As you my readers know, I have been sharing the Smart and Stupid Ways to think about God that authors Michael Shevack and Jack Bemporad have conceived and I have adapted. I have already shared two stupid ways and one smart way to think about God. The second smart is:
GOD IS LIVING
If God were just the Origin, just the Infinite Sum of everything, it would not be God. For God to be God, He must have existed before time and space and he must be alive. Indeed either God is living or the whole idea of God is dead or pure illusion.
By saying that God is living means that He permeates everything, possesses a quality that distinguishes Him from every other existing thing and He must be conscious, possessing far more than vegetative consciousness. For God to be God, He must be at least as conscious as we. He must not be merely conscious, but self-conscious. Conscious of Himself, knowing Who He Is.
Further, God must have a self-concept that is not based on self-deceit. His awareness must be all-embracing and must fathom the depths of His own infinities.
His consciousness IS His Being, His very nature. It is the substance from which everything else is made. Organic or inorganic, it was formed from, formed by, formed out of His Consciousness.
This Living Awareness, the Living Origin of everything, that is what we mean by God. His consciousness informs all of creation, maintaining the order and design of all creation.
Consider this. All DNA in our creation is constructed from the same chemicals or elements. BUT, each phylum of created objects have their unique characteristics and nature which is maintained by the order established in His Consciousness. The whole universe is maintained and formed in God’s Consciousness.
There is one word that people use to describe God. That word is spirit. It is neither scientifically accurate nor mathematically precise. It hardly as perfect as the God it is meant to convey. But at least it works. It has withstood the test of time.
Nobody knows exactly what spirit is. But then, if no one really knows what God is, maybe spirit is pretty good.
Eastern theology tells us that the only thing we can do is describe what God is not. He is not limited, circumscribed or lacking intelligence. His consciousness permeates all energy and matter, using them to bring all things into existence and to maintain them in existence.
We know this to be true. He must be a person since He cannot create anything that He is not or that is greater than Him. Since He IS a person, we can have a relationship with Him!