Dear Facearmy,
You wondered in a recent post what the root is behind a belief in God is.
People don't have to belong to an organized religion to believe in a caring Supreme Being. Many people don't belong to any organized religion, yet believe in "God".
The first question that should be asked is "what do you mean by 'God'?" People have varying levels of understanding. Some may still have an inner image of an old man with a long white beard, as shown in a Michaelangelo painting, seated upon a great throne, looking down and judging us all from somewhere far above in the sky. People who say they don't believe in God may be saying they do not believe in that kind of a "God". In fact, I would not believe in that kind of a "God" myself.
I believe in a caring Supreme Being. I used to be an agnostic before I was a Baha'i. It has been my observations of nature through my reading about science that convinced me there is a Creator. It has been the sense that the Baha'i Writings make that convinced me that this Unknowable Essence not only exists, but doesn't forget the creation, and sends world Teachers from time to time. This is known as "Progressive Revelation." The infinite perfection of creation never fails to re-convince me. I can't believe such universal, infinite, intricate perfection happened without a Great Mind behind it.
Another reason I myself believe is because I certainly often get help swiftly when I need it. I also can feel a relationship of love and warmth. I think that many people believe for the same reasons I do.
One way to form a kind of crude concept is to imagine "God" as the greatest, most powerful electrical dynamo possible, and due to such great power, unapproachable and not comprehensible to us. Teachers from God would be the electrical equipment that steps the power down to a safe enough level to be able to be used in our homes. They understand and can teach us whatever we are ready for about the "Unknowable Essense" and how we need to live in order to continue to progress. We are finite beings, and that is why we can't possibly use our understanding to embrace The Infinite. It's rather like saying the table could understand the craftsman who made it. The Great Teachers have always told us as much as we could take when they each came, depending on how far we had progressed and were ready to learn.
To pray to God we go through the Teacher, the Ones who told us about the All-Powerful, the All-Knowing, the Friend, the Compassionate, the All-Bountiful, the Self-Subsisting, the All-Wise, and any other similar great attribute you can think of. These attributes don't really describe the Unknowable Essense, but they give us an indication that we can grasp. When we pray to "God" we pray in the way the Teacher from God that we know about taught us, and we pray through that Teacher, as we can't approach "God" directly.
That is the best I can do in answer to the question, Facearmy. So what do you think about it all?
Best wishes, Mary
