"Today we have become so familiar with the intolerance that has unfortunately been a characteristic of monotheism that we may not appreciate that this hostility to other gods was a new religious attitude. Paganism was an essentially tolerant faith : provided old cults were not threatened by the arrival of a new deity, there was always room for another god alongside the traditional pantheon." "A History of God", Karen Armstrong
Maybe those pagans in 700 BC were on to something. Everyone can have their own god and we can try to get along instead of fundamentalists of all stripes (particularly Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) urging death and destruction to idolators. Mine is "BOB". It mystically can be spelled the same way forwards or backwards (ooh- what does that mean !?), and it's a very approachable name. I picture BOB in a chambray shirt and a comfortable pair of naturally worn jeans. He has a blissful smile (kind of like Willie Nelson) He's wearing a trucker's cap that says "It's All Right'". This anthropomorphic personification is just my way of not freaking myself out too much because BOB is everything and nothing at the same time but we can't really wrap our heads around that without our head exploding, and we're very visual beings. The universe is an experiment that so far hasn't quite worked the way BOB planned it, but it's still a work in progress and there's many trillions of potential earth-like planets where relatively intelligent life could develop. BOB would throw his hands up in frustration but he doesn't technically have hands per se and he's not really a he. Fortunately for us, BOB has infinite patience. "It's all right", he/she/it/they say(s). I can only hope that's true.
In Armstrong's book quoted from above, she writes about a Muslim philosopher named Muid ad-Din ibn al-Arabi, who had a vision of
So, tell me, what's your god like ?
No comments:
Post a Comment