer to my question. If that is true, I will not stop believing in God or "loose my faith. I will decide to trust in a personal and loving God, despite my question or the reality of a horrible event in my life.

A danger in saying that, "I don't understand, therefore I don't believe" is that you or someone else can always think of a reason or excuse for not believing in God. That is the way God has set things up. He has given us enough evidence to believe in Him, yet He has also made it possible for people to reject Him and say that He doesn't exist.

Why?

1. We have free wills.
2. God wants for us to come to Him primarily by faith, with both our minds and hearts.

If you can have all of your questions about God and life answered before coming to faith in Christ, that's great! But if you demand to have to have all of your questions answered before you become a Christian, then you risk having only an intellectual "faith" in God. This is not truly believing in God. It is like having belief in God that demons have.

James 2:19 says, "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that-and shudder."
Of course this is not saving faith in God. It is not faith from the heart. It is not faith that personally trusts in God for salvation.

With only an intellectual "faith" in God, one can say they believe, but then when the crisis comes or the hard times come, they "loose" their faith in God. But this is not true faith.

Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

Habakkuk 3:17-18, "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior."

Now that's real faith.

Real faith and real trust in God uses ones mind and intellect and reason as far as they can take him or her. Jesus Christ Himself said that Christians should, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Mark 12:30

God says in Isaiah 1:18, "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14:15- "I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind."

At the same time, real faith also admits that intellectually there are just some things we can never figure out and so we trust in a personal God who is far, far more intelligent than we are.

Let me end with a short passage from the Gospel of Luke of a rich man in Hell who is crying out to God to save his family members who are still alive on earth:

"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' " 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "
Luke 16:27-31

The rich man says that if his brothers see someone rise from the dead, then they will believe. Now someone rising from the dead is a lot more impressive than healing an amputee. The bar can't be set any higher than this for a physical miracle.

And yet Abraham says that if they will not believe Scripture, even if they see someone rise from the dead, they will not believe in God. They will make this or that excuse or just try not to think of it any more.

Don't let that happen to you.

Outside of creation, the main miracle which points to God and to the historicity and truth of Christianity, is the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's the miracle which Christianity is based on and shows that God exists.

False Concepts in "Conversations With God"

The Conversations with God (CwG) books are transcripts of actual, mental conversations between the author and a spirit claiming to be God. These books challenge traditional Christian theology and present alternative metaphysical concepts. However, the purpose of this article is to discuss only the basic premises - the foundational ideas, or core concepts - of the CwG books. These concepts are spelled out for the reader in Book 1. Many wonderful ideas for a better world are presented in Books 2 and 3, and there is much food for thought in each of the CwG books, but only the foundational ideas are discussed here.

Early in Book 1, we are told that, in order for anything to exist, it must have an opposite; that, in order for God (the unseen) to exist and also to know Itself, there has to be something that is not God (the visible creation). Without relativity and relationship - made possible by God's creation of the visible, physical world - God can neither exist, nor know Itself except conceptually. These ideas are presented on pages 22-26 (First Hardcover Edition, 1996).

I should mention here that relativity and relationship belong to the physical world. They are aspects of our experience of the world in terms of opposites, or dualities, and contrasts: cold and hot, far and near, pleasure and pain, good and bad, the observer and the observed, for example. We judge something as cold or far in relation to their opposites, hot or near. Cold and hot, or far and near are not absolutes; they exist only in relation to, or relative to, each other. In the realm of eternal oneness, of God as the unchanging Absolute, Who exists forever, relativity and opposites do not exist.

God is beyond even our grandest concepts of "Him", and in order to really know Him, one has to experience Him as infinite love and oneness, beyond duality. This happens when, through His grace, generally after lifetimes of selfless service and seeking, one merges with God (perhaps in deep meditation) and, in the state of Christ Consciousness or Cosmic Consciousness, experiences God as the Supreme Reality. But these states of consciousness, which far surpass our dualistic experiences in the physical realm, are not discussed in "Conversations". Those saints and mystics who have experienced oneness with God as the Father (the Absolute, beyond all physical manifestation) tell us that this state is so glorious it cannot be adequately described in terms of human concepts. Enlightened masters, such as Jesus, teach that to regain this lost paradise of bliss-consciousness - the Kingdom of God - is the ultimate destiny of every human being. But awareness of our oneness with God only comes when consciousness is developed and purified. Through virtue and self-discipline, living in unconditional love, study of spiritual truth, and deep meditation, one shakes off earthly attachments, ego, judgmental attitudes, hate, fear and anger, and draws ever closer to blissful oneness with God.

