Belief in God

Every recent survey gives similar results. Seventy-five to ninety percent of Americans believe in God. Yet regular involvement in a religious group only reaches 48% in the deep south. Even in the northern Midwest it is below 35%.


What does it mean to “believe in God?” Both of the key words hold broad differences of meaning. For some “belief” means certainty of presence. Others simply have some vague idea, irrelevant to their personal life. “God” holds an even more diverse set of meanings. There are, even within colleagial groups, those for whom “God” is a separate being, existing somewhere outside of human realm and those for whom God is an amorphous spirit, and there is another group who identify the word “God” with the emotional connection between and among diverse human beings.


As is evident from my previous blog entries, I read a lot of work on cosmological physics as well as other science and technology. Unfortunately I do not have the mathematic skills to read and absorb professional level material, but fortunately there are some top physicists and writers who have translated all the math into English and written excellent explanations for us, mere mortals.


Among the excellent authors are Brian Green, Brian Swimme, Michio Kaku, Steven Weinberg, Elizabeth Leane, James Gleick.


At the moment I am reading Brian Green’s 2005 book, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality as well as Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku, published just this year. (It was not intentional, but both of these authors are leading lights in regard to super-string theory, aka. M-Theory. The books are not similar at all, however. Kaku won a Nobel prize for his invention of string theory.) I'm not sure either of them would make the statement, "I believe in God," but both of them have written very spiritual works. (Green moreso than Kaku)


Then, last night, our “Spiritual ThinkTank” group discussed these same questions: What does the word “God” mean? What does the word “believe” mean? Since we had eight different answers for each of these among the six people in the group, how can we even possibly communicate?


I was brought back to Alfred Korzybski. The map is not the territory. Words are only pointers to reality, they do not have reality themselves.


As soon as we try to define “God”, we are forced to say “God is.” But clearly, whatever follows the word “is” isn’t correct. A God who “is” whatever we say, is not God. At best we can only describe some aspects of our own apprehension of God. I still hear people praying to “God above”, when clearly God is not “above” in any literal sense of that word. There is no “God” who inhabits a “heaven” out there in space. All these words are not wrong, they simply reflect the experience or understanding of the speaker. In fact, they actually say more about the speaker than about God.


One of the clichés that came out of World War I is “There are no atheists in foxholes.” In the first place, the statement may or may not have been true in WWI, it was definitely not true during the Korean or Vietnam wars and is even less true today. Beyond that, I am not sure I understand what the word “atheist” means. I’m not sure atheists know either. “Atheist” means “without a god.” But we are now back to “What does god mean”. Again, words are pointers and at the least we must know to what they are pointing. If “atheist” is used to mean “I don’t believe in God,” I want to know what your word God is pointing to. What does “God” mean for you? And what does “Believe” mean?


If you can’t answer those questions, then your use of the word “atheist” has no meaning. It is nonsensical.


But for me (Or another religionist) to say “I believe in God” is just as nonsensical. Until we can understand that all words about spirituality are only metaphors to point to our own, highly individualistic experiences and are not normative or prescriptive, we will continue to misunderstand.


All dogmatic statements about God are wrong, including this one.