Is this just me, or what?

OK. So I have no idea if I will be able to blog for anything longer than a single post. But here goes.

This blog is not about me. Well, it is in the sense that I am the one who, at least right now, is doing the writing. So, let's get one thing out of the way first. This is about god (yes with a small "g" ) not because of any religious viewpoint, or dogmatic set of beliefs based on a bunch of stories. This is not to say that those stories might not point to the truth (there's a loaded word), or that the stories are right or wrong. And that's the whole point.

You see, when my perception of the facts changes, then I change my mind. What do you do? Do you simply continue to hand onto whatever set of beliefs you have come to cherish simply because you find them comfortable? Well, we all do that, of course, so it is a matter of degree, isn't it?

Politicians are regularly castigated for being "flip-floppers," as if that was one of the worst insults one could hurl. What other people call flip-flopping is what I might refer to as learning. So it is with the notion of god. Let's learn about this phenomenon--if that's what it is. Where oh where to start?

First, does god exist. I can't say, really. What I can say is that I don't get the concept the way others seem to. Let's look at the major traditions. I know this will offend many, but you have to deal with it if you are going to hang in here with me. Otherwise, just press the button and move on. The following characterizations will be exceedingly, very, completely overly simplistic. Perhaps they will even be wrong. If so, correct me. But do so in the spirit of me getting it right. Most likely I will not become a convert--but I do want to be as accurate as I can be.

Judaism. One of the first monotheistic belief systems, where there was posited a single god. Due to this flash of insight (there was, I think an Egyptian pharaoh, Akhenaton, who also came up with a cruder version of the concept, and no doubt others, but let's stick to the major existing religions, OK?). My guess is that this monotheistic insight was strong enough to unify the Jews around it, and a whole series of ancillary beliefs sprang up to define what various Jewish traditions today have come to believe. They are, I think, the self-designated "chosen people of God."

Christianity. The Jews had a series of guys who prophesied that a messiah would be born. A savior, that is, although what mankind needed saving from is an open question. Once this person (self-proclaimed at first, and then proclaimed by others) was born and began to preach he said, basically, have faith that I am not only man and god, but I am the savior of mankind, saving everyone from "sin.". If you believe in me as your savior, then you will go to heaven when you die. He then was crucified and claimed that this act of sacrifice cleansed the human species of "sin" and opened the way to heaven and "everlasting life." Lots of other, ancillary beliefs accompany this. But I think I have the essence, right?

Hinduism. Fundamentally, the Hindus believe in reincarnation and a supreme being of many forms and manifestations, all being aspects of one eternal truth. They also seem to believe that the physical universe the species exists in is somehow not conducive to eternal "salvation" and so desire liberation from earthly evils.

Islam. The Islamic concept is that there was this warrior, tribal leader, trader known as Muhammad who lived around 1,400 years ago on the Arabian penninsula and that he had a series of revelations and founded a religious system whose precepts are set forth in a holy book, every letter of which is true, complete, accurate and the final word of the creator of the universe and everything in it. The basic principle of Islam is absolute submission to this conception of god as set forth in the book.

Bhuddism. About 2,500 years ago, there was a guy who bcame known as the Buddha, who said that the purpose of life is to develop compassion for all living beings without discrimination and to work for their good, happiness, and peace; and to develop wisdom leading to the realization of ultimate truth.

That's enough for now about these belief systems. I will say this about all of them. They are all, to varying degrees, self-referential and anthropomorphic. That is, their belief systems refer primarily to themselves, and they are centered on the human species. The other interesting fact is that they all claim to be keepers of "the truth."

How about this for a concept in opposition to the tall tales told by the revelatory founders of these belief systems: the essence of god is an organizing set of principles that act on the world much like gravity or electromagnetism. The schema can be characterized by its effects on the empirical (and, perhaps the non-empirical, but that's a subject for another day), but cannot be organized self-referentially or anthropomorphically. We are of this schema, but we do not define it as such.

It has been said that growing numbers of people are "spiritual" but not "religious." This blog is for you, but without the conceit that my spirituality is particularly spiritual. Make sense?