Thoughts by Peter Marinelli
Do I bristle with antagonism when the word God is mentioned or discussion about God is spoken of?
Even when I claim that I don’t believe in God or there is no God, is it possible that secretly I am sure there is one anyway?
The one who has the problem is me towards God not God with me. Is it possible that my troubles with a deity is based on my own misperceptions and conceptions of God instilled in me by others and that I have used both personal and worldly clamors to determine if there is a God and if there is it a just a loving God. Yet when we are at our lowest points or in dire straits and conversely we a have a windfall of money dropped in our lap, the first person we call on for help or thanks is God.
Are there really any atheists beyond what they say? Are there really any atheist as one is about to take their last breath. Hmm, I wonder, but I am glad I don’t have to find out for myself.
I came across and interesting and sound article that presents us with some interesting considerations:
The wisdom of all ages and of all continents speaks about the road to our depth.
It has been described in in-numerable ways. But all those who have been concerned-mystics and priests, poets and philosophers, simple people and educated people- with that road through confession, lonely self –scrutiny, internal or external catastrophes, prayer contemplation, have witnessed to the same experience. They have found that they were not what they believed themselves to be, even after a deeper level had appeared to them below the vanishing surface. That deeper level itself became surface, when a still deeper level was discovered, this happening again and again, as long as their very lives, as long as they kept on the road to their depth.
The name of this infinite and in-exhaustible depth and ground of all being is God. That depth is what the word God means. And if that word has not much meaning for you, translate it, and speak of the depths of your life, of the source of your being, of your ultimate concern, of what you take seriously without any reservation. Perhaps, in order to do so, you must forget everything traditional that you have learned about God, perhaps even that word itself. For if you know that God means depth, you know much about Him. You cannot then call yourself an atheist or unbeliever. For you cannot think or say: Life has o depth! Life itself is shallow. Being itself is surface only. If you could say this in complete seriousness, you would be and atheist; but otherwise you are not. He who knows depth knows about God.
-Paul Tillick-
Blessings,
Chop wood, carry water
Peter Marinelli
