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On the Serving of Palatable Food, "As We Pass By."
Ann Bendall, Qld., Australia
[Note: Ann is a practicing clinical psychologist]
The God Deniers.
A small, select population abounds this earth who take offence to the word, "God."
To these people belief in God is viewed as being puerile. But if you listen to their challenge, the word "God" is argued against as if designating a concept rather than a personality. On being questioned though, God deniers affirm that they reject both the concept and the personality images. However, I'm never quite sure if they are rejecting:
the Old Testament God
the biblical inconsistency of God
a God they would fear because of his power of judgment if he did actually exist.
Such people will challenge God's existence in terms that convey a total lack of understanding of the primacy of mortal will.
As I strain my ears to listen, it is as if they are violently rejecting Moses' God but cannot conceive of Jesus' God. And this is acceptable to me, for if we judge by another's actions rather than their words, Jesus' God ended up by being Moses' God. After all, he did let his blameless son die on the cross instead of saving him! Or, alternatively, not even contemplating saving him! Then this God actually demanded that Jesus should become the sacrificial lamb, a blood sacrifice to atone for our sins!
Let's face it, if this was the only way we could be forgiven, God does not impress as anything other than to be feared. So is it not unfortunate that the Jesus' God who is Love, the God we discover in the Gospel and letters of John, was transformed into Moses' God through the symbolic debacle associated with the Pauline interpretation of the crucifixion?
With such God deniers, should we declare as Jesus did, "This man was not hungry for the truth," (1466) while feeling so delightfully smug at our "doing as Jesus did." Or perhaps we should strive to add to the knowledge that they already have, serving them "spiritual food in attractive form" (1474) when they appear to provide us with no basis upon which to add to?
To "add to" requires first that we attempt to understand such people. Many who deny the existence of God are actually denying the Church which, on Urantia, a long time ago claimed patent, copyright, and propriety right to God. (Any novice in history can identify that, almost from its beginnings, the Church became so politically and socially enmeshed in human affairs that it appeared to forget, or to rank as low priority, its role as spiritual sustainer and upholder.)
With these god-denying people we could challenge the possibility that they may be throwing out the baby (due respect, beloved Father) with the bath water. However, be warned, modern 'intelligent' people take offence to any suggestion that their ideas have not been formulated except with the deepest of introspection.
Next, before relegating our god-denying brothers and sisters to the "not ready for the truth" category, we must acknowledge that the major difference between us 20th century mortals and those of Jesus' times, is that all folks capable of a moral decision now have a Thought Adjuster. So whether or not they wish to deny the existence of God is purely of semantic value, for all such people appear to be fully aware that there does exist something we might term "peace within."
These folk are also aware that when they seem to lose this sense of peace, they also lose "joy in life."
I am firmly convinced that if they can regain this sense of "inner peace," accompanied by its attendant sense of "joy of life," then it means that the pathway to their superconscious has become decongested thus making the formidable task of their Thought Adjuster a little easier.
Consequently (if it does not challenge or offend them), I feel comfortable in identifying God by a name acceptable to them such as "peace within"--which thus provides the basis of further additions.
Ironically, most of this population of God-deniers usually hold an inordinate amount of superstitious beliefs. They often believe in predestination on a day by day basis; they are quite partial to fortune telling, tarot card readings, talking to spirits, etc.
While our God-deniers may be highly capable of scathing and well thought out arguments against the existence of God, often based upon the historical hypocrisy of the church, they accept superstitious beliefs without question or analysis!
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