But what is a god?
Traditionally in mainstream modern religions god is perceived as the Supreme Being and the principal object of faith. The concept of God as described by theologians commonly includes the attributes of infinite knowledge, omnipotence (unlimited power), omnipresence (present everywhere), omni benevolence (perfect goodness), and eternal and necessary existence. In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, while in deism, God is the creator (but not the sustainer) of the universe. Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one God or in the oneness of God. In pantheism, God is the universe itself. In atheism, God is purported not to exist, while deemed unknown or unknowable within the context of agnosticism. God has also been conceived as being incorporeal (immaterial), a personal being, and the source of all moral obligation.
There are many names for God, and different names are attached to different cultural ideas about God's identity and attributes. In the ancient Egyptian era of Atenism, possibly the earliest recorded monotheistic religion, this deity was called Aten, the one "true" Supreme Being and Creator of the Universe. In the Hebrew Bible and Judaism, "He Who Is," "I Am that I Am", and the "Tetragrammaton" YHVH are used as names of God, while Yahweh, and Jehovah are sometimes used in Christianity as vocalisations of YHVH. In Judaism, it is common to refer to God by the titular names Elohim or Adonai, the latter of which is believed by some scholars to descend from the Egyptian Aten. In Islam, the name Allah, "Al-El," or "Al-Elah" ("the God") is used. In Hinduism, Brahman is often considered a monistic deity. Other religions have names for God, for instance, Baha in the Bahá'í Faith, Waheguru in Sikhism, and Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrianism
Deities are depicted in a variety of forms, but are also often perceived as having human form. Some faiths and traditions consider it blasphemous to imagine or depict the deity as having any discernable form.
Deities are often considered to be immortal, and are commonly assumed to have personalities and to possess consciousness, intellects, desires, and emotions comparable but usually superior to those of humans.
Historically, natural phenomena, such as lightning and catastrophes such as earthquakes and floods, were attributed to the gods. They were thought to be able to work supernatural miracles and to be the authorities and controllers of various aspects of human life (such as birth or an afterlife). Some deities were asserted to be the directors of time and fate itself, the givers of human law and morality, the ultimate judges of human worth and behaviour, or designers of the Universe, instead of it being a natural result of the laws of physics.
But why do we need gods? It seems that in todays modern society that a belief in traditional gods has lost favour, and the following of mainstream religion has diminished, yet people still have their gods, the difference now is that the modern gods are mortal! Sports people, film stars, etc. these celebrity types have seemed to take on god like properties for their worshipping followers. Saint Augustine said that if God didn’t exist then man would create him!
So why do we need gods, is it that we need something to worship to give meaning to our lives, or do gods need us to worship them to give them life? This latter statement would indicate that rather than god creating man, man created god! This is true in many ways, we can elevate anything to the stature of a god, people can worship anything, wealth, property, film stars, sports people, hedonism, the list is endless, and it does seem that as the traditional all powerful, omnipotent, everlasting gods have slipped into the realms of myth, so the more transient gods have been created, but these gods quickly pass in and out of favour, often when a screen or sports idol marries, or declares their sexual preference, they begin to lose popularity, and certainly this type of idol, or god, would be nothing without their adoring fans, but what do the fans gain from this idolatry? They obviously derive pleasure from their idols performances, but they will feel disappointment too when the particular star fails, so these modern, transient gods are feeble in comparison to the great gods of old, and are certainly fallible so they are of little or no use to mankind as a whole, and just bring some short lived pleasure to a few people.
The argument for a Creator God
There are those who will argue that traditional gods serve no purpose in todays material world, science answers every need and question, but does it?
Certainly one of the benefits of a belief in God is the unity that it brings to people, also the knowledge that we are not alone, and that through our divine spirit we are connected to the great creator spirit, God. And so we too are immortal, certainly our mortal body will die, and physically we will cease to exist, but what of our spirit?
There are many people who would pour scorn on this last statement, it is easy to deride, but not so easy to offer sensible alternative views.
According to Jewish mythology, in the Garden of Eden there is a Tree of life or the Tree of Souls that blossoms and produces new souls, which fall into the Guf, or the Treasury of Souls. Gabriel reaches into the treasury and takes out the first soul that comes into his hand, and places it in an unborn child. Then Lailah, the Angel of Conception, watches over the embryo until it is born.
The legend says that Sparrows sit in the trees and so they see the souls, and their progress from the Guf to a baby, they are happy for this progression and this explains their happy singing.
The mystic significance of the Guf is that each person is important and has a unique role which only they, with their unique soul, can fulfil.
According to Kabbalah, every human soul is just a fragment cycling out of the great world-soul of the creator so we are all connected to, and part of God, and as such our spirit is eternal, and as long as God exists so will we.
According to Rabbinic literature, all the souls that ever were to be, were created during the six days of creation, and therefore there is a finite number of souls, and so, according to the myth, when the last soul has entered a body, the sparrows will cease to sing and the end of the world will begin. The riders of the apocalypse will appear, with their plagues and woes, followed closely by the Messiah and the final judgement.
I have often wondered about this, and whether or not there is a finite number of spirits as there are considerably more people alive today than there were in the days of Abraham for instance, and when you listen to various religious zealots speaking, unless we are one of them we are doomed, but that is just their brainwashing and culture, there are so many different groups and denominations saying this same thing, they can’t all be right.!
If we look about at the world, the stars, in fact everything around us it seems that is impossible for it to have come into being by accident. An atom is a model of the universe, a molecule the cosmos, everything is in perfect order and has a unique relationship with everything else.
Apparently Mice and men share about 97.5 per cent of their working DNA, just one per cent less than chimps and humans. The new estimate is based on the comparison of mouse chromosome 16 with human DNA. Previous estimates had suggested mouse-human differences as high as 15 per cent. However, Tim Hubbard, head of genome analysis at the Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK, is sceptical about the significance of the 2.5 % difference. He thinks that the genes might in fact all be identical and that differences between species might arise solely through divergence in the "regulatory regions" which switch other genes on and off.
So what decides whether we are to be mice or men? When an embryo starts to develop, and cells split, and organs begin to form, how does that cell, which at this point is quite basic, know whether it is skin or brain? With a 2.5% difference in DNA why don’t we get mixtures of species being born, like the centaur.
If all of creation is the result of an ‘accident’ then these hybrids would be walking the streets. It is my view that creation is the result of intelligence, and whatever you wish to call that intelligence is fine, in the words of William Shakespeare, a rose with any other name would smell as sweet!
It matters not what name you attach to your God. There is only one true creator Spirit and he/she/it answers to all names as we are Gods children and part of the great creation.