Personifying God Is Dangerous

I hope that it is becoming clearer to you why I say that using stories to personify God, allowing room for human interpretation and manipulation, rather than portraying God to be what “He” is, a principle fact, a truth, a supreme source of life, is dangerous. If not, look in a newspaper and see how many Palestinians or Israelis were killed today. Then find how many Buddhist temples were destroyed. Many say that religion causes war. No. Religion taught in the wrong fashion creates war and, more so, breeds evil. There are no Buddhist conflicts, because there is nothing to debate. There are no debates over the laws of physics. There is no “he said/she said.”

We’ve seen how one “conversation” between God and a man who lived for almost two centuries has been disputed to spark a feud spanning two millennia. Personifying God leaves things wide open for misinterpretation, doubt, resentment, and fraudulent misuse. Stories are so easy to change. They always change on their own anyway. They are also easy to concoct in order to fit your agenda.

It also leaves unanswered questions and room for doubt. Sometimes the stories are too hard to believe. So much of Christianity is left unanswered, written off as the “mystery” of God, that we’ll never understand. The East tends to teach God as a principle, that just IS. Personally, when I look to religion, I want answers rather than more questions. Just as in any principle, it must be completely full-proof to be valid. That’s why the Western religions are so against science. Often you hear religion vs. science, as if the two can not co-exist. Why can it not be that God made science for us to utilize, or perhaps, science just is? Like God just IS.

In the East they claim this, and there is no mystery. Christ DID teach this, but if the West gives in to science, then they will be held to the same scrutiny and will never last. On many occasions he said, “My name is I am” He said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” He is saying that he is eternal, like all principles. He is the main source of everything. He is the universal solvent, like water. He is the light, the necessary basis for all that we see. There were no mysteries with Christ, really. Some of his words actually made it through the processing and ring true, but of course, they are misinterpreted. How sad he would be to see that what he actually taught has taken a back seat to the stories that surrounded it.

Furthermore, what a mistake to glorify these stories as a way to teach the Truth; if he had to turn water into wine or, in the case of a man called “Doubting Thomas,” allow his wounds to be touched as he walked from the dead, in order to be supported, why would we think that these stories would hold up 20 centuries later, when he will not even say hello? When something is fact, or principle, like God is according to the East, there is no need to raise the dead in order to prove it; it is already a proven, flawless fact. By using these methods, God can be challenged at every turn. This is the inherent flaw which causes so much doubt.

When you personify, you run into other problems, like resentment and anger. Take the very nature of God. In Christianity, they make him human, sort of. He is not exactly human, yet He spoke, ordered, negotiated, explained things to men, while showing anger and emotion. Then, he sent his “son” to save us. That sounds human to me. His son, Jesus Christ, was man and God. How do you explain this? They can’t; it’s another mystery, in fact, the greatest mystery. They call it the Holy Trinity. It is not to be questioned. The furthest explanation for it, besides the good old mantra, “He works in mysterious ways,” which is the default answer, is a shamrock with three leaves! Remember good old St. Patrick?

*That is another trick of Christianity, by the way, to take some preposterous explanation like that and distract us with something completely off the wall. To honor one of the MANY saints, St. Patrick, who was brilliant enough to pick up a leaf to explain the Holy Trinity, we dress in green and get drunk! Of course some others include the jolly fat guy with a beard flying reindeer to our house to celebrate the birth of Christ, son of God and a virgin, and the bunny who hides colored eggs to celebrate his Crucifixion and resurrection from the dead. These babies were thrown in by the Romans, you know, the pagans. Anything to keep us from the facts.

**There are accounts of the Buddha’s life, in which he possesses mental powers, which is quite probable to most who study metaphysics in some manner. The difference however is that the Buddha was NOT GOD; he was merely an enlightened human being, and he was against performing “miracles.” His daily life, which spanned forty years worth of organized teaching, daily ritual, and meditation practices and ended with a short quiz and a final Q&A session, was recorded only as a biography to his teachings. What he taught were guidelines to life, in a very organized format, securely passed on within the walls of monasteries.

The anger comes this way. When you portray God as human, you make him seem approachable, like Dad. They make it as though he can be reasoned with and begged for mercy. “Come on Dad, please...just this once, lend me some money, cut me some slack this once....you did it for so and so 2000 years ago” Do you see how that breeds resentment? Imagine a father who bought and did everything for his older children, your other brothers and sisters, but he will not even answer you! Your mother can only tell you that pops works in mysterious ways so many times before you say, “Screw you, dad!” We’re a nation of pissed off teenagers. We love God, but we don’t really like him, unless he does something for us.

The number one problem, however, is the one we talked about that not only creates discrepancies in the teachings, but has actually caused them to work against itself. To use their logic, the scriptures have fallen into the hands of the Devil himself. Please refrain from envisioning a red alien with a pitchfork confiscating the books for his own library. Although, it may as well be so. If we look at the middle Eastern countries in the case of Islam, the Jews in Israel and the U.S., and the extremely influential Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, which holds as much clout as any lobbyist group and is equally so in Europe, we can all agree that these three religions play a MAJOR role in nation’s government, and in most cases, are the driving force behind massive bloodshed between nations.

Plume often draws comparison to St. Augustine, who once claimed to be certain
he completely understood the concept of time, until somebody asked him.