A Questioning Atheist's Guide to God

by John Bullaro, Ph.D

I will begin this essay with a short quote from Edward Abbey's, book A Voice Crying in the Wilderness. "Why Do I believe in the desert? Because the desert is the locus Dei." 

The current political dialog is focused on who is the most religious and pious candidate. Of course, these candidates plead their religious credentials because they hope to appease their voter base, which makes the point: a large portion of Americans focus mainly on religion as criteria for picking a candidate to manage the most powerful and complex culture in the world. I prefer to vote for a candidate who shows me the greatest empathy for all Americans — rich, poor, minorities, and others disenfranchised from the system.

Organized religion builds walls between people and groups. Anyone seeking a spiritual connection to all people are, in my mind, traveling on a bridge build on kinship, love, and empathy. I look for "nature lovers" in my candidates, those who believe in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson: transcendentalism.

Thoreau developed, through ceaseless reflective effort, a remarkable philosophical position revolving around the ideas of self, society, and wilderness and the interrelations among them. His devotion to the natural world brought him to realize that all things are connected, and that we humans are part of a large spirit chain of causation and emergence. What each does to another sentient being matters.

Strictly speaking, God has no form, mass, or substance. Nor is he/she available for factual confirmation. Yet, in America a belief in God and being part of a  main stream religion is a necessary criteria to run for political office. This national obsession with religion dismisses the idea that one may have, through other methods, a personal internal revelation the equivalent to, or greater than, that of a traditional religious experience. Values such as honesty and goodness are not the sole domain of traditional religions. Those values can be part of the transcendental tradition. How is this possible?

Imagine you are on a walk along the coast of the Pacific Ocean and come across some out-of-the-way spot where few people are likely to pass. Turn and watch the sea breathe, the waves, and the gulls gliding by. Become fully engaged with all you see.  Remove all extraneous thoughts from your mind by becoming the water, waves, and gulls.  Try to imagine being a gull.  See what the gull sees, feel what the gull feels, and hear what the gull hears.  Whether all of this integration of thought and senses takes a moment or longer, when it does occurs you will experience a connection to your internal God.  By merging with your senses you are confirming your God-self. Thus your focused attention will bring to you an optimal experience, which is what priests and ministers say prayer and devotional rituals promise. Each one of us is capable of being his/her own personal God.  It only takes commitment to this understanding and focus on where you are at to experience tangible, measurable, and understandable results. The woods and the desert, as well as the ocean, can be a church; as can a beautiful city park, the top of a high rise building, or as a passenger in an airplane.

I'll close with another Abbey quote, "Whatever we cannot easily understand we call God; this saves much wear and tear on the brain tissue." And, I might add, places the power outside of you.

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