There is a sharp contrast between teachings that have come to us from enlightened beings, and the core teachings in Conversations with God! The latter completely reverse the teachings of enlightened beings by telling us that God's existence depends on the existence of the physical universe (rather than the existence of the universe depending on God's existence), and that God and souls can know themselves in a real and meaningful way only in terms of human experiences of relativities and dualities in the physical world (when, in fact, the reality of God and souls can be truly known only by transcending physicality, relativity and duality). On pages 22-23, the god of "Conversations" says that God longed to know what it felt like to be magnificent and, for this reason, created souls to experience Him in relative terms. For only through our human experience of Him as magnificent could He experience His magnificence.

As an example of the process of God knowing Himself through humans, the god of "Conversations" says, on pages 25-27, that the only way God could know Himself experientially as the Creator was to create sufficient parts of Himself (souls endowed with free choice) and, through their creative actions in the physical world, experience His own nature as Creator. But, even if it were true that God longed to experience Himself through the experiences of humans, wouldn't one or two of us have been sufficient in order for Him to have this experience?

"Conversations" says that, without the world and the relative, dualistic, physical experiences of souls, God was limited to conceptual knowing. Conceptual knowing is imperfect and incomplete. A concept is just a symbol of something and falls far short of the actual experience of the object, feeling, or reality that it symbolizes. However, contrary to what CwG would have us believe, God's knowing is not and never was conceptual. Enlightened masters tell us that knowing, in God's realm, is direct; it is perfect because it is direct experience in which - as yoga teaches when speaking of the state of oneness in deep meditation - the knower, the process of knowing, and the object known become one. Through oneness with something, you know all about it. In the supreme state of oneness, one does not use words or mental images - symbols - to know; one knows by being one with that which is known. Dualistic experiences are subject to the limited scope of the human mind and senses; God's knowing is all encompassing and infinite.

The self-proclaimed god of CwG, spins a web of stories and philosophical sophistry that gives supreme importance to the physical creation and the limited perceptions of human beings for supposedly enabling God to exist and to know Himself. None of the saints, mystics and masters of various cultures and times have said that God needed a physical world in order to exist, and human perceptions of Him so that He could know Himself. What they have said is that, only in the state of oneness, beyond our perceptions of physicality, relativity, and duality, can we know God as He truly is. Many of them have also said that, eons ago, humans freely chose to think and act in ways that caused them to lose their awareness of unity with God and all things, and as a consequence, they and the physical world they lived in, fell from their original glory and perfection (symbolized by the Garden of Eden allegory). They lost the ability to know God directly and had to use concepts instead. However, as we reconnect with God, by living in love and oneness, we (and, perhaps, the world) will be restored to our original perfection and wholeness.

Another core concept in "Conversations" that needs to be evaluated is the idea that, without its opposite, love could not exist as something that could be experienced (p. 24). According to CwG, God created fear as the absolute opposite of love, so love could be experienced. However, teachings received from Jesus in our time tell us that love has no opposites nor comparisons. In other words, love is not something that is relative to something else. This makes sense, because divine love comes from God, not from the physical plane. It is the nature of what we are as spirit and simply needs to be called forth by removing psychological obstructions, such as fear, which keep it from our awareness.

Love is far more than sympathy or human attraction; it encompasses and embraces everything. CwG acknowledges the supremacy of love and even says love is the only true reality; it is absolute, and is all there is (p. 56). How then, can love be experienced as an opposite? According to CwG, the love we experience on earth is not real love; it is an imitation of real love, which we accept as real because it seems real (p. 57).

However, even if human love is sometimes an imitation, we do experience real love on earth in varying degrees when the heart is open. Fear does not help one to experience it; fear only gets in the way. Fear shuts down the higher functions of the heart, which enable us to experience blissful, joyous, divine love. Yet, when we give and receive love, the heart is open and fear is gone. The most wonderful ("one - full") experiences on earth are of love, bliss, oneness, and divine light. Experiences of divine realities far transcend experiences of the physical world. Physical relativities and dualities simply cannot compare with, and do not help us, to experience divine realities. To experience divine love, we need to step aside from fears, comparisons and judgments. This opens the way for love to enter in. However it only comes when the time is right. Perhaps guilt, fear, and other psychological obstructions still remain - buried deep in the subconscious mind - to be patiently dissolved through meditation, forgiveness, and wisdom.

