There are people for whom God is the “Great Because,” an imaginary best friend that they have dispensed with. I had a philosophy teacher who told me, “God has been dead since Hume and the last real philosopher to believe in him was Hegel.” I asked about Whitehead, and he said, “Whitehead was a mathematician, not a philosopher.” Yet I have continued to believe in God, and still hope to write my proof someday of God’s existence. So why do I believe in God, and what is it about God I believe in?
Like Hafiz (a Muslim poet) I believe God is “the Friend.” I believe like some Hindus do that when you close your eyes and pray you can feel the Friend moving within you. I believe with Maimonides that humankind cannot know “God’s essence” directly but through His effects. Yet I believe that regardless of a person’s tradition, the prayers they pray will–if given in a humble heart–receive their reply. The way we know the reality of “the Friend” is that there is not a single place on earth without a tradition in which people search for God. Though Hindus may call God Krishna or Buddhists say their prayers to Buddha or Africa produces a cacophony of names, there is always the reply beating in the heart of humanity.
It is true that evil is done in the name of God, but this evil is done when a person shuts God in the form of another person out of their heart. People ask, “Why did an earthquake or a flood happen?” but Spirit is limited by Matter, and God’s laws are limited by physics and chemistry and biology. I believe God created his partner in Creation through evolution, because Spirit directs Matter but never completely controls it. There are certain things that occur that might as well be called “according to the laws of chance.”
Yet I believe that spirit returns to Spirit when the body dies. The blessed return to God, to live in the Heart of the Creator, whereas the wicked may even writhe in the pain outer space. Some people–people who are wicked but whom the Creator pities–may receive a second chance on Earth. Yet eventually Spirit will reclaim Matter, and except for the very worst people, God will reclaim the Peoples.
I know that because of the borrowings from other Religions and Science what I am explaining does not “sound Jewish,” yet I believe it is. I believe the God of the Jews is an evolving God. I believe he may have other manifestations than the one Jews know. Yet I believe that he has told us all we need to know to achieve salvation. I believe the Jewish mitzvoth lead to Heaven. I hope the reader understands my need to write this…