Personal authority and a non-interventionist God

Many individuals struggle to come to terms with the notion of a non-interventionist God. People, in their fear of individual responsibility, look to outside sources to make decisions for them. So they join a church or the military. To take full responsibility for one's own actions is too much to bear for many. As a result we have a political situation where a large portion of the population places their trust in individuals they have little true awareness of. As a result "the wool" is often pulled over the populations eyes.

The ultimate aim for all of us is to become our own authority and to make decisions for ourselves. This is the purpose of creation. We are created to freely decide our own life. There is no God telling us how to live.

There are approaches to life which have more favorable outcomes such as those given by Jesus in his sermon on the mount recorded in the Christian bible.

However, the creator, in its infinite generosity has given us each the greatest gift of all- FREE WILL.  And the whole point of free will is that it is ours to use and the responsibility for its use lies solely with us. No-one else can be held to blame. In this regard we are all students learning how to use our free will in a way that is most pleasing to ourselves

Is God in control of the world?

Clearly, if mankind has free will - which I believe* we do - then an external God is not in control of the world.  That means we can't thank or blame a God for the actions undertaken by man.

Does this mean anything goes?  Yes, I believe it does, as the bloody history of mankind shows.

Should God "fix everything"?

Some people want God to come in and “fix everything” but how can He do that without interfering with our individual free will choices- the very thing He created us to have?  For the way things are is a reflection of the free will choices of everyone involved and to come in and change things would mean overriding this free will.

If the way we learn is through experiencing the effects of our free will choices, and if the purpose of life is for us to learn to use our creative energies wisely, then what would be the point of a creator coming in and overriding these choices to meet some kind of abstract standard?   It would make no sense and what possibly could be gained from it?  People wouldn't learn and would still go on making the same mistakes and wouldn't become worthy caretakers of this beautiful planet or of any other realm we may one day inhabit.

Respecting human free will means that humans will create both positive and negative conditions on earth as a result of making wise and unwise choices.  This means people, animals and the earth will benefit from mankind's wise, life giving choices and suffer from man's destructive choices.  This is the only way it can be when beings are created with free will which is then honored.  To do otherwise would mean interfering with our growth process.

See also: Free will = God is not in control, God, free will and creating positive change, My response to Stephen Fry's criticism of God (and Russell Brand's response), Are things "the will of God"?, Why doesn't God end our suffering?, God, religion and freedom

Sharka Todd

Would a God of love pass judgement?

If we accept that human judgement of others comes from fear, as I do, then it follows that a being without fear would not judge.  He may discern but he will not judge.  The difference in these two terms being that discernment sees clearly what works and what doesn't in any given situation, but feels no compulsion to pass judgement about what is believed to be morally right or wrong.

If we believe God is love (1 John 4:8), then this means there is no fear in him, as love and fear are incompatible energies.  Therefore, without fear, God would not judge another.  Instead, he may discern that a given action or tendency in us is unhealthy or even dangerous, but he would not judge it as "wrong" and deemed worthy of punishment.  After all, we have free will to experience life in our own way and life, through its mirroring action returning to us what we have metered out, allows us to learn from our mistakes without the need for punishment from God.

Those who have experienced the after-death realm are united in saying that the only judgement that occurs after death is judgment of ourselves by ourselves, upon experiencing our past life review.  Beings who have advanced spiritually have no need of judging others as they realize we are all learning and that when we know better we will do better.  The important thing is that we self-correct when we discover that there are better ways to do things!  That is the purpose of seeing errors in ourselves: to self-correct.  It is of no use that someone else see our faults if we can't see them ourselves.  And, of course, a God of love would forgive us our sins and only hope that when we see the results of our errors we endeavor to d better next time!

Sharka Todd

Free will = God is not in control!

Many people who belong to the theistic religions say that God is in control of what happens on earth.  I disagree, but not because I don't believe in God, but rather, because I believe in free will!

Free will means the ability to do as we choose and to shape the world in our own way.  If free will truly exists then it means that conditions on earth will reflect the desires of the people that live on it, rather than the desires of a God (or gods) who may have created it.

Many people try to combine a belief in human free will with a belief in a God that is in control of our lives, but this makes no logical sense to me.  For example, if we allow someone to live their own life free of our input then we cannot be said to be in control of their life.  This is the same for the situation on earth.  God could only be in control of everything if he overrode our individual free will.  This would mean God had no respect for our free will and, if so, why would he create beings with free will in the first place?  It's all in or all out.  Free will cuts both ways and if we can't accept that a free will being may do harm and allow that to happen, then we shouldn't allow free will in the first place!