The god of "Conversations" speaks of love as the sum total of all feelings. He says that the soul can experience perfect love only by experiencing every human feeling, namely, fear, hatred, anger, etc.; and that the purpose of the human soul is to experience all human emotions so that it can be all of them. He says that accomplishing this takes many lifetimes (p. 83-84).

It is true that humans have been incarnating over and over for many lifetimes, experiencing fear, anger, hatred, lust, vengeance, greed, and so on, as well as wars, personal vendettas, and endless miseries, caused by destructive emotions and selfish desires. But is experiencing every human feeling the purpose of the soul, a task we were sent here to accomplish? Certainly, we need to be conscious of our negative thoughts and emotions and not shrink from recognizing them, but we should refuse to act them out. Our purpose in coming here was to experience the divinity in each other and in God's creation by living in love and oneness, and to create only good by acting in accord with the will of God. Fear, greed, anger, and all the other negative emotions cause us to reincarnate over and over until we learn to tame them with wisdom and replace them with love. They are not ingredients that, by being mixed together, create love. Instead, they keep us from accepting, expressing and experiencing love.

By telling us that we need to experience all aspects of life on earth, including desires and unloving emotions that cause pain and suffering for ourselves and others, and keep us from living in peace and joy, the god of "Conversations" clearly demonstrates he isn't interested in our spiritual welfare. There is not, and never was, a need to explore the endless caverns of human experience in order to experience love. In order to experience divine love, we need to give up the thoughts, feelings, and desires of the ego, which stem from the idea that we are separate from each other and God. Love is our inmost essence, and whenever we choose to leave selfish thoughts, feelings, and desires behind and live in love, we begin to rise above the habits and compulsions of our lower nature, and love begins to manifest in our life. The god of "Conversations" wants to put one over on us by telling us we need to experience every human feeling.

I've only mentioned a few of the core concepts in the CwG books intended to mislead people and hinder them from making the effort to get rid of habits and compulsions that keep them earthbound. There are many other false teachings in these books. And, of course, there also are many true teachings. It is as if the god that presented these concepts wants us to keep on reincarnating over and over, pursuing earthly desires and objectives, but also does not want us to become so obsessed with fear, greed, hostility, and vengeance that we destroy our physical forms, and the earth as well. So, not only do we find many falsehoods in Conversations with God, but also much that is true, especially in the books that came out after Book 1. And, keep in mind that not many people would read these books unless, in addition to untruth, they also contained truth and inspiration. By telling us many things that are true, they give the impression that they really might be conversations with God, in which case even the falsehoods would be accepted as true. Their teachings are presented with great skill, intelligence, and cunning. When I first started reading the CwG books, some of the teachings didn't quite add up but, like most of us, I didn't take time to carefully examine and analyze everything. Then, several years later, I decided to study the teachings more closely and discovered inconsistencies and distortions of truth, such as those I'm discussing here.

These books tell us we are continuously creating the Self by the choices we make on the earth plane (p. 113), but Self-realized masters tell us the Self was created by God, that it was perfect right from the start and still is perfect, even though the ego keeps us from experiencing the Self and knowing this. When we experience the Self, we will know what it is, that it has never changed and has always been the same. So, attaining Self-realization is not a process of creating the Self; it is remembering who we are.

The Conversations with God books make a pretense of guiding us toward Self-realization, but actually do the opposite. Instead of telling us how to rise above earthly thoughts and desires, in order to focus our mind on Spirit, they point us in the direction of body-consciousness. Instead of explaining that the Self and God are realized by learning to concentrate on divine realities - peace, love and light, for instance - beyond the relativities and dualities of the physical world, they say that the Self and God are created by our experiences of our actions in this world in terms of relativity and duality. They make a true statement that our purpose is to live our highest conception of ourselves and that our highest purpose is to realize the Self (p. 129), but then tell us that our mind, not God, creates the Self, and that the Self is experienced not by becoming aware of the soul's perfection and oneness with God but through physical experiences (p. 196). They even encourage us to explore and enjoy all aspects of the physical realm. They say that, when we have had enough sex or any of the other pleasures of earthly life, we will desire a higher life and will naturally renounce these pleasures, in order to pursue a higher goal, a greater version of life. But the relative world of dualities and physical pleasures can be a trap. People have been seeking physical pleasures for eons, yet rarely have they renounced them and become Self-realized. And those who accomplished this did so by making a colossal, superhuman effort to rise above the influence of dualities and body-consciousness.

