As I no doubt repeat things in this blog that go to or evolve into a theme, one such theme is how we all do not talk the same talk.
That in terms of God, personal or other wise, or our perception of such, we all harken back to standard cardboard cutouts of what God should be, is, could be. Those cardboard cutouts can also be pasted onto storyboards for a planned theatrical play or movie of an idea.
To the point. God in conversation does not equal what each of us thinks or feels when the concept of the Deity is at hand. We have come a long road in terms of individualism over the centuries. Short of losing our personal freedoms or sense of such, we build a wall or a box around our own personal view of the universe.
God is in most cases not the real object of anger in atheists so much as it is hatred of some religion or bad religious experience that equated God with the religion.
God is God; man is religion.
In trying to express ourselves outward to the world and in trying to accept incoming expression from others, the cacophony of noise is like a Tower of Babel at times in terms of mutual understanding.
Now that God, one God is part of a Jewish view, welded to a Christian view, and coming together with a Muslim view of one God in the present and coming global common culture, we have to be aware of the difficulty it is to express what is inside ourselves and expect respect in return for our view from others, especially when what we say and think about God or religion does not easily gel with another’s concept of the same thing within themselves.
There is a need for a search for common ground. There is a need for an update of phrases and phraseology.
A surface culture, a conversational culture, a default culture around God centuries old and in many aspects both valid and at the same time obsolete surrounds us.
Best comparison is a foreign film with great acting, directing, good writing and a first rate translation in words below the screen. Verbal overlay translations don’t do it for me. If the film is French, it is French and I don’t want an American accent coming out of the mouths of the screen actors.
How we work toward a more uniform and loving global conversational God for all faiths and non-believers as well is just one challenge of living in a global culture.
Think about it.
