Ineffable God

 

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In his July 20 letter “Man, not religion, is the root of war and evil” the author asks us to “imagine what man would pervert if there is no religion.”

 

I think the problem is man’s perversion of religion itself, not what he’d pervert in its absence.  Specifically, I believe that it is the belief in god as an independent entity, separate and above all creation, that allows such perversions to occur.

 

If we consider the non-human portion of the “animal kingdom” we see that those beings live in accordance with the forces that operate within them.  We call this “instinct.”  All of these animals’ “instincts” have only one objective – to preserve the life of the individual animal and thus the species as a whole.

 

Now consider the human animal.  Do we not have the same life-affirming forces going on inside of us?  In our case, however, we’ve developed a “conscious mind” that, unless we’re careful, translates our “instincts” into words, which are rarely adequate for addressing such things.  Also, we tend to create an artificial image of the world (as well as god) with our minds, and this image is hardly ever consistent with reality since we usually incorporate our fears, resentments, and desires into the images we create.

 

I believe the Adam and Eve story addresses my point.

 

Jesus said that “The Kingdom of God is within you.”  I agree. Consequently, I believe that it is within OURSELVES that we must look to find the TRUE source of life.

 

Attempting to use our minds to understand an ineffable concept such as “god” practically guarantees that we’ll get it wrong.  How else can people worship Jesus in all his humility and remain oblivious to the Catholic Church’s ostentatious displays of wealth and power?  How else can someone use Biblical scripture to justify dog and cockfighting?