Thursday,Dec 29 2005, 10:17:18 AMWho is God? A theory written in my student days

WHO IS GOD?
(By Chris Phillips, written some time about 1963)

What is God? Who is God? Where is God?

Ever since time began there has been a God; every
civilisation has had its God. But can anyone name a single person
who can answer these three questions in such a way that everyone
understands? If there were such a person, wouldn't all our problems
be solved? All civilisations that have ever existed on this Earth
have had a God, but although each one of these Gods is different, the
basic rights as dictated by their Gods have always been the same.
The many differences that do occur in the various religions are due
to difference in habitat.

If, as it is widely known, the above is true, why then do
people fight each other, why does one religion fight another? (If
one looks back into history one finds that most, if not all, wars are
fought, if not FOR religion, they are at least on a religious
basis.) Since the basic ideas of religions are the same, wouldn't
it be logical for all the religions to get together and iron out
their differences in a true religious manner (I.e. peacefully)? This
would not necessarily mean all religions becoming one, as freedom of
worship is a necessity. Each religion tries to convert the other,
and if the religious/political leaders are `strong' then this
conversion can be and has been forced. But is a good Muslim, a good
Hindu, a good Christian, a good atheist, a good agnostic, a good Jew
or any other good person any better than his contemporary? How does
one define a GOOD person? Is it one who believes firmly (or perhaps
even blindly) in his faith and that his faith is the ONLY one? Or
is it one who believes and accepts others' ways of living?

It is not necessarily the other person's actual beliefs that
people are afraid of, but FEAR that the other person might convert
him. These fears are usually instilled in the masses by the
leaders, possibly because they fear that they will lose their jobs
and/or their heads. If fear were to be eliminated would we then
have conquered all evil?

We are all individuals and it is only when we let our
individualism carry us away that we fight; if only more people
stopped to think - in silence (?) How many people realise the
power of silent thought or worship? (Quakers do this, of course,
but do many other groups, either religious, or otherwise?) {I know
other groups do have periods of silent worship.} This is especially
true when the thoughts of the group are being directed along the same
lines. Agreement is much more easily come by when we all agree. Is
this a form of telepathy? Is prayer a kind of telepathy? In
silent meetings people do transmit their thoughts to those who are
OPEN to receive them, and when the signal is strong enough (i.e.
because a number of people have the same line of thought) these
thoughts can and do become verbal and others can be brought into the
same channel.

The Christian faith, as does the Jewish faith, brings us up
to believe that God is always with us. This must surely conjure up
fantastic idea as to what God is and how he manages to be with
millions of people at the same time. Wouldn't it be more logical
for us to consider ourselves as a part of God and that he does not
exist as a single separate being or spirit?
Couldn't we consider ourselves as a single cell of God in the same way
that a single cell of a human being is only a small part of the human,
though this cell is made up of millions of atoms (in itself made up
of a multitude of small sub atomic particles). Nature has a way of
repeating itself on different scales. The atom and its electrons;
the moons around our planets; the planets around the sun; and the
suns in a galaxy, and the galaxies in a universe. (and etc?) Let us
look into this more deeply.

Nature is astounding in the way similarity of pattern occurs
throughout the universe. Each element is made up of an atom
nucleus) surrounded by electrons attracted to the nucleus by powerful
forces. Each Atom is made up of smaller particles (Neutrons and
Protons) again bound by powerful forces. It is now believed that
even these unseeable (because they are so small) particles are made
up of even smaller particles. On the other end of the scale we have
moons held in orbit by planets, and planets held in orbit round suns
(the sun is a star!), which in turn are held in orbits by powerful
forces in galaxies (ours is the Milky Way). And finally these
galaxies are held together in an expanding (at the moment) universe.
In the middle we have the more conceivable ideas of ourselves. An
amoeba is a single cell animal made up of a nucleus surrounded by
protoplasm which is controlled by the nucleus. Animals such as
ourselves have millions of cells, each devoted to a special function,
controlled by its nucleus, but the whole is controlled by our brain
(the body's nucleus). Are our brains controlled by a further, and
more powerful nucleus.....God?

What is this POWER, this ENERGY? Einstein has related
everything in the form of energy by his world famous formula E = m
c 2.(E equals m times c squared ) (E stands for the quantity of
energy released by the destruction (or convertion) of mass m, and c
is the velocity of light). This means then that EVERYTHING can be
thought of as ONE, i.e. everything is a different FORM of energy
with different powers.

Atoms make minerals, etc. Minerals make living matter, some
living matter has brains (animals) some brains can reason (humans).
Is there a next step? Does it stop there? Are all our brains
and/or our thoughts connected in some way or in any way to a master
(or God)?
What then is God? Is it a collection of millions of minds
consisting only of inhabitants of this Earth? Or does God cover the
peoples of other planets as well? If God does only represent our
peoples is our God part of an even more immense God? At last man has
left this planet and set foot upon another heavenly body, the moon.
We are on the way to discovering.

I would welcome any ideas or thoughts, criticism or otherwise
on this article.

PS Please remember when this was written, even some of my ideas may
have changed a bit.

Chris Phillips Copyright 2001

(Originally published in "The Young Quaker" & "The Young Vegetarian" Feb 1964.,
republished in this form Nov 1969 )

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