Article in Stretton Focus, June 2018
My title is an unfinished sentence. It must always be so, because the word GOD stands for a mystery beyond reach of words: beyond reach of our finite minds. Nevertheless it is a word which is widely (if not wisely!) used.
Whoever uses it should realise that they are only talking about themselves. They are not talking about ‘somebody’ who goes by the name of GOD, who lives somewhere else, other than the world we live in.
World religions should waken up to that fact, if they don’t already know it. Gods don’t exist independently of the minds that think about them.
Any concept of GOD must always be a projection of our own thoughts and feelings – but none the worse for that, if we project the best we can conceive, and which is of the highest moral calibre.
We can never say what GOD is . . . but using our creative imagination, we can think of GOD as . . . Peace; Love; Joy; Beauty and Goodness. We can see these ideals in our ‘mind’s eye’: focus on them: and let them be our guide and inspiration on the journey of life, as we continue our personal and corporate quest for meaning and purpose.
Living as we do, in this evolving universe, everything passes; all things are provisional (even the gods!). We can have no concept of any Ultimate Reality. We can only say that the meaning and purpose of life is to be on the Quest for the meaning and purpose of life: we are always evolving, never arriving: the journey is itself our destination.
Donald Horsfield
