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Finding God

Finding God; I imagine to discover God we need to look!

I am hoping that you'll bear with me; I am all about exploring, making the discovery, and the sharing of information, let's say from my odd perspective. To discover or find God we have to review science and the Bible both testaments, consider other religious writing, the spirituality of prayer, the gift, and our instincts.

It's our nature from birth to explore. We search out our mother until we discover her. Then we share our discoveries. This process continues all through childhood and beyond. That in mind, imagine for a few moments there is no formal education, no books and the question is asked; how did we get here and where did all of this come from? Imagine that for a moment and you have to respond to the question you are the leader of the clan. Hold that thought. Now, the question comes up; but who made it? And then the final logical question is asked; how do you know? These are all standard questions every child asks their parents. Go ahead answer them!

There must be an answer for every question and the ones we don't know the answers for we tend to rationalize or use logical deduction. But what if he was right about something in one of these original stories, one rationalization where there was some truth?

We know because of science the earth was not created in seven days. The latest theory was offered by Steven Hawking "The Big Bang Theory" We also know that man evolved. Most recently discovered that we crossbred with the Neanderthals. I'm sure they will discover much more from DNA and the development of mankind. It has been indicated that early man lived in trees. We ate berries, nuts, bugs and foliage. Then we started eating "meat" and I cannot help but sense that's some landmark in our DNA. Maybe we crossbred with a species that was a predator?

But if the original storyteller about Adam and Eve and the garden, hit on something within their story, one piece of the story where there was some truth?

Keep in mind the world was once considered flat! But contrary to popular belief, this question wasn't settled in the 1400s and 1500s with Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe, but more than 2,000 years ago, in the ancient world! And what's perhaps most astounding? It was done using nothing more than the Sun. With the world being flat concept we should look at Noah's ark. But then maybe we should also have in mind the old saying "my world is falling apart" In part while we are trying to locate God I am trying to suggest that we might look at the stories, these religious writings from a different perspective. What is the lesson in the Noah's ark story? I see a possible disaster coming what do I do; save what I can so I can rebuild or let it go? And if we save what does the story suggest to us?

Did you see the example given in school of passing a story from one to the other in silence and then the last child tells the story. Did you notice how different the story was from the original?

The Egyptians had an aberrant period, between 1550-712 BC, of some form of monotheism during the New Kingdom, in which the pharaoh Akhenaten abolished the official worship of other gods in favor of the sun-disk Aten. This is often seen as the first instance of true monotheism in history, although the details of Atenist theology are still unclear. The exclusion of all but one god was a radical departure from Egyptian tradition and some see Akhenaten as a practitioner of monolatry rather than monotheism, as he did not actively deny the existence of other gods; he simply refrained from worshipping any but the Aten. Under Akhenaten's successors Egypt reverted to its traditional religion, and Akhenaten himself came to be reviled as a heretic.

Aton, or Aten, was a sun god of the Egyptian pantheon, usually depicted in artistic renderings as a solar disc reaching out toward the earth and its inhabitants with many-fingered rays of light. Though the Egyptian religion had traditionally been polytheistic, during his reign, Akhnaton promoted Aton to the lofty position of humankind's only god. According to the pharaoh, Aton was not only the most exalted god among many -- he was the only god that was to be worshipped. Thus, Atonism was one of the first truly monotheistic religions. Akhnaton attempted to impose Atonism on his subjects by using state power to forbid all other forms of worship. However, after Akhnaton's death, Atonism was abolished and in great part was taken down out of vision and gradually abandoned by the Egyptian people and mostly forgotten. But there were few that treasured this single god, Aton.

An inscription from the reign of Merenptah, who succeeded Ramesses II on the throne, it has been suggested that the event of the Exodus should not be dated much later than the middle of the 13th Century BC. In the last lines of this inscription, carved on a stela set up to commemorate Merenptah's victory over the Libyans in his fifth year on the throne (about 1209 or 1208 BC), the king boasts of his victories over various peoples and places in Syria-Palestine. Here, he claims, with the common exaggeration of royal inscriptions, that "Israel is desolate, and has no seed".

The children of Israel lived in Egypt 430 years. How can both passages be correct when it seems clear from a straightforward reading of biblical chronology that a minimum of 215 years passed between the time God made His covenant with Abraham and the time the Israelites (through Jacob) entered Egypt-thus making it appear that the Israelites had to have been in Egypt 645 years

The average lifespan of a person during 1500 - 1200 BC was around 30 years. There are known to be 3 generations of Israelites prior to Egypt that were living in the land of Canaan. We know for a group, tribe, or tribe to form they form around a central reason or common goal…

Ancient sources identify four occasions for the partial or complete destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria: Julius Caesar's fire during his civil war in 48 BC; the attack of Aurelian in AD 270 - 275; the decree of Coptic Pope Theophilus in 391 AD; and the Muslim conquest of Egypt in (or after) AD 642. It's more probable that these historians confused the two Greek words bibliothecas, which means "set of books", with bibliotheca, which means library. Bibliotheca

Have you ever saved a family heirloom? Imagine how valuable the written word was the history and stories that were contained within a scroll…

Should we include the psychology of mankind? I think we do. Have you ever noticed someone using the word "we" when they mean "I"? Look at the following statements; "I decided to" "We decided to" or "I was told to" "I was told to by the president" Imagine for a moment the influence of saying "God told me!"

