MM#24:

The Morality of God

Whether you believe in God or not, it’s not up to me. But I have seen my own world with and without the concept of God and have felt the repercussions of my choice.

One thing that has been on my mind stems from recent interactions with people in my life. In particular I’ve noticed how differently those who turned their back on God deal with dilemmas of morality.

For example, someone I know will have no qualms about lying if it suits their needs, but will also condemn me whenever we disagree and they don’t get their way in the matter. They don’t believe in God but will throw out a casual “God help me” if it suits the phraseology of their threat.

This sort of shifty morality to suit personal needs seems—in my mind—to come from the fact that they have no belief in something bigger than themselves. Therefore they are the most important and only thing that matters to them, more or less. No one watching their so-called “bad” behavior.

My theory: no God=personal morality; having God=inclusive morality.

Hey, like anything—especially in terms of generalizations—there’s no hard and fast rule here so don’t get your knickers in a bunch if the above equation doesn’t add up to you. Just a thought I had, anyways.

With a personal morality someone may feel like they are always fighting to meet their needs because they are not trusting in a higher power to assist them in any way. They may do only what they can for themselves without fully considering the effects their actions have on others.

These “Godless” people do still find their way through life, albeit many of them in a certain kind of their own misery.

I think that their lives of personal struggle are representations of their belief in no God.

Belief In No God

At some point in my teens the story given to me of God, religion and the whole thing didn’t add up. Years of school, the reasoning mind it encourages, and my deeper probing thoughts about reality took me to a place where I abandoned the idea of God altogether.

Looking back on my Godless years and the people I knew (and some I still must contend with, unfortunately), I see this trend: no sense of personal accountability—or you only face it when your reputation is on the line.

Without God, whatever version you see—an all-loving father above; a spiritual entity throughout creation; or something like the newer version of God I find today—there is a sense of aloneness. You are you and you alone. Life is struggle, in this sense, because you have no help. It’s all on your back.

So you may find yourself doing for you and yourself without regard for others. Or very little regard, and often then only to fuel your continued need for that person in your life. Like pretending to be nice only to demand something of them later.

All in all, in this version of life, it’s dog eat dog and there’s no consequences or repercussions for your actions as long as you can get away with it. This can become the ultimate, malleable morality needed to be a criminal or a toxic person.

God When I Was a Child

As a child I remember thinking of God in the terms that I was taught by my illustrated children’s Bible. God was an old, bearded white man who floated around the cloudy heavens in a white robe. He embraced his children in love, but, like Santa, kept track of people’s good deeds and bad deeds.

With this sort of morality it’s easy to teach children to be good because to be bad means eternal damnation in hell and who the hell wants that?

But I remember the feeling I had with this God of my kidself. Not of fear of God or of any sort of retribution or punishment. No. Because I thought long and hard about my actions and tried to act my best at all times.

I do remember thinking that God is always watching, and for that fact alone I had better act my best and be nice to people.

Like if I had the thought of doing something I knew I shouldn’t, knowing that God was watching meant I’d get caught simply because. And I didn’t want to get caught. Easy morality for a kid.

God To Me Now

Well the avoidance of getting caught isn’t the best morality to hold into my adult years, and luckily that changed with my new beliefs now.

After many years without a God at all, I have found a new sense of God and a new sense of morality.

To me God is the all-encompassing everything of everything. God is the light, the universe, and all things in it. God is the rock, the tree and you and me.

As part of God’s allness we are all one. What we do to others we do to ourselves. We’ve all heard that teaching, but it’s true. We are all connected. Therefore morality becomes inclusive of all.

Being connected we also have help and spiritual helpers in the forms of guides, angels and other beings of love, including past loved ones. They are with us always, nurturing and teaching us, loving and embracing us through our good times and bad.

With this in mind I no longer see a bearded, old white man in the cloudy heavens, but an infinite number of God’s legions of angels and light beings who are always with me. No longer is God “up there” and I am down here trying to do my best, but we are all in this together, every moment of every day, co-creating my life.

Now I see myself as an integral part of it all. I know that I am not alone. And therefore, I know that my actions are forming connections to all that I am part of, which is everything. I do my best because I want all to do their best. I act nicely because I want all to.

I put out the energy I want reflected back to me. And I know that I am accountable for what I say and do. “They” are watching (all of God, in a sense).

Life With Belief In God

So I think what it comes down to is simply this: accountability. With God, however you envision the divine, you have a knowing of accountability as part of the whole web of creation.

Without God, you don’t feel that sense of connection and accountability. You feel, instead, separation from all and a fight for survival at all times for your personal needs.

Life with the belief in God was sorely needed in my life. I didn’t like who I’d become without God. And I am still unwinding some of those beliefs and life choices. I am still learning more and more to trust and feel into God’s ever-present love and attention.

Like the sun that gives life to this planet and can still be bothered to ripen the grapes on the vine, God is always giving life to the universe and still has time to infuse little old me with all the love and energy I need to thrive. And to heal.

And in healing myself, I heal the world.

 

You can do this, too, by the way. You can heal the world. Start with yourself. So I thank you for taking the time to read my post. Please leave comments and share if you liked it.

 

Many blessings to all,

Matthew