- Jun 1, 2004
- 3,007
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This is my simple religion: I believe in God; I believe in prayer; I believe in love. Very simple. That’s why I decided to call it Simple Religion. It is something I can say that I truly believe in. This Simple Religion was the conclusion of a long search trying to answer this question: What do I really believe in. I hope that my experience can help others who are also seeking for something they can really and wholeheartedly believe in.
It all started about four years ago while I was in church just at the beginning of The Creed or Profession of Faith, the part of the mass where all the Catholics say aloud the principles of the catholic religion. As everyone was saying what they as Christians believed in I realized that I could not, with all honesty, agree with all what they were saying. It was quite a disturbing moment since I consider myself a religious person and enjoyed going to church. I looked around the church wondering: Am I the only one who does not believe in all these principles or perhaps there are others who like me practice the catholic religion but deep down do not really agree with all what the church says?
So I asked myself, what do you really believe in? I realized that this was a very important question, perhaps one of the most important questions a man could ever ask so I committed myself to find an answer.
The first thing was to decide if I believed in God or not. I spent a long time trying to find something conclusive that I could say, yes, because of this, I can say that I believe in God. As you know men have tried since the beginning of time to find that answer but nobody ever did. It’s very interesting to see how so many bright men tried to find a proof of the existence of God but I knew I would not be able to find what no other men ever found. But I did find something that I can say is a good explanation, at least to me, why I believe in God: I believe in God because I intuit there is a God. To intuit something is to believe it or to know it beyond reason. In other words, deep down, I feel there is a God. I can’t prove it but I strongly feel there is a God. So I can really say that I believe in God. I know it is not a valid scientific or philosophical reason but it is good enough for me.
This was relatively an easy part. The hard part was to define this God that I believe in. By defining I mean, how is this God like, what can he do and not do, where is he, where did he come from, and so many other questions anyone would like to have an answer for when you are talking about God.
My answer to all these questions is: I do not know. I believe that we, as humans, can not possibly define God. I’d like to be able to say, like many religions have done so beautifully and poetically, that he is the creator of heaven and earth, the One, the beginning, the end, infinite, loving, eternal, caring, good, omnipresent, just, and everything else you can possibly think of. But I believe that any attempt to define God we are doing it using our small human minds. As humans we can only feel him, intuit him, love him, but not describe him. If we try we can’t help it but to project our own ideas of what a God should be. My best answer then is I do not know. Many will not like it, I don’t even like it myself, but is the only answer I have and believe in.
Not being able to define God became a big problem as soon as I started to ask myself about all the major questions that every religion has answered or tried do answer for us in the past: Where do we come from? How did all begin? How is it going to end? What happens after death? Why do bad things happen? I tried and tried to find an answer to these questions but the only answer I could really accept was, again, I do not know. I believe the moment we start to try to answer these questions we must build a series of beliefs, one leading and supporting the next and in so doing we are building a house of cards based on nothing more than assumptions.
So here I am, saying yes, I believe in God but I do not know anything about this God and I do not have an answer for the most important questions that religions deal with. I know this sounds crazy, stupid or both but is still the only answer I have. It was precisely all the answers that other religions use to explain these things, which I could not believe, that lead me to ask myself what did I really believe in. If I could accept and believe what any of the other religions have to say about these matters, I would not be here trying to find the answers. I know that one of the most important functions of the established religions is precisely to answer these questions for us, even perhaps one of their main reasons of being. We as men need to have answers to all the important questions of life but in trying to find the answers, and not finding them, we lean on religion. For me came the time where I could no longer believe in the answers provided by my religion and had to start to find new ones. The only one that I could find is that I do not know and that it’s better not to know than to build new false creeds. I have many times a hard time accepting this
position but I think about some of the things I read about Zen, where the masters would simply hit their students with a stick when they were asked about God. I also think about the sermon of the lotto flower given by Buddha in front of many followers when he simply held up a flower and did not say a single word. It may be hard but it gives me an open mind that I may not have if I believed in something from the start. If you believe in God, if you truly believe in God, you also by definition trust God, and if you trust God you know that one day you’ll find all the answers you were looking for.
I kept thinking what else I really believed in and the next thing was prayer. I do not mean prayer like in asking God for things but as a way to communicate with God. You may call it meditation if you prefer. Prayer is the way we have to get in touch with God, to know him better, to feel him and to learn from him. Prayer will help us to lift ourselves higher in the spiritual world. It’s good for us to make praying part of our daily lives. There are many books that have good advice on how to pray so there is no need to expand about it here.