In order to realize the Self and God, it is important to control one's thoughts and exercise restraint in enjoying the pleasures of eating, entertainment, sex, and all the other earthly activities that otherwise take over a person's life and leave little time for devotional communion with God. If we just wait passively for these desires to dissipate, it may never happen. By making a determined effort to spend more time in spiritual activities, such as meditation, we can succeed in living a truly higher life... one of love and spiritual progress.

On pages 100-103, we are told that, instead of resisting desires that do not serve us, we should look at them, understanding and accepting them, then step aside from them, and they will disappear. However, looking at our desires in this way hardly ever makes them disappear. You might step aside from them - putting them out of your awareness momentarily - but, like a magnetic imprint in your mind that is still there, they come right back into your awareness. Also, thinking about sex, food, or anything else that you desire usually increases your desire.

The same is true for destructive habits of thinking, such as nursing grievances and condemning or criticizing people. Just looking at destructive habits of thinking, while understanding and accepting them, doesn't make them disappear.

After telling us how to deal with desires that do not serve us, "Conversations" mentions something that does work (p. 104). It is simply to turn toward God and away from temptation. Turning toward God gives one inner strength and motivation to naturally and successfully renounce (turn away from) desires one wants to get rid of. If a desire comes to tempt you, don't think about it, trying to understand it; or concentrate on it, trying to see through it; just say No, and turn to God. If it resists, persist until it's dismissed.

On page 29, "Conversations" says that only in the realm of the Absolute can something exist without its opposite, but the realm of the Absolute did not suffice for either God or ourselves, for in the Absolute there is no experience, only knowing. However, as previously mentioned, God's knowing - unlike dualistic, earthly experience - is not conceptual and limited. The realm of the Absolute is the realm of the highest heaven - the supreme state of all-encompassing love and oneness, known in divine, ecstatic communion and meditation. It is beyond earthly dualities, inferior pleasures, pain and suffering. In this infinite realm, God knows by being one with that which is known. This kind of knowing is experiential in the highest sense of the word and is the kind of knowing we had before we lost awareness of our oneness with God. What does not suffice for either God or ourselves is earthly experience and knowledge, not the blissful realm of the Absolute.

"Conversations" then goes on to equate God the Father with conceptual knowing and God the Son with dualistic experiencing. It says that God the Son is the acting out of "all that the Father knows of Itself", for one can only be that which one has experienced (p. 30). This is an attempt to make dualistic, earthly experience seem more important than the infinite love and bliss that is God and which God knows by direct experience. It even implies that the Father and Son cannot exist, in other words, be, without earthly experience.

In terms of linear cause and effect, common sense tells us the existence (being) of the Creator (Father) comes first, before the existence (being) of the Creation (the physical world and souls) and experiences of acting out the Father's concepts of Himself. The experiences, according to CwG, are the Son, and being comes after this. CwG says that being is the Holy Spirit - the disembodied memory of the Son's experience on the physical plane (p. 30). What CwG says is untrue. God the Father is being (God has to exist, in other words, be, in order to create), God the Son is the oneness, love, and intelligence implanted in all Creation by the Father, not the acting out of concepts, and God the Holy Spirit is a creation (extension) of the Father, not a memory of earthly experiences. The Father and the Son, as well as the Holy Spirit, have being, for to exist is to be.

The state of being of God the Father is often considered to be the supreme state of being, and the physical creation as not true being. CwG agrees with this in saying that love is the only true reality; it is absolute, and is all there is (p. 56). Therefore, in saying that "being is achieved only after experience" (p. 30), CwG contradicts itself. CwG is full of contradictory statements like this. It presents contradictory ideas as though they were perfectly compatible. It agrees with many of its reader's beliefs, but presents contradictory ideas that help to support the basic idea it wants us to accept: that physical experiences are more important than God the Father. It tries to make us believe that returning to this world is more important than returning to the Father, and entices us to keep on being reborn in human embodiment, as we have been doing for, perhaps, many thousands of lifetimes, drawn here by unfulfilled physical desires and karma.