Have you ever wonder why a history teacher tells you to remember the date, name, place of an event and what happened during the event? When you focus on just that information what is learned. Have the lessons of history been lost?

In our quest to find God I am not suggesting that the books are wrong. What I am suggesting is that they are taught and learned are incorrectly! A good storyteller always knows how to accent certain words or embellish a sentence to make it sound just a bit bigger, greater or more wonderful. Think about a child fishing… When the child comes back you ask; how many fish did you catch and then how big were the fish. What most commonly happens; the child embellishes! Man's fragile ego…

What if when Mosses went up the mountain it was not a burning bush that he encountered but as a metaphor the burning bush represents his mind was on fire with thought? What if after the first great thought he knew he had to put it in writing? What if after all the great thoughts he chose to organize them and caved them himself out of stone? What if it took so long his hair turned gray or was it white with knowledge and wisdom? What if when he came back down the mountain to present the Ten Commandments and he saw how out of control things had gotten how could he present his thoughts that everyone would accept them? He had a choice he could have said I wrote these laws for us to live by or he could say God wrote these for us to live by? Which choice is more supportive and which has more credibility? Which statement would the people follow more readily? What choice would you make?

I'm not saying the events in all of the religious books didn't happen but just maybe they are embellishments making good stories… But then to locate God we do need to look at all of these writings with a different pair of glasses!

We know by all accounts that Jesus often spoke in parables, why? Does that stimulate and open the mind to thinking; exploring and discovery? Though some say that the New Testament was written 100-300 years after Christ died, the truth is that it was written before the close of the first century by those who either knew Christ personally, had encountered him, or were under the direction of those who were his disciples. The Christians had been reading the New Testament for two centuries. It was in 325 AD that the Council of Nicaea officially recognized the New Testament.

An early 4th-century Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible is found in the Codex Vaticanus. Dating from the 8th century, the Codex Amiatinus is the earliest surviving manuscript of the complete Vulgate Bible. The oldest Tanakh manuscript in Hebrew and Aramaic dates to the 10th century CE. The Bible was divided into chapters in the 13th century by Stephen Langton and into verses in the 16th century by French printer Robert Estienne and is now usually cited by book, chapter, and verse.

In a nut shell, a group of men went through a lot of scrolls, reading each one and then made a choice after much debate which ones they would keep and which ones they would remove from vision! The mere thought of that drives me wild someone actually picked what I can or should read and learn from!!! And what was the reason? The quest for organization, power over the masses, for greed… So, what lessons do we learn?

Muslims believe the Qur'an to be the book of divine guidance revealed from God to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel over a period of 23 years and view the Quran as God's final revelation to humanity.

The Qur'an (in Anglicized form: Koran ) is certainly the greatest literary work in classical Arabic and for all Muslims stands as the definitive word of God (in Arabic: Allah ) spoken to the prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel. When reading the Qur'an , you should realize that, for all Muslims, the text you are reading is quite literally the voice of God; because the Qur'an is the direct speech of God in Arabic, translation of the work is seen as blasphemy, as an unforgivable tampering with God's own speech.

The recitation began one night in the year 610 A.D. Muhammad was sitting alone in the wilderness near Mecca when the Angel Gabriel appeared to him. The Angel called out to him with the command, "Recite! Recite! Recite!" Muhammad responded "I am not a reader." The angel recited three verses to him and when he awoke he had these verses, as he said, inscribed in his heart. These revelations continued for 10 days. Islamic scholars believe that the first revelation occurred on the night of the 27th day of Ramadan. This night is called the Laylat-al-Qadr (Night of Power). And according to the Quran, this is when God determines the course of the world for the following year.

From that point on, Muhammad believed himself to be a prophet and messenger of God, the last in a line of seven prophets (beginning with Abraham and ending with Jesus Christ, who was prophet number six) and responsible for inscribing the last and most important of God's direct messages to the world, the Arabic Recitation, which is the full name of the work. The people of God, that is, the Jews and the Christians, were going astray; the purpose of the Arabic Recitation was to restore God's faithful to the proper path. At different times in Muhammad's life the recitations would come to him; he would then repeat what he had heard and these would be memorized by certain people trained in remembering verses; some of these verses were written down on whatever was at hand. All these writings were collected in the caliphate of 'Uthman and the canonical text was established around 650 A.D. The writings were collected into a group of surah's and ordered according to length (each surah is meant to be a single recitation), though all Muslims also know the chronological or¬der of the recitations.

The Qur'an is organized into separate chapters called surahs. The order of the surahs, however, does not reflect the chronological order of the Quranic verses, nor does the surah structure reflect the nature of the original Quranic revelation. During his lifetime, Muhammad would have individual verses revealed to him; these revelations occurred unexpectedly and in surprising places. Typically, revelation would put Muhammad in a trance-like state. He, and others, would memorize the revealed verses and, under the guidance of Gabriel, Muhammad organized these verses into the existing surahs. The intervention of Gabriel in ordering the various verses in Islamic history is meant to guarantee not only the sanctity of the individual verses, but the religious validity of the organization of these verses in the Qur'an.