The next thing was love. Love is the most powerful force we humans have. I do not mean the love of lovers, the sexual love, but the greater love that we can experience when we are tuned with God. Love of God, love of yourself, of your neighbor, love of life. Like St Augustine said: Love and do what you want. If you believe in God and you pray, love will manifest in you and your life and it will change the way you live.
It all started about four years ago while I was in church just at the beginning of The Creed or Profession of Faith, the part of the mass where all the Catholics say aloud the principles of the catholic religion. As everyone was saying what they as Christians believed in I realized that I could not, with all honesty, agree with all what they were saying. It was quite a disturbing moment since I consider myself a religious person and enjoyed going to church. I looked around the church wondering: Am I the only one who does not believe in all these principles or perhaps there are others who like me practice the catholic religion but deep down do not really agree with all what the church says?
So I asked myself, what do you really believe in? I realized that this was a very important question, perhaps one of the most important questions a man could ever ask so I committed myself to find an answer.
The first thing was to decide if I believed in God or not. I spent a long time trying to find something conclusive that I could say, yes, because of this, I can say that I believe in God. As you know men have tried since the beginning of time to find that answer but nobody ever did. It’s very interesting to see how so many bright men tried to find a proof of the existence of God but I knew I would not be able to find what no other men ever found. But I did find something that I can say is a good explanation, at least to me, why I believe in God: I believe in God because I intuit there is a God. To intuit something is to believe it or to know it beyond reason. In other words, deep down, I feel there is a God. I can’t prove it but I strongly feel there is a God. So I can really say that I believe in God. I know it is not a valid scientific or philosophical reason but it is good enough for me.
This was relatively an easy part. The hard part was to define this God that I believe in. By defining I mean, how is this God like, what can he do and not do, where is he, where did he come from, and so many other questions anyone would like to have an answer for when you are talking about God.
My answer to all these questions is: I do not know. I believe that we, as humans, can not possibly define God. I’d like to be able to say, like many religions have done so beautifully and poetically, that he is the creator of heaven and earth, the One, the beginning, the end, infinite, loving, eternal, caring, good, omnipresent, just, and everything else you can possibly think of. But I believe that any attempt to define God we are doing it using our small human minds. As humans we can only feel him, intuit him, love him, but not describe him. If we try we can’t help it but to project our own ideas of what a God should be. My best answer then is I do not know. Many will not like it, I don’t even like it myself, but is the only answer I have and believe in.
Not being able to define God became a big problem as soon as I started to ask myself about all the major questions that every religion has answered or tried do answer for us in the past: Where do we come from? How did all begin? How is it going to end? What happens after death? Why do bad things happen? I tried and tried to find an answer to these questions but the only answer I could really accept was, again, I do not know. I believe the moment we start to try to answer these questions we must build a series of beliefs, one leading and supporting the next and in so doing we are building a house of cards based on nothing more than assumptions.
So here I am, saying yes, I believe in God but I do not know anything about this God and I do not have an answer for the most important questions that religions deal with. I know this sounds crazy, stupid or both but is still the only answer I have. It was precisely all the answers that other religions use to explain these things, which I could not believe, that lead me to ask myself what did I really believe in. If I could accept and believe what any of the other religions have to say about these matters, I would not be here trying to find the answers. I know that one of the most important functions of the established religions is precisely to answer these questions for us, even perhaps one of their main reasons of being. We as men need to have answers to all the important questions of life but in trying to find the answers, and not finding them, we lean on religion. For me came the time where I could no longer believe in the answers provided by my religion and had to start to find new ones. The only one that I could find is that I do not know and that it’s better not to know than to build new false creeds. I have many times a hard time accepting this
position but I think about some of the things I read about Zen, where the masters would simply hit their students with a stick when they were asked about God. I also think about the sermon of the lotto flower given by Buddha in front of many followers when he simply held up a flower and did not say a single word. It may be hard but it gives me an open mind that I may not have if I believed in something from the start. If you believe in God, if you truly believe in God, you also by definition trust God, and if you trust God you know that one day you’ll find all the answers you were looking for.
I kept thinking what else I really believed in and the next thing was prayer. I do not mean prayer like in asking God for things but as a way to communicate with God. You may call it meditation if you prefer. Prayer is the way we have to get in touch with God, to know him better, to feel him and to learn from him. Prayer will help us to lift ourselves higher in the spiritual world. It’s good for us to make praying part of our daily lives. There are many books that have good advice on how to pray so there is no need to expand about it here.
The next thing was love. Love is the most powerful force we humans have. I do not mean the love of lovers, the sexual love, but the greater love that we can experience when we are tuned with God. Love of God, love of yourself, of your neighbor, love of life. Like St Augustine said: Love and do what you want. If you believe in God and you pray, love will manifest in you and your life and it will change the way you live.