The god of "Conversations" makes an interesting statement in Book 3 (copyright 1998, p. 185) by telling us that he is the source of A Course in Miracles, a book first published in 1976, whose teachings and mental exercises help those who study and practice them, to overcome the influence of the relativities and illusions of the world, to "listen" to the voice of the Holy Spirit, and to experience the light of Christ within. Since the Course directly contradicts the core message of "Conversations", that divinity can only be experienced in terms of relativities and illusions, one wonders why "Conversations" would try to take credit for it. Perhaps, because A Course in Miracles is very difficult to understand, the readers of "Conversations" might not read the "Course" or might not notice the contradictions.

Also, in Book 3, Paramahansa Yogananda is mentioned as an example of a highly evolved being, a master who lived in peace and serenity most of his life, and brought peace and serenity to others (pp. 132, 324). Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) teachings help one to discover the peace, love, and joy of the soul - the divinity within - through deep, daily meditation. By self-discipline, devotion, breath control, and stilling the mind in deep meditation, one is able to experience the light, love and bliss of Spirit. Yogananda taught meditation as a means of transcending the dualities and relativities of the illusory phenomenal world, in order to realize God. In his Autobiography of a Yogi (Chapter 30, The Law of Miracles) and in many other writings, he discusses maya - the cosmic, delusive force of relativity and duality, which tries to keep humanity engrossed in the drama of the world, lifetime after lifetime. His teachings show us how to overcome the influence of maya and penetrate its illusions.

Though Conversations with God professes to show us the way to enlightenment and freedom, it actually serves the purpose of maya. It talks about meditation and God, and even says that our reality is love, but tells us that God and love can only be experienced in terms of relativity and duality. A Course in Miracles teaches that love is all encompassing and can have no opposite. "Conversations" says that, in order to experience love, one has to experience its opposite and even tells us that, in order to experience love, the soul has to experience all emotions, so it can "be all of it" - feelings perceived as evil as well as those perceived as good (pp. 83, 84). But we already are love. The reason we don't experience the blissful love at the core of our being is that, long ago, after God created us, we began to be influenced by dualities within the earth plane and, instead of remembering the oneness of all things, we began to perceive pain and suffering as separate. This inability to be at one with all aspects of creation led to a perceived separation from, and diminished ability to commune with, The Divine. And the chasm grew ever wider (Messages from Jesus, by Mary Ann Johnston, Third Edition, 2009, p. 166). Because we allowed ourselves to be influenced by dualities, we forgot the oneness of everything and, instead, perceived separation. From separation came guilt, fear, and other negative emotions, which greatly limited our ability to experience love and divinity.

So, trying to find divine realities - the peace, bliss, oneness, love and light of God, for example - by experiencing all emotions so we can be love, and by experiencing all actions so we can know which ones to choose (p. 84) is a false path, one that would increase material desires and attachments, create karma that would cause us to reincarnate until we chose another path, and block our awareness of divine realities. Readers of the CwG books are at a place where they don't need to learn by trial and error what kinds of actions will help them grow spiritually. If they want to know how to experience divine realities and attain liberation, all they need to do is study and practice the teachings of enlightened beings.

Finally, it's important to remember that the god of "Conversations" tells us he is not the Supreme Being. He says that, as we now understand God, he is God, but that, even as we are his children, he is the child of another (Book 1, p. 197). However, even if he isn't the Supreme Being, that doesn't matter to everyone. He talks so eloquently, with such seeming authority and utter confidence, and says so much that is true about the shortcomings of religion and the foibles and failings of humankind, that many are inclined to believe everything he says. The god of "Conversations" knows how to bait a trap.

God So Loved the World But Does He Still Love Me

This word is for those who really question the love of God. It is not that they question whether or not God loves at all, they just question in their heart, does God love me, or do I really love Him? We all do at times I think. As Christians we are tempted to think these thoughts. But why do they just seem to grip us at times? We can't seem to shake it off. We know better and still the thoughts persist. I think all of us would like to put the issue to rest once and for all.

