This blog is not about religion neither I am a religious person but I think is important to discuss what influence has what we believe in our path through life. For most of us our God, whoever is, has some meaning that definitely influence strongly our way in life; our believes about him and the way we behave as a consequence of those believes are always very influential on how we look at our life, our decisions, our goals, our behaviour and our relations with other people and the environment. So many people rely on their god all their dreams, decisions, problems and paths that they have to take in life that nobody asks themselves if their god is there to really sort out all of what apparently are human issues and they forget completely what the real meaning of God is in their life. I’ll explain this to you:
I was asking myself if somebody can really believe in God, I have always asked myself about it. Not because he does not exist, but because of the convenience of believing in him. Is not clear?, I’ll explain myself. A long ago when I used to read the Bible I learned a verse that never forgot and that I like so much:
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).
Without going deep into theology, cause I don’t have a deep knowledge about it and don’t want to make philosophical discussions about the meaning of this verse, and more from the point of view of a common man, this verse to me means the most pure and simple form of believe in God, have the assurance about what we do not see.
Since when we are born, our parents, teachers and, in general, society shows us many forms of God: God, the supplier; God, the saviour; God, the punisher; God, the creator; God, the restrictor, etcetera, forms in which in one or another way we can appreciate God and how he influence our lifes; base on this, our moral principles and our own way, we create a concept of God that keeps changing with time.
Many people seek refuge in these concepts of God, for god or bad; the supplier God is the one that fill us with wealth or give us our daily bread if we ask him for it; the restrictor God is the one who limits who we really are and don’t let us be guided by our instincts; in the same way we could describe 100 different ways in which we look at God at different stages of our lifes. But there is one form of God, the saviour God, the most interesting one, which is who has reserved a sit for us in paradise if we were good down here and which I think is the most hypocrite and egocentric form of describing God, cause it is based only in our self-love looking of God for our own wellbeing. Here is where we find that big fear of God, fear that he will not take us to paradise if we are not good people, if we don’t follow his desires.
Even the most holy among the saints has been saint not because of love of God but because of fear to him or, in other words, most of the people don’t believe in God because of a sincere conviction but because of convenience. Yes, goodness is something excellent, is the most sublime and simple gift of a human been and is good to practice it, but how many people who believe in God practice goodness not because of the fear of God but because of truly conviction. Since today, I haven’t met anybody that believes in God and follow his words because of true conviction but because of fear, fear of going to hell, which transforms conviction into convenience, convenience of believing in God because of what we can get from him but not because of pure conviction, not just because God exists; if we can escape from hell by believing in him why not believe in him then just for convenience and not because of conviction? How many of you, who are believers, don’t expect something from God? How many of you really believe in God without pretending something from him?, for example your own salvation; how many of you follow the rules and go to church without expecting anything from your God, just for real conviction that he exists?.
Blaise Pascal, 1623-1662, the mathematician, philosopher, physicist and theologian, said in the Pascal’s wager:
“The reason is that, even when the probability of the existence of God would be extremely small, that smallness would be compensated by the big profit that would be obtain, in other words, the eternal glory”
He said that even when you cannot determine the existence of God believing in him would be a better option that not believing as by believing you has everything to win and nothing to lose. And that’s exactly what people do without noticing it, they believe in God cause of the benefits of believing in him but not for pure conviction. That’s how the churches convene so many people, by installing fear of a punisher God in people minds.
I was wondering how many of you really believe in God, not for convenience, not because of any fear, not believing to try to fill the emptiness that all of us feel, but because of a real conviction that God exists, nothing else, without expecting something from him. 11 years ago when I convert to the Protestantism and finally leave it 10 years ago I had this last talk to God when I ask him to teach me the real way to believe in him, without any convenience, without expecting anything in exchange, I said I would search every day of my life that way to believe in him which I haven’t found yet, and I said that the day I would find it I would believe in him again in the most pure and simple way of believing in God: having the assurance about what we do not see. I hope my answer is there… by now I still believe in him by convenience…
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