Bill Maher pissed me off a couple of months ago. To be specific, he pissed me off on his show dated June 6 (D-Day, I wonder if that was a coincidence). He was interviewing Ralph Reed. Now, I know that Maher is a devout Atheist, and I thought his interview with Reed would be entertaining. But here's the thing (as Adrian Monk might say), he defined faith as the "purposeful suspension of critical thought." It's not. Blind faith may be. However, there is nothing blind about my faith. In fact, I CAN prove it.
I choose to believe in God. It is important to note that God, in my context may not conform to notions held by anyone else. I have written here about faith in the past. For me, one of the most important aspects of faith is that it is personal. I know what I believe, I like what I believe, and I share what I believe. I do not share as an attempt to convince anyone else.
That being said, I will prove that critical thought is indeed behind my faith below the fold.
For starters, I know that I cannot prove God exists. There are people who actually believe that they can. Bill O'Reilly dismisses atheists with talk of the tide coming in and going out as if he never heard of the lunar effect. I take equal offense to atheists who dismiss my assertion that they cannot prove there is no God, by saying how hard it is to disprove a negative.
Now, I would like to take a moment to discus how I think of what we think the word God is supposed to represent. I propose that most people on both sides of the existence debate think of God as in some way an entity. I don't. I think that our understanding of the nature of the universe has expanded enough that we can re-examine how we define God.
It is important to note that God is not the name of what we are talking about. In terms on nomenclature, God is more a job description. Looking at the source material for the western religions, even God says simply that, "I am the Lord, you God." God adds that, "You shall have no other gods before me." This clearly implies a possibility of other gods, and thus God, in and of itself, is not a name.
In the interest of disclosure, I am Jewish. As I like to say, more "ish" than "Jew," but I do take pride in my heritage. We never say what we believe to be God's name. The English names Jehovah and Yahweh are derived from Hebrew letters that sort of correspond to YHVH. When we come across those letters in our prayers we say the Hebrew equivalent to Our Lord, as opposed to how those letters might actually be pronounced.
Also, perhaps the most formal manner of writing the name of the God of the Jewish people would be the English equivalent of YY, which since in Latin Jehovah was spelled with an "I" would be JJ. At this point, I would like to suggest that I don't think it's a good idea to call God, JJ, if you are a believer. If you're not, knock yourself out.
In prayer books that I read, when I come across those iterations of the name of God in the Hebrew, it is most often translated as The Eternal. I like that. It fits with my faith. Returning to the source material, in Exodus, when Moses is before the Burning Bush, and he asks what name he should give to Pharaoh (for the record, Raamses, is not mentioned), the response is simply "I am that I am."
I like to define "God" simply as something more. I believe that the most accurate translation of the name of God from the Hebrew today would be a word that is akin to Existence. We are all a part of God. It is not that we were created in His image, but rather we are part and parcel of the Creation that is God, the Universe, The Alpha and the Omega.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson talked about how I share a gene with a tree which tells my body how to process sugar for energy. I see God in that. He also talks about the fact that every element that is in my body was created in the supernovae and the stars, I see God in that.
It was only recently that scientists discovered that Aspen trees in Colorado are interconnected. We are all interconnected. Not just on Earth, but throughout the Universe. That is God to me. Below, are 2 videos. One talks about our interconnectedness, the other I think demonstrates it. Bill Maher, argue with that.
lex Luthor clip:
https://www.youtube.com/...
magic and crossword david Kwong:
http://www.ted.com/...