For an idea which should promote unity, peace, and acceptance amongst people of all colours and creeds, it has sure caused its fair share of wars and hate crimes in the past.
God is one of the most misunderstood concepts of all time.
This is not surprising, as concepts of God range from a white man who created the earth to the physical sum of all the aspects of the universe.
In the end it is something so far from human comprehension that it is surprising people still manage to convince themselves that they not only know what God is, but are audacious enough to say that their view of God is the only true one.
Humans, as it stands, can not in any possible way understand the concept of infinity.
The size of the Earth is so much larger than a human, and the Sun is so much huger than the Earth, and the Solar System is so much larger than the Sun; when you understand that billions of atoms go into the human body, then the amount it must take to fit into the solar system is an impossible task.
Now try and imagine how many atoms there are in the trillions of solar systems throughout the universe, and you can see how inadequate the human mind is at understanding such concepts.
If we cannot even come to grips properly with all the things happening on our Earth, what makes humans think that they can grasp in their heads the idea of the cosmic force, God? It is simply in their nature.
The most curious animal on the planet struggles to understand the most difficult questions, but its brain is simply not up to it.
So as a way of dealing with the idea, we end up with images of God.
God, Allah, Vishnu, Kami, Guanches, Tao; all different names and different images of God, but images and names trying to explain the same concept.
Some religions, such as Hinduism and Sikhism, acknowledge this and continue to worship knowing that their concept is ultimately incomplete, but nonetheless helps understand the universe and their place in it.
In the past, nonetheless, there have been many wars between religions.
Their fundamentalist views drive them to think ‘My view of God is the only view of God', making anybody else a heretic.
In this way, we have had Christians killing Muslims, Muslims killing Jews, and Jews killing Muslims killing Hindus killing Sikhs, all because they failed to understand one thing; all images of God are flawed, all these images show a real and tangible aspect of the unknowable God.
As it is said in Taoism: ‘The name that can be named is not the everlasting and unchanging name,The path that can be tread is not the everlasting and unchanging path.'
To truly understand what God is, then, we must first realise that defining it in words is a useless path to take.
Defining it in images is likewise futile.
We can only understand God in a wordless, unrestricted way.
When all thoughts of what God is and what God can be are dropped, when trying to think of God as some form of separate entity can be lost; indeed, when all thoughts of understanding God and knowing it on some intellectual level are realised to founder, God can be viewed from a different level.
To know God; God must be let go.
This kind of paradox can be confusing, and for this reason many people choose rather to say ‘God does not exist'.
This, then, is based upon ignorance on the nature of God and an unwillingness to explore the idea further.
Since it is very hard to express what God is once one understands it, God is a very personal thing, and so many different ways of expressing it arise.
This, perhaps, is the reason for the many different religions we have.
The differences between them being an argument atheists just love to throw about.
But if you look from a different perspective, there are many more similarities in the depiction of God than differences, and if these correlations are recognised, a greater understanding of God can be achieved.
It seems that atheists are so trapped in their view of what God is that they lose out on a greater understanding of life, the universe, and themselves.
As religions grow stagnant refusing to allow their view of God to change as their understanding changes, the view of God in the mind of atheists also grows stagnant.
This causes a more powerful rejection of anything referring to God. It is for this reason I find atheism as ignorant as fundamentalism.
God does not have to be viewed as the creator of the universe. God can be seen in physics. God can be seen in everything.
Humanity, from politicians to peasants, from the individual to the whole, can experience a deeper understanding of life and self through understanding this.
- Reuben Henderson is a Year 13 pupil at Logan Park High School
