Approaching the Unapproachable

One of the most divisive concepts in the history of the world is the question of God. Although there are many conceptions of what “God” is, most religions share a few common factors. First, no matter if there is one God or many gods, there is the uniting force from which it all comes. Buddhism has their idea of emptiness. Hinduism has their idea of Purusa. Obviously Islam, Judaism, and Christianity have one God. The second similarity is that God is eternal, infinite, and beyond comprehension. The philosopher Spinoza believes “There is only one substance in the universe; it is God; and everything else that is, is in God.2”  This illustrates how God can be seen as Nature, or the Universe, or every single thing in existence, including everyone reading this post. From my exploration of religions and spirituality, I have taken a perennialism viewpoint of religion; subscribing to the belief that religions share the same metaphysical “truth,” but present it in different ways. I do not pick one religion over another, I just take what helps me find peace from each.
So now we have established that there are two common threads in nearly all religions. Personally, I believe there is a “God,” but in the complex sense of the word. Throughout history God has meant everything from a Guy in a robe ruling over the universe, to the Universe, or the animating force behind reality. This is where my firm belief stops. I do not believe it is possible to conclusively prove the existence of a specific God due to the fact that by its nature, God is incomprehensible.
For humans, there is a TON of stuff we might not ever know, that we cannot even begin to process or fathom. The great thing about these perplexing thought experiments is that all things incomprehensible are equal to the mind. These thoughts leave us completely lost in a place of utter confusion. There are two routes to take with these thoughts, frustration or peace. You can be frustrated that you will never understand, which is like being upset that we don’t have 12 fingers and horns. Or you can find peace in knowing you will never know. Whenever I think these thoughts, my mind goes to a place of peace and quiet. In stoicism, Marcus Aurelius says that tranquility is the mind properly organized equipt with thoughts that will restore peace upon thinking them. Thinking about that which cannot be comprehended will bring peace to the mind. I believe thinking about anything incomprehensible is equivalent to thinking about God.
References
  1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza/#GodNatu
  3. This is my favorite podcast, please check him out!!! If anyone loves his podcast too and learned about it through me, let him know, if love to work with him!!!  http://philosophizethis.org
  4. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Buddha: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/buddha/

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