"There is/is not a God"

"There is/is not a God."

This article is in the form of a dialogue with someone who is asserting either of the above, or pondering the “truth” or “falsity” of either statement or trying to decide whether they agree or disagree with either one.


The viewpoints in this article are just viewpoints, not truth. Perhaps useful in your own explorations of your own spirituality. 


And for sure this is not all I could say on the subject.. You might want to check out "Who God Is" for another perspective. 

First of all, since there are literally millions of purported descriptions, ideas, concepts or “experiences” of “God,” which one do you mean? Either statement is meaningless – neither true nor false nor capable of being assessed as true or false or capable of being agreed or disagreed with --  unless that is specified, doncha think?

If you specify what you mean by “God,” then there might be able to be a conversation.

However, second of all, most descriptions or specifications include that God is infinite, omnipresent, and ineffable. Those by definition make any meaningful languaging about God impossible. God is thus beyond language, so any kind of conversation we might have on the subject would be only what some teachers call “pointing,” and others call grunts and heavy breathing! Or poetry, which is cool. And “God” would even be beyond our limited, finite MINDS, so that too makes conversing as well as “thinking about” God a bit problematical, doncha think?

Third, if God is infinite and omnipresent, then first of all there is not “a” God. And second of all, since nothing is not-God, then “is” becomes a problematical concept. To say “God is” or “There is a God” becomes the tautological statement “Existence exists.”

Fourth, if God is infinite and omnipresent, then “there” becomes meaningless, both in reference to place, and as a pointer to something. What could one be pointing to? Who would be pointing? “Here is a God” would be equally valid and invalid to say. Here and there are opposites and require contrast. If God is infinite and omnipresent, there is nothing which is contrast.

Fifth, and what about “God/dess?”  If God is infinite and omnipresent, there is one thing for sure: God is not masculine !!

Sixth, if God is infinite and omnipresent, what could one possibly say ABOUT God? It would be God talking “about” God as if God were not the speaker, and the speaking, and the spoken-about. It would be God as subject and God as object. That's not my idea of a conversation nor meaningful utterances!!

So perhaps we have disposed of both the statements as meaningless strings of sound, if the “God” purportedly referred to is infinite, omnipresent, and ineffable. (Or any one of those characteristics !)

By the way IF there is a meaningful word in either of those sentences, that word could be “is.” But unfortunately that's a dull conversation and dull utterance. “Is,” “Is.” “Is.” “Is.”

If one's idea of God or proposed God which “is” “a” “there” of , is not infinite or omnipresent or ineffable, then one might make some coherent, not logically-nonesensical, meaningful utterances.

But IMO that too would be a very dull conversation !!!

There are however many “pointing” utterances which it is fun to roll around on the tongue or in the mind, and to explore, and one can continue to engage in activities which are recommended as leading to “experiences” of  “God” and just see what happens in one's own experience. One can keep expanding one's own awareness, the scope of one's awareness, the depth of one's experiences of being, because that's fun and intriguing (except when it's not, like dealing with painful “truths.” Then some other motivation kicks in, or not.)

Some of the loveliest pointing utterances I have run across have been penned by Ken Wilber, but there are others. Rumi. St. Theresa of Avalon. Hildegard von Bingen. Lots of Buddhist and Hindu writings. There are 12 classic “metaphors” for the process of getting to “know” “God” (and thus, indirectly, descriptions of God) that Ralph Metzner has boiled lots of spiritual and religious writings down to, in his book The Unfolding Self: Varieties of Transformative Experience. Lots of great utterances about “God” there, from many writers and religions and eras.

Here's one of the “offical” sound-utterances about “God/ess” from our church literature. It is not a “belief” but the most general “grunting” we agree on:

• God/ess is the Source and Substance and existence and activity and operation of Everything Everywhere Forever Infinitely. God/ess is the Force of Creation, the Creator, the Creation, and the Creating. God/ess is all consciousness, all energy, and all matter. Nothing that exists or happens is not-God/ess or is outside of God/ess. God/ess has many names.

We regard those statements as meaningful because some things some people say about “God” are excluded by those statements, though not excluded from God/ess !!

For example, we celebrate male and female and non-gendered aspects of God/ess. This contrasts with ideas of God as “HIM” or “HE.”

For another example, we say that  the ultimate purpose of life is to live continuously in the realization that everything which exists is inherently always already, because it exists, One with God/ess. This contrasts with ideas of God in which certain existents or experiences are regarded as not-God, or outside of God. And we regard the non-realization of that Oneness as also part of, an expression and activity of, that Oneness of God, or God.

by Rev. Alia Aurami, Ph.D.

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