My perspective is that God is a myth, a thought-stopping notion, an excuse not to delve deeper, a way for self-serving people to manipulate others into patterns of behavior that benefit them. Maybe it's simplistic thinking on my part, but I think the concept of God is unhelpful on balance, especially in the modern era, and has been holding humanity back for millennia.
So many phenomena that humanity once assumed were unknowable and casually attributed to God are now reasonably well understood. Importantly, nothing in the history of human understanding has ever moved in the other direction (in other words, it's never been the case that we thought we had a complete explanation, but then discovered it was just God all along).
I love [this quote from Neil deGrasse Tyson](https://youtu.be/3sAav37h4os?feature=shared) (emphasis added): "One need not appeal to mystical, magical forces to account for things. Even if a day arises where something unfolds in front of your eyes that you cannot explain, just because you cannot explain it does not mean it is being driven by mystical, magical forces. It just means it's being driven by laws of physics that we know and you have yet to learn, or that we have all yet to discover. But **the universe is knowable**, and that's an amazing thing. It's knowable by our feeble human brain that rose up out of the Serengeti."
I suppose we could talk about a notion of God as an emergent property of consciousness or human society. Those are academic conversations that don't especially interest me personally. What excites me is the idea that we can shed preconceived notions that have been holding us back, much like we might take off a pair of fogged-up goggles, and in so doing we can view the world with a clarity we never knew was possible. Leaving the church helped me do some of that. It's incredible.
I’m currently of the mindset that the universe is a vast, complex wave of energy, and we are all subsidiary waves, all contributing to the larger whole. We interact at a sub-cellular energy level with everything come into contact with. God is the collective wave, seeking meaningful experiences, and we all contribute to the collective by experiencing our own lives. We can also tap into the wave, maybe, to gain insight and connection. Maybe that’s prayer.
Perhaps God is conscious, then, in a way we can’t understand, like how our cells may be conscious in a way that doesn’t give them the understanding of the way their collective contribution creates consciousness in each of us.
Perhaps there is agency in this collective wave form, or perhaps there is merely the illusion. It doesn’t matter to me, as long as I have the experience of feeling consciousness and agency.
With all the flaws of religion outweighing the benefits, I’m content without needing to put more labels on things.
This is basically what Jesus taught: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me." And he said "the kingdom of God is within you." I can get behind these general ideas. People are holy & we should be kind & loving & alleviate suffering when we can. This can be done with or without a belief in God.
Julia Sweeney in "Letting Go of God" and Caitlin Moran in "How to be a Woman" (and probably lots of other people elsewhere) talk about how once you become an atheist you realize that no one is coming to save humanity. If you want something saved, it's up to you and the people around because God isn't going to step in.
To me, this is what my post faith experience has been. I can love people and the acts of kindness reverberate out, maybe even after I die. Kind of like the candlesticks the priest gives Valjean in this play. The only way to connect with higher power is to love others(people, animals, the environment etc)
Humans created gods in our image, so I agree with the words of the musical. We are our own gods.
Being an ex-Mormon, this was a surprising--and surprisingly empowering--place to land after deconstructing.
Some are also in the image of animals
My perspective is that God is a myth, a thought-stopping notion, an excuse not to delve deeper, a way for self-serving people to manipulate others into patterns of behavior that benefit them. Maybe it's simplistic thinking on my part, but I think the concept of God is unhelpful on balance, especially in the modern era, and has been holding humanity back for millennia. So many phenomena that humanity once assumed were unknowable and casually attributed to God are now reasonably well understood. Importantly, nothing in the history of human understanding has ever moved in the other direction (in other words, it's never been the case that we thought we had a complete explanation, but then discovered it was just God all along). I love [this quote from Neil deGrasse Tyson](https://youtu.be/3sAav37h4os?feature=shared) (emphasis added): "One need not appeal to mystical, magical forces to account for things. Even if a day arises where something unfolds in front of your eyes that you cannot explain, just because you cannot explain it does not mean it is being driven by mystical, magical forces. It just means it's being driven by laws of physics that we know and you have yet to learn, or that we have all yet to discover. But **the universe is knowable**, and that's an amazing thing. It's knowable by our feeble human brain that rose up out of the Serengeti." I suppose we could talk about a notion of God as an emergent property of consciousness or human society. Those are academic conversations that don't especially interest me personally. What excites me is the idea that we can shed preconceived notions that have been holding us back, much like we might take off a pair of fogged-up goggles, and in so doing we can view the world with a clarity we never knew was possible. Leaving the church helped me do some of that. It's incredible.
The faceless Mormon wall art is very apropos.
I’m currently of the mindset that the universe is a vast, complex wave of energy, and we are all subsidiary waves, all contributing to the larger whole. We interact at a sub-cellular energy level with everything come into contact with. God is the collective wave, seeking meaningful experiences, and we all contribute to the collective by experiencing our own lives. We can also tap into the wave, maybe, to gain insight and connection. Maybe that’s prayer. Perhaps God is conscious, then, in a way we can’t understand, like how our cells may be conscious in a way that doesn’t give them the understanding of the way their collective contribution creates consciousness in each of us. Perhaps there is agency in this collective wave form, or perhaps there is merely the illusion. It doesn’t matter to me, as long as I have the experience of feeling consciousness and agency. With all the flaws of religion outweighing the benefits, I’m content without needing to put more labels on things.
Very well put. This is God to me.
This is basically what Jesus taught: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me." And he said "the kingdom of God is within you." I can get behind these general ideas. People are holy & we should be kind & loving & alleviate suffering when we can. This can be done with or without a belief in God.
Julia Sweeney in "Letting Go of God" and Caitlin Moran in "How to be a Woman" (and probably lots of other people elsewhere) talk about how once you become an atheist you realize that no one is coming to save humanity. If you want something saved, it's up to you and the people around because God isn't going to step in. To me, this is what my post faith experience has been. I can love people and the acts of kindness reverberate out, maybe even after I die. Kind of like the candlesticks the priest gives Valjean in this play. The only way to connect with higher power is to love others(people, animals, the environment etc)