The Qur'an was an oral text throughout the lifetime of Muhammad; it was also a fluid text. The complete text resided only in the memories of Muhammad and his followers. As he added verses and reorganized the text, his followers would rememorize the text in the light of the additions or edits. This means that the Qur'an was a living text during the lifetime of Muhammad. Certain verses revealed to Muhammad were later repudiated by him as "satanic" verses revealed not by Gabriel but by Satan. These verses were expunged from the text that so many had memorized.

We know Muhammad was a military man and a great thinking of his day and lived the life that men of those times lived. We, also, know that a command in the military is not to be questioned but followed… But what lessons can be learned without a question? Do we merely hit a wall, a dead end in the road and stop thinking?

The Vedas are considered the earliest literary record of Indo-Aryan civilization, and the most sacred books of India. They are the original scriptures of Hindu teachings, and contain spiritual knowledge encompassing all aspects of our life. Vedic literature with its philosophical maxims has stood the test of time and is the highest religious authority for all sections of Hindus in particular and for mankind in general.

It's believed that humans didn't compose the revered compositions of the Vedas, which were handed down through generations by the word of mouth from time immemorial. The general assumption is that the Vedic hymns were either taught by God to the sages or that they were revealed themselves to the sages who were the seers or "mantradrasta" of the hymns. The Vedas were mainly compiled by Vyasa Krishna Dwaipayana around the time of Lord Krishna (c. 1500 BC)

Although the Vedas are seldom read or understood today, even by the devout, they no doubt form the bedrock of the universal religion or "Sanatana Dharma" that all Hindus follow. The Vedas have guided our religious direction for ages and will continue to do so for generations to come. And they will forever remain the most comprehensive and universal of all ancient scriptures.

Sources give the date of the Buddha's birth as 563 BCE and others as 623 BCE; Theravada Buddhist countries tend to use the latter figure. This displaces all the dates in the following table about 60 years backward in time.

Buddhism is a nontheistic religion that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, who is commonly known as the Buddha, meaning "the awakened one". According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha lived and taught in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He is recognized by Buddhists as an awakened or enlightened teacher who shared his insights to help sentient beings end their suffering through the elimination of ignorance and craving by way of understanding and the seeing of Dependent Origination and the Four Noble Truths, with the ultimate goal of attainment of the sublime state of Nirvana.

I think it is important to take all of these writings into account while we are finding God. Even looking at the years that they were written shows an awakening of mankind, a new dawn of spirituality between himself and the universe around him.

By chance have you ever noticed how a person looks when they are praying? I don't mean when they are reciting words but when they are praying. I have always found it moving disregarding whether the person was in a church, mosque, synagogue, temple, or at home for that matter even someone in deep meditation is a form of prayer. They are all beautiful at that point of calm solitude and humble.

How do we find God? I guess we have to look at the gift and a couple of other points to locate God.

We are gifted with certain abilities when we are born. Some have the ability of song while others are the song writers, some can paint, and others can play music and then the storytellers. We all have the gift of thought and the most special gifts choice, love, understanding and caring.

Have you ever noticed;

How you feel after you have helped someone else?

How you feel after being angry at someone else?

Did you ever wonder; WHY? Think about it today, please.

you'll be amazed at what you will discover.

It's said that the meek will inherit the earth. But how can that be if the meek are silent and never heard? Could it be threw a gathering of silent protest with signs, "ENOUGH!" Is the meek the mass or the few? You tell me!

They say that there once was a great war in heaven and God throw Satin out of heaven. What if that was a parable? What if there was no Satin but in our evolution we crossbred with a predator? What if the fight was within ourselves and we are continually trying to rid ourselves from the predator? What, if…

What if part of the story of Adam and Eve was true? They were in the Garden of Eden. What would that make us? What would be our responsibility? We are the caretakers of this garden!

It is said that God is ever where in everything. It's said that God is the divine creator of all things, the spark of creation. So, where do we find God?

I had a near death experience and can say without question we are connected each one of us and together… Well we are, all life is, something special. We started eating berries, nuts and foliage at some point we started eating meat… WHY? The leap to meat is a big step I can help but feel that is the predator. Was one going extinct and needed to survive so it crossbred? During my experience I was able to look in both directions over time. The event left me overwhelmed with a new feeling of self. Did you know that cuddling fights depression and stress? Why is that?

So where is God?

Have you ever gone into a room almost completely dark and looked into a black mirror? Ask a question and maybe you will hear the answer? Try it. Give yourself about 30 minutes of clear mind and just stare into the mirror without a sound…

We humans are meant to explore, discover, and share our discoveries. This is how we grow! When someone says "hear my words" or "remember these words" without questioning them, the first question in your mind should be WHY? What do they have to gain by not accepting a question?

So, you wanted to discover God, God has been here all along, right there! Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Finding God

Touching the Spirituality of the Mind

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- Robert L Ruisi, author of The Three Letters Anthology