A comment was recently left on a posting of mine titled “On Being an Artist”. In that essay there is a paragraph where I compare man’s art creations to God’s creations, neither one have power over created work once released to the world.
Commenter wrote, “Your simplified version of 18th century deism displays much inconsistency of thought.” Commenter also wrote “One has to look no further than your own website to see that men obsess over their creations.” For the record I love both of these comments and I responded back to the commenter thanking him for his thought-provoking comments.
What follows is the thought-provoking stuff inspired by the commenter.
It’s true that man (especially me) obsesses over their creations…does God? I don’t know but my heart tells me that s/he does.
After reading the original comment the first thing I did was to look up the word “Deism”.
Deism – (per Wikipedia) God does not intervene with the functions of the natural world.
I am ok with that…is it true? I do not know nor care. Am I a hypocrite? Most likely, I practice meditation and believe in the power of prayer. Buddha spoke of being comfortable with your contradictions. I am.
I no longer wrestle with existential questions or feel guided by a transcendental purpose but I do miss walking in the woods.
Walking in the woods is the only place that I felt guided by my inner voice and felt the presence of God. It was never a radically transforming experience, but it was enough for me to stop seeking answers about God and to start experiencing God’s creations.
For me it does not matter if God only created DNA and then became a spectator of her/his creation leaving evolution to dispose through benevolent acts.
It does not matter to me if God hand-created each and every one of us. Or if s/he only hand picks a chosen few to communicate through.
It does not matter to me if God is a dormant muscle or gene that is held deep inside of us waiting to be developed through spiritual practice and exercises.
God could be: law, grace, art, three persons making up a single body, all of Gaia or the single heartbeat inside your chest…I am ok with that.
Our spiritual history can be flawed and layered with imperfections and still have deep impactful meaning in which to live your life by. I am ok with that.
God is a mystery and I am ok with that. Never fight the oblivious…never - and I am ok with that.
I do miss walking in woods.