See also Should God fix everything?, God, free will and creating positive change

Sharka Todd

In God there are no rules-

but you may find you are moved to help creation, rather than to harm it!

Sharka Todd

What is the will of Allah?

It is the will of Allah that everybody do their own thing!

Evidence?
Everybody CAN do their own thing!

Sharka Todd

God, free will and creating positive change

Source: The Mystical Teachings of Jesus by Kim Michaels.

Freedom and the "will of God"

When something happens some people call it “the will of God” while others say “God allowed it” and still others say “God had nothing to do with it”!  If we believe in God and in the gift of free will for mankind then we have to side with the 3rd claim!

Sharka Todd

Blaming God for our mental suffering

I have heard people blame God, or even Jesus, for their suffering, when that suffering has been created by the thinking patterns they have fostered over many years. I find the blaming of some other being quite strange in these circumstances, when the fault lies clearly at their own feet!

If we accept the reality of free will then we accept that we are the creator of our mental patterns and any suffering or happiness that may go along with them.  Of course, our life experiences will impact on our thinking, but it is still up to us to decide what we wish to focus on, what we choose to ignore and how we choose to interpret the events of our lives. No one else can do it for us.

Are we arguing over a false God?

Many arguments are had over a being that I don't think exists and that being is the controlling God- the one who punishes us for our crimes and intervenes in our lives against our free will.

The only God that I understand is a loving one who maintains an unlimited respect for our free will and does not interfere in our lives in any way except to support us and help us reach the goal of unlimited joy- as soon as is humanly possible!

Sharka Todd

My response to Stephen Fry's criticism of God (and Russell Brand's response)

Originally posted as a comment on the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Te862VIUBo

Fry made a good point about the problems in the world and how, if there was an omnipotent God, then this God doesn't seem to care much about our well being.
 
Clearly, the idea that God is omnipotent is purely a human projection as there is no way we could know this.  I mean, humans can create super computers and yet we are not omnipotent, and so enhanced creative ability is no evidence of omnipotence.  Obviously, we could say the belief in God is just a human construct as well, and that would be fair, but we can go beyond this to say that the qualities we have projected upon this God are also human constructions.

The idea of omnipotence is one humans invoke to feel secure or to "big-up" their concept of God.  In other words, a being may have created this world but that doesn't mean their powers over it are unlimited.  People would then argue: then this God did a poor job, considering all the problems that have flowed on from the original creation.  However, if we believe that humans have free will then we can admit that most of these problems have been created by our own free will choices, rather than because the universe is flawed in some way.  Therefore, the responsibility would lie with us collectively, rather than with the God (or gods) that created us with free will.  And although problems exist, in a larger context creation may be best served by having beings with free will that make mistakes and then learn to overcome them, rather than having drone-like beings that operate according to set rules.

As far as Russell Brand’s comments are concerned- yes he is talking about a different concept of God.  God as consciousness, or the ground of being, which, although it may be embraced by some in the New Age movement, has its origin in the Vedas of India (and probably before that).  If we are God- or the ground of being- existing as a human, then clearly the choices we make, including those that lead to disease and destruction of the environment, are our responsibility and not those of some external agency.

Sharka Todd

Does belief in a God imply anything about our values?

 
(Originally posted as a comment on Richard Dawkin's website, here)

I think it's important to realize that believing in a creator God or Gods doesn't necessarily imply any particular creed or set of beliefs outside of that.  Many societies have believed in a "great spirit", or creator God of some sort, but have not necessarily postulated a set of moral codes like that given in the Sermon on the Mount, for example. 

Whether we believe in a God (or Gods) or not, we are still free to form our own ideas of what is important in life, and even those who claim to belong to the same religious denomination will be found to have significantly different values from each other, if we scratch beneath the surface.

The fact that various religions attempt to "own" God by telling us what God is and what God (supposedly) wants, I find distasteful.  I think we need to figure that out for ourselves, if we choose to believe in a transcendent reality.  And even if we don't, it's still up to us to determine what values we will uphold.  And in that space, we are all empty-handed and free- to create as we wish!  That is the meaning and reality of free will and if a creator God did create us with free will that is presumably what they would wish, also!

Sharka Todd

Are things "the will of God"?

Although I believe creation is good in the broadest sense I don't accept that what happens on Earth is necessarily the will of a God. If God exists I believe "he" leaves things up to us to decide and sadly, many choices we make are destructive rather than creative.  Hence, conditions on Earth are far from ideal!