Here is what we need to know. First of all we need to realize that we usually struggle the most with these kinds of thoughts after a moral failure. So let me ask you this. Why does sinning bother you so much? Sin doesn't seem to bother everybody. We want to be perfect, never make mistakes, always doing and saying the right thing. It hurts to think we failed Jesus. If this is you, if this is hitting home, then I know something about you.

I know something about you, that I am convinced of, not even knowing who you are! What do I know? I know that you do love Jesus. Why? Because people who do not love Him, and are not interested in Him, are never concerned with failing Him. The thing that is hurting is the love in your heart for Him. The only one ever truly tempted to question, does God still love me, is someone who has a deep love for God. You cannot hurt a heart that does not care. Therefore we know we are loved. Doesn't the Bible say that we love Him because He first loved us? The love in us was initiated by the love He first has for us. The only reason there is a love for Jesus in my heart, is that there was a love for me in His heart first.

I know you know this. It has just been hard to trust in it. It can get that way at times, but really only for those who really love Him. If you are questioning in your heart, does God still love me, let me say in no uncertain terms. Yes He does, He most certainly does, and you love Him as well. How do I know? Because it hurts you to think that He may not.

The God Concept Is Not Something To Gloss Over, Especially Since We Are That Concept Essentially

Each one of us, I do believe, are a small part of God that makes up the whole God ultimately. Let me explain what I mean. We as conscious beings are each cellular part that makes up the full living God, God is not a being outside of us in any way, but we are all cellular parts of what God is. When we look in the mirror, we are looking at a small part of God. When we look at full existence, we are looking at God. The full God concept is the whole of existence, and God started out as an objective concept before starting out as anything else before the medium of creation. Some may argue that point with me, but from my point of view there is not much to argue, because that is a pretty accurate description in brief. But as you can tell this will be a pretty long and interesting article about this point, because this topic deserves that treatment.

So, to refute certain things outside of my point first of all: If God was dead, existence would not exist if my concept of God is accurate. Here, I am oversimplifying to get a point across, an honest point. There is something to everything, even the foolish, or it would not at least exist as a concept. Sure, I can say many things here, but I will make as broad "brush strokes" as possible to get my point across simply, yet accurately and logically. This will surprise you: But this article is not an attack on world religions or even an attempt at "cracker barrel" philosophy. This article is actually validating the genuine and real point of religion by logically and methodically exposing its logical philosophical core realities.

So, we have established two concepts, God is alive as every living being is a part of God and existence and has existed as a conceptual structure before it existed as existence proper. So, think of a giant oak tree laying inside an acorn. That acorn has the concept of an oak tree within it, but it has to evolve over years into that mighty oak tree. That is part of my point. The essential concept is to show the thread of concept that links it all, a God concept if you will.

Now, sure, I can use fancy language to describe the obvious, but honestly, making things too complex has no point. The best thing to do is bring it down to the lowest common denominator, which I am doing. The highest common denominator is not to question anything and accept things on "pure" irrational faith without going deeply into the questions and answers and realities and making assumptions without going deeper. Yes, the lowest and highest common denominator meanings are learned in math class in school or any basic math book. But I will still explain what I mean by those terms anyway. The lowest common denominator is the simplest solution. The highest common denominator is complex, "Rube Goldberg" cartoon style silliness that is not workable. That is what I mean by highest common denominator, not so much the math term where one million is the highest common denominator for so many numbers. Sure, I can be less balanced and reasoned about religion and philosophy and more emotional, but what good would it do? Nothing, which is why I am going to continue taking the road I am taking on this without "let up" of any sort. "You can put the boy in the jungle and the man is still in the jungle even when he has mastered and outgrown the jungle" so to speak. We all live in existence, no matter what, even when we have mastered it seemingly. God is a master, but God was like us once if I am right. Even the Christian holy book says that we were made in his image, and every holy book essentially echoes this reality right down to the Upanishads a few thousand years before the Christian holy book. My point is not debate, argument or polemic. Reality to be mastered needs to be fully understood and understood deeply. I could go on at least two hundred or three hundred more words, but I want you to think, and think deeply, especially about existence, reality and all related subjects for yourself as I do for myself.