If God is all-powerful and loves mankind and wants us to live lovingly, purely, and divinely, why doesn't God simply "fix" everything and make us live the way He wants us to? The obvious answer is: Free Will. God gave us Free Will to choose our actions and follow our choices. So, if God gave mankind Free Will, why can't we give it to each other? And, if God gave us Free Will to choose our actions and our paths, isn't that precisely what we're doing? When people seek to control one another, who's "will" is being served - theirs or God's? What God do we serve when we seek to serve ourselves? Who's God is right?
Why do so many people insist on trying to control others? The answers are many but can be reduced to a single cause -- ego. It is ego that seeks to control because it is ego's perception that the ability to control is a reflection of one's own power. This belief is so deeply planted within us that the majority of us spend our lives trying to figure out how to control others or how to avoid being controlled. Ego seeks comfort through control. As long as an individual feels fully empowered, he has neither need nor desire to control others or situations and circumstances. But, in any situation where the boundaries of one's comfort zone are compromised, one's first reaction is to try to control whatever it is that feels out of control; whatever the apparent cause of discomfort is. As one's perceived ability to control is diminished, he exerts greater effort until it becomes force. Those people who feel most powerless resort to force, often fueled by the energies of anger.
So, how does this define an image of God? Is a vengeful, wrathful, controlling God powerful or powerless? There are many who insist that the image of an angry God is a powerful one indeed. It is this image alone which has kept them bound to a moral path. True. But, is this morality born of love or born of fear? It is human nature to hate what we fear. It is survival instinct to avoid it. How does fearing God serve us? If someone spends his life fearing God yet praying that they'll go to heaven when they die so they can rest eternally in the presence of God -- in the presence of what he has always feared, what kind of living hell must heaven be?
All the logical persuasion in the world will not cause a person to abandon an illogical view of God. Entire wars and crusades have been waged over who's God was "right" and who believed in the "true" God. All mainstream religions espouse that there is only one God. Again, true. But an all-present omnipotence wears countless faces, can be seen differently from infinite angles, and can be colored and molded differently by ever-changing perceptions. For many people, their God is a God of absolute control; dictating and demanding the "rightness" and "wrongness" of their every action, feeling, and thought. To commit a sin results in banishment to hell. To feel sinful emotions such as lust or vengeance results in banishment to hell. To think an impure thought results in banishment to hell. For these people, is the "choice" of a moral path a true choice or merely a means to avoid an undesirable end?
Why is it so difficult to abandon one image of God in favor for another? Why does it take so much courage to do so? Long before we came to understand a concept of God, we came to know the reality of our parents. They were our first Gods; they provided for our every need, they nurtured our every facet of growth, they rewarded us for our achievements and punished us for our "failures." But, our "failures" weren't our failures. They were failures in the eyes of our parents, from their perspectives, based on what they valued or wanted for us. We learned then, from the time we could crawl, that the desires, hopes, and expectations of someone external to us were more important than our own. From that unspoken law, we learned to believe that serving God's will was somehow holier than serving our own. We learned that even if we didn't understand the reasoning behind a commandment, we shouldn't question it; we should only obey it.
The controls and punishments of God correlate directly with the controls and punishments of our parents. Banishment to our rooms for misbehavior is the same as banishment to hell for sinful acts. "Just wait until your father gets home" is tantamount to "Just wait until you die and come face to face with God." As children, we're taught that we're selfish if we don't share our toys. As adults, we feel selfish if we don't donate to charities or help the needy. A requirement for Holy Men throughout the world and the world's religions is that he relinquish all his worldly goods. As children, we learn that we can raise the wrath of our parents if we defy their rules. As adults, we believe we can raise the wrath of God if we don't obey His commandments. If our parents use shame to manipulate our behavior, we grow up feeling ashamed of ourselves. How do children feel whenever they're punished by their parents? They often feel wronged, victimized, and that life isn't fair. But far more devastating than that is the perception of the withdrawal of love. And when we have sinned in God's eyes, we're not worthy of love. As "imperfect" human beings, how can we ever love ourselves? If, by "the grace of God" some of us do learn to love ourselves, we fight a deeper internal battle of guilt or shame for doing so. Changing our view of God requires far more than changing our opinions. It requires changing our entire belief system and re-programming our learned behavior. Many people are so deeply entrenched in their learned behavior patterns that even if they knew that another way of behaving existed, they wouldn't know how to change it.
One of the simplest ways to start is by recognizing that all behavior is learned and that by the time we're eight years old, our programming is complete; but if something can be learned, it can be un-learned. Our brains, like computers can be programmed and re-programmed. But, this takes courage, persistence, and dedication. It requires that we question all things -- including God. When we're taught to not question authority, especially the highest authority and that any attempt to do so will result in punishment, questioning God -- the most fearful and powerful tyrant in existence, is daunting to say the least.
Therefore, many of us give lip service to our belief system, saying that we believe in a God of Free Will yet trying to control or manipulate others into behaving according to our understanding of righteous behavior. But, Free Will is simply that -- free will. There are no strings attached or carrots dangled to get us to change our behavior to something other than what we have chosen. A God of Free Will is a loving God. To love all humanity regardless of humanity's behavior means that God is accepting of all behavior. God -- the Omnipotent Being, is in all things. God is in you too. Love yourself. Love the God within you. But, more than coming to love yourself, love loving yourself. Give the God within you the will to be free.
The controls and punishments of God correlate directly with the controls and punishments of our parents. Banishment to our rooms for misbehavior is the same as banishment to hell for sinful acts. "Just wait until your father gets home" is tantamount to "Just wait until you die and come face to face with God." As children, we're taught that we're selfish if we don't share our toys. As adults, we feel selfish if we don't donate to charities or help the needy. A requirement for Holy Men throughout the world and the world's religions is that he relinquish all his worldly goods. As children, we learn that we can raise the wrath of our parents if we defy their rules. As adults, we believe we can raise the wrath of God if we don't obey His commandments. If our parents use shame to manipulate our behavior, we grow up feeling ashamed of ourselves. How do children feel whenever they're punished by their parents? They often feel wronged, victimized, and that life isn't fair. But far more devastating than that is the perception of the withdrawal of love. And when we have sinned in God's eyes, we're not worthy of love. As "imperfect" human beings, how can we ever love ourselves? If, by "the grace of God" some of us do learn to love ourselves, we fight a deeper internal battle of guilt or shame for doing so. Changing our view of God requires far more than changing our opinions. It requires changing our entire belief system and re-programming our learned behavior. Many people are so deeply entrenched in their learned behavior patterns that even if they knew that another way of behaving existed, they wouldn't know how to change it.
One of the simplest ways to start is by recognizing that all behavior is learned and that by the time we're eight years old, our programming is complete; but if something can be learned, it can be un-learned. Our brains, like computers can be programmed and re-programmed. But, this takes courage, persistence, and dedication. It requires that we question all things -- including God. When we're taught to not question authority, especially the highest authority and that any attempt to do so will result in punishment, questioning God -- the most fearful and powerful tyrant in existence, is daunting to say the least.
Therefore, many of us give lip service to our belief system, saying that we believe in a God of Free Will yet trying to control or manipulate others into behaving according to our understanding of righteous behavior. But, Free Will is simply that -- free will. There are no strings attached or carrots dangled to get us to change our behavior to something other than what we have chosen. A God of Free Will is a loving God. To love all humanity regardless of humanity's behavior means that God is accepting of all behavior. God -- the Omnipotent Being, is in all things. God is in you too. Love yourself. Love the God within you. But, more than coming to love yourself, love loving yourself. Give the God within you the will to be free.
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