If God has a specific desire for our lives, beyond allowing us to freely experience, then clearly there is no compunction to follow it.  Therefore the sum of actions on Earth by people will not equate to "the will of God".  "The will of God" could only manifest if every person carried out "the will of God" in their own lives and clearly this is not the case as such a thing would mean we had no free will and were just automatons, like many materialists believe.

Even if there is a God or Great Spirit separate from the individual this doesn't mean that "he" has any desire to influence our lives in any way.

The idea that there is a God who has plans for our life is one promoted by certain religions but it necessarily doesn't flow from a belief in the existence of a creator.  There are also many who believe in a creator, but one who has endowed us with free will, not to test us with either obeying or disobeying "his" will, but rather one who has the grace to allow us to live our lives as we see fit and to learn our lessons in our own time.

Sharka Todd

Must God be judgemental?

Many people seem to think the choice we face is between believing in an angry, judgmental god who is distant from us or in believing in no god at all. People have been so brainwashed by the popular religions  and their view of a judgmental god that in their desire to turn away from this god they turn away from a belief in any spiritual reality, whatsoever.

There is, of course, no evidence that a judgmental God exists. Many would say there is no evidence of any God.  However, those who claim to have experienced "cosmic consciousness" are unified in their view that the being that embodies this universe is pure love, free of any judgment of its creations or any desire to control them.

We are born free for a reason.  Not so we can live according to the dictates of some fictitious, angry god created by the priests to control us.  Whatever being, having created this amazing and beautiful world, is surely much bigger and more magnanimous than that!

Sharka Todd

Earthly authorities as God's representatives

We are taught obedience to authority figures early in life- in schools, at home and through the media. The obedient child is said to be the good child and the child society and God will reward. By obeying earthly authorities we will get good grades, have a good life and go to heaven.

Authorities are sold to us as God's representatives on Earth. That is the message that is promoted early in life. They are not to be questioned or doubted as they are so much more knowledgeable than we are.  Instead, we are supposed to see ourselves as subservient to them.

It's hard for many people to see beyond this conditioning and to begin to view authorities as human and therefore, fallible, and whose will is not the will of God. 

This is a form of maturity that not everyone is capable of. Instead, many still cling to childish notions of unassailable authority, which they must obey or expect punishment in this life or the next.

See also: Personal authority and a non-interventionist God

Sharka Todd

God, religion and freedom

God has nothing to do with religion or religious intolerance. For these are purely the works of man and his attempt to control his fellow man!

If life is the expression of a creator we call God then clearly the will of God is for us to live freely, making our own decisions as we see fit. For this is how life presents itself to us. Only our fellow man attempts to limit our freedom.

As for the religious books, although some parts of these are obviously well intentioned, it is clear that these are the works of men with limited consciousness for they are full of rules and regulations. I don't believe they are rules and regulations given by the originator of life. What we are given from the originator is just wide, open, free life, which we are able to live as we choose, no strings attached!

This doesn't mean our actions are without consequences, but these consequences are the natural result of systems set in place that are clearly observable if we pay attention to our own experience, learning from our mistakes.

"Love your neighbor" because this makes life more pleasant for you and your neighbor, not because to refuse would send you to some eternal hell imagined by the priestly caste to control the population and give them some false sense of power over them!

Sharka Todd

Accept everything as the will of the force-

even if it isn't!


Image: Star Wars, Episode 2, deleted scene

Following the "will of God"

If we are to follow the “will of God” how do we know what it is? Surely we must have a built in guidance system to direct us through our lives? Some say this is our feeling nature, which others call the intuition. It is up to us to find out.

This “will of God” is also called by some “messages from the soul”. For the philosophical materialist such a soul does not exist, instead intuition is seen as an inner calculation based on present variables and past experiences. If there is no "will of God" or "soul's desire" then clearly our path must be determined by the actions of the mind rather than messages coming from the soul through the intuition.

The important point to find out is what works best for each of us so we know what voice we should be be following. It is surely up to each of us to find out.

Sharka Todd

Religion, fear, control

Religion is a creation of the priests in an endeavor to raise themselves and subject others to their influence. To this end they create a fictional god who is full of judgement and wrath. Ironically, the God Force or Central Atom is totally accepting and loving of its creation, having no judgement for any of us whatsoever. Instead the Central Atom upholds our very being allowing us the freedom to do as we wish.

It is only our judgement which exists and when we cease judging ourselves we not only become free but we also begin to act in a more benign and magnanimous way.

Sharka Todd