When I say I "found God," I mean to say I found the closest thing on Earth that any human being can even begin to compare to a God of "love." That "God" is utter love, devoid of all judgement or criticism, and sees only the purest essence of a person, what a "theist" might refer to as a "soul." That "God" is captured in perhaps no living thing better than a dog.
I have always been struck by the nature with which a dog loves its owner, or even people in general, without the slightest care of their religious beliefs, political ideology, nationality or race, gender, sexual orientation, age, height, weight, you name it! And yet, from the most rabid of believers to those who use their "beliefs" to make their decisions for them, people convince themselves (with a great deal of help from one church or another) that the "love of God" is not necessarily and always like the love of a dog; a conclusion I flatly reject.
Instead, religions everywhere promote the idea that, while God's love is said to be "unconditional," one's "heavenly reward" is not only not guaranteed to anyone, but is also predicated on a good deal of prerequisites.
Imagine if in fact the God all religions worshiped was more like the love of a dog, however, one devoid of all judgement other than whether you loved that dog in return - and nothing more. In fact, we see just such an idea for God spelled out clearly in the Beatitudes. How much more peaceful and uncomplicated might religion, and indeed the world overall, be today, if our Gods were more like our dogs?
When you think about it, dogs, like children, love without any qualification. It is only adults who then impose upon that love nationalism, politics, patriotism, religions, race, and all the rest. We do not mature when we get older, at least with regards to love, we devolve instead, and use our ideas to convince us otherwise with one theology about god , country, or economics, or another.
If there is one religion I could wholeheartedly embrace, it would be one that preaches of a God that has the capacity to love with all the innocence of a dog. Any other "God" is simply the tool manufactured by man to make money by controlling others.
I have always been struck by the nature with which a dog loves its owner, or even people in general, without the slightest care of their religious beliefs, political ideology, nationality or race, gender, sexual orientation, age, height, weight, you name it! And yet, from the most rabid of believers to those who use their "beliefs" to make their decisions for them, people convince themselves (with a great deal of help from one church or another) that the "love of God" is not necessarily and always like the love of a dog; a conclusion I flatly reject.
Instead, religions everywhere promote the idea that, while God's love is said to be "unconditional," one's "heavenly reward" is not only not guaranteed to anyone, but is also predicated on a good deal of prerequisites.
Imagine if in fact the God all religions worshiped was more like the love of a dog, however, one devoid of all judgement other than whether you loved that dog in return - and nothing more. In fact, we see just such an idea for God spelled out clearly in the Beatitudes. How much more peaceful and uncomplicated might religion, and indeed the world overall, be today, if our Gods were more like our dogs?
When you think about it, dogs, like children, love without any qualification. It is only adults who then impose upon that love nationalism, politics, patriotism, religions, race, and all the rest. We do not mature when we get older, at least with regards to love, we devolve instead, and use our ideas to convince us otherwise with one theology about god , country, or economics, or another.
If there is one religion I could wholeheartedly embrace, it would be one that preaches of a God that has the capacity to love with all the innocence of a dog. Any other "God" is simply the tool manufactured by man to make money by controlling others.
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