From the column, “What About It, Bob?” By Bob Siegel
© 2002 by Bob Siegel All Rights Reserved
This article is not to be reproduced without written permission from the author.
When the Bible uses the word, God, it means, “a thinking, feeling entity who created the universe and who holds each of us accountable.” But there’s a much different and very popular idea of God: The notion that God and the universe are one and the same thing. In other words: God is everything! This idea, (commonly called Pantheism) is gaining quite a following in modern religious thought, even though its roots are ancient, some of them going back to certain sects of Hinduism. A Christian says that God made that tree! A Pantheist says that God is the tree!” We couldn’t possibly have two more distinctly opposite views of God.
Now there are different strains of Pantheism. Some insist that the God/universe is a non personal phenomenon. The universe doesn’t think. The universe just is. It is almost like saying there is no God at all. There is only existence.
Other Pantheists will claim that the God/universe does have a personality. This view suggests that the oceans, rivers, stars and planets somehow make up one collective sentient being.
We live in a country that guarantees freedom of religion and I would never want to see that change. I respect the rights and the sincerity of people who have a different view of God, be it Pantheist or any other belief. At the same time, all too often we tend to give religious ideas a free pass without taking the time to question them according to logic or authentication. Why is this? Because the underlying assumption going into such dialogues is that religion doesn’t really have anything to do with the truth anyway. Supposedly, it’s only a comfortable fantasy. Telling someone to choose Christianity over Hinduism or Islam is like arguing over The Chronicles of Narnia as opposed to Lord of the Rings.
“They’re both fantasies,” people like to say. “ So what difference does it make? Just pick the one you like.”
When discussing other disciplines, (history, science, math, politics), people are very interested in facts. But religion? That’s a whole different story. Should it be? Even a religious idea is a truth claim. The founders of most major religions did not suggest for a minute that they were espousing mere opinions. The emphatically insisted that their beliefs were based upon divine revelation. In other words, they were claiming truth ! Shouldn’t students at an institution of higher learning test all truth claims, religious or otherwise?
Equating God with nature may sound nice. “It’s not that God made the forest, God is the forest! It’s not that God made the sunset, God is the sunset! It’s not that God made the weather, God is the weather. He’s the rain, the lighting, the thunder! And he’s the crystal clear water pouring over every smooth stone in the bonny brook.” Doesn’t that sound nice? It’s almost poetic! But do we want to accept an idea simply because it sounds attractive?
Here’s the problem. When we say that God is everything, we must admit that everything is a pretty big word. Everything includes, well, everything! When somebody tells me that God is everything, I reply, “You mean, I’m God? Your God? Is my wristwatch God? Am I wearing God on my wrist? When I eat a hamburger, am I eating God? When I have my morning coffee, am I drinking God? When I empty the wastebasket, am I tossing God in the trash can? If I hike through the woods and step in some horse manure, am I scraping God off of my shoe?”
By this time, of course, I hear, “Oh no! I don’t mean that all those things are God!”
“You don’t?”
“No!”
“I see. OK. Well, then, when you say that God is everything, what do you mean?”
Sometimes, people make the horrifying discovery that they had no idea what they meant. It just sounded good.
The Bible paints a much different picture of God:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Gen 1:1)
A familiar verse to be sure, but the role of God as creator was taught throughout scripture, both Old Testament and New Testament:
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?” (Job 38:4-5)
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Rom 1:19-20)
As you see, the Bible does say that we can learn some things about the creator from His creation, but it is called creation.
The Bible also teaches that our creator will hold us accountable for the way we live our lives.
“For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice…” (Acts 17:31)
Since Christians base their beliefs on the authority of the Bible, the credibility and authentication of the Bible is also a fair game. For the sake of time and brevity, I will address the accuracy of scripture in a future column. But for today, let us simply ask if the Bible’s view of God makes any kind of sense.
Does it make sense that design implies a designer? The human body is a far more complicated machine than any computer or any automobile. We would have trouble imagining such machines coming into existence by mere accident. According to Pantheist View One (mentioned above) this universe (which some may call God) is impersonal. Who then designed its complexity? And how do we account for human personality? You cannot get the personal from the impersonal.
As for the idea of a God who holds us accountable, is it not consistent with our very own societies? Don’t we have laws and courts to prevent anarchy? Don’t we forbid people to selfishly hurt others? A good case can be made that we drew up such laws because we have a conscience inside condemning evil and making us feel guilty if we aren’t trying to treat others in a way that we ourselves would want to be treated. Where did this conscience come from? Perhaps our joint intuitive awareness of judgment and accountability finds origin in a being who will literally hold us accountable. It would be very difficult not to at least consider such a possibility. According to Pantheist View Two, this conscience may just be a part of the eternal conscience of the universe. But if God is everything then he is also everybody, including evil people. This would make God himself evil or at least partly evil.
Obviously you will not draw any conclusions from one short article. If this piece has inspired thought or dialogue, if it has encouraged you to test any idea, even a religious one, than my point has been made.
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