I'm an agnostic--former atheist, former Methodist--looking for faith the size of a mustard seed and sometimes I think I found it, and sometimes I think I never will. I reject the pomp and circumstance of organized religion. I don't think you need to go to church to know god, if there is such a thing but there has to be something because some things are just too perfect and beautiful in their design: the Fibonacci sequence, and how tree trunks and branches mirror arteries and capillaries, the interconnection of systems. . .
I was raised without any particular religion, but with a relationship with my Zuni (a Native American tribe) culture. I don't really
believe in it as one tends to believe in a religion, but I do greatly value it as a cultural tradition which is a part of who I am, and I think a great deal of my spirituality arises at least in part from that. I wouldn't consider it my
religion however. I'm basically a strong agnostic in that I don't think it's possible to know whether a god or gods exist.
You say you have no specific belief system but you must, I think, because you admit to sometimes vehemently rejecting all others. There has to be a basis for that. You've set a bar by which you measure other belief systems. That is your foundation, your belief system.
Yes I suppose you could say that. I mean I don't have any codified belief system. There are things which make sense to me and things which do not. Likewise, I also know there are things which are true which do not make sense to me, so I know the world in general cannot be defined by my belief system alone.
There are some who can trace back their beliefs and world view to fundamental axioms, whether they be handed down from Moses or Ayn Rand or whatever. I cannot. Maybe I could if I took the time, but it would be a painstaking intellectual exercise that I don't care to undertake.
That's what I mean when I say I don't have a belief "system".
The most important part, I think, is that I recognize
no set of axioms can fully describe all things that are true (incidentally, this was also recently linked in "the God thread"). So ultimately, when I say I have no belief "system", what I mean is I know there are things that are true that I will never understand, and there are things that I can understand that may not be true. At the intersection of this, is the realization that in order to live, you sometimes have to accept things which don't make sense, and act accordingly.
In the absence of any rigorous belief system that makes perfect sense, this leads into what role "meaning" plays for us. And this is where religion, spirituality, and "god" enter the picture...
You don't exist in a vaccuum.
I certainly don't, and some of my own conceptions of god are founded on this.
Two ways I think we can define god is "that which is greater than us" and "that which has power over us, determines us, and guides us". Or more simply, "something greater than us, which imparts meaning unto us". And at the same time, I think a god wholly separate from humankind would be rather lonely, so I prefer to think of a god as being related to humans. Putting those ideas together, I think humanity itself can be considered a kind of god. I think humanity itself is greater than the sum of all individual humans. Humanity will go on long after all of us alive today are dead, and the nature of humanity is, in a way, our creator, and it also determines our self-identity and guides us. Without other human beings, we would require no concept of self-identity. The very fact that other human beings exist gives us meaning, and a will to survive.
People who believe in religion tend to do so because they seek meaning. But ultimately how do we all seek meaning? Even in every religion in the world, it's ultimately through other human beings that we seek meaning. Either through acts of kindness to other humans, or through love. Even in sects of Christianity that believe acceptance of Jesus is all you need to be saved, the humanity of Jesus is emphasized. Ultimately, we are always seeking meaning through other human beings. Doesn't that make humanity a kind of god?
Another way I think about god is the role of an author. Why do bad things happen in this world? Why do bad things happen in a novel? When I consider the deist interpretation of god, as a divine clock-maker, it doesn't quite sit right with me. Why would someone create a world and then decide to leave it be? A clock-maker will fix his clock if he notices something is wrong with it. And yet, if there exists a god who truly loves humankind and wants the best for us, why is there so much suffering and despair in the world?
But then... aren't these the same questions one might ask of a novelist? We create characters we love, and we make them suffer, because we know — in the end — they will grow and be better for it. A story without conflict is meaningless. A character who never develops is meaningless. You couldn't call that
living. It's just accumulating
experience. And it's not as if authors only write for others. It's not just for entertainment. We also write for ourselves. To give us meaning. What if a god is the same as an author?
But when you think about it further, authors are
not gods in many senses of the word. Or at least, we're weak, nearly powerless gods. We don't have omnipotence. We don't have omniscience. Sure, we may trick ourselves into thinking so. We may ask our characters question after question to achieve some semblance of knowledge, but it's just a trick. Ultimately, our characters have power over us as well. Ultimately, the story has power over us as well. If a character
truly wants something in a story, the author is helpless to resist. Any reader can recognize when an author tries to force a character to act outside of his or her characterization. Any reader can recognize when an author tries to shoehorn an ending that doesn't fit. Doesn't that make characters — or at least,
the story — gods as well? Perhaps it's the same with humankind?
Even if we're all characters in the cosmic plot of some cosmic novel... doesn't that still make us gods in a way?
I think — at its most basic level — a god is simply that which imparts meaning. Anything which grants ontological meaning can be considered a god. Humanity. Love. Imaginary creatures. These are just conveyances for meaning.
And as we come to understand this, we come to convey and impart meaning unto the world ourselves. Ultimately, we can even rewrite our very being, change our nature, and redo our existence as we see fit. It may be difficult, but it is possible. The fact that we can
change is proof of our relationship with "god".
What we call "god" is up to us.