Using the word "God"

I’m spelling “God” with a capital “G” here, because I’m talking of “God” when it is used as a name and not as a regular noun. Some, like Jehovah’s witnesses, make it important to use the right name for God as well. And they may have a point. Namely that there, as with many other aspects of reality, may be some correspondence between how the spiritual world and the physical world work here. The correspondence would be that we almost always learn a person’s name before we get to know the person, even though it’s physically possible to get to know a person without knowing his or her name. 

But this is just speculations. And just as I find it problematic to make a clear distinction between the physical and the spiritual, I also find it problematic to draw straight lines between the two areas, where one can be assumed to work just the way the other one does.

What is not so much speculation, is the fact that labels carry certain connotations. For example, if we refer to God as “source”, it might imply more of an impersonal force that everything else flows out from. If God is, as I believe, intimately personal and wants to have a personal relationship with us, this label might lead us in the wrong direction. 

I have also heard the term “the universe” being used in a way that may or may not be interchangeable with “God”. It doesn’t seem to be used in directly the same manner, but still in ways similar, as an entity that is vastly bigger than us, that interacts with us, grants us wishes and teaches us lessons. This, for me, leads to a feeling of replacing God. Of attributing communication and willful actions from God to the universe.

There are of course other examples. But these are the most common that I have found in modern spirituality. And I don’t belong to the crowd of people that aspire to live in Christ, that condemn modern spirituality. I believe that there are valuable lessons in it from many of the thinker belonging to the category. But I think that God needs to be put in the proper place here, which is at the absolute centre. Because as the intimate, personal, and at the same time omni-potent, omni-present, eternal creator of everything, God is the beginning and the end-goal of all spirituality. God has to be. 

The failure of reason

Something strange is happening in the world. Did I ever tell you that? I’ve had things happening in my life that I absolutely cannot explain. And at the same time, they do leave room for a little bit of doubt. Just enough so that I cannot be certain whether this is really happening or if I’m just going crazy. 

I’ve figured as much as that I cannot hope to understand this with my intellect. I’m neither a dumb nor a smart person. I’m somewhere in between. But I seem to be able to understand a few things. I also seem to understand more the less I allow my ego to meddle with the process. 

But this… I’m starting to see time after time, that where I thought I had everything figured out I didn’t. Not at all. I think that a good example would be what could, in Christian terms, be called “sexual immorality”. On the surface, it seems pretty straight forward. Sex is free as long as you find a willing partner and as long as no one gets an STD or it leads to an unwanted pregnancy we’re all good. This was my view for a long time. But now I’m starting to see that a life with many sexual partners, for me at least, became part of a destructive lifestyle. And having copulation as a goal in my interactions with people in some sense caused me to objectify them. And this objectification did not just damage my relationship with potential sex partners. It damaged my connection with other people in general. 

The point is that none of this was visible to me while I was engaged in the behavior. And the point of this, is that I at least have a very limited perspective. I’m not able to see my life, my choices and my relationship with myself, the world and other people from the all-encompassing perspective that God does. It’s easy to be prideful and arrogant and think that we can know more than we can. Especially if we believe that we are smart.

But the truth is, at least for me, that the more I try to figure things out on my own, the more confusion and misery I create. I’m able to convince myself of two completely different views on a subject, sometimes in the matter of minutes.

So, do I believe that I have any use for my reason? Yes. But I believe that the best use I can put it to, is to, as openly as possible try to understand what can be said of my human condition. How do I function and what is my place in the world? Knowing that God exists, is personal and has a will, what can I learn and understand about these facts? How can I best grow into the person that I believe that God wants me to be?

When God answers and we keep on asking

A while back I asked God about a private matter. I received a pretty clear answer and yet I kept on asking. I honestly didn’t consciously forget about the answer. But since I wasn’t pleased with it, I was probably not that keen on remembering either. 

Now I’m going to do my best to remember God’s answer and live by it till God gives me a reason to do otherwise. Unless I forget the answer again.

About the movie Assassination Nation, PART 2

What I did find interesting about the movie, was what it said about internet culture. In the movie, there is a political scandal that goes viral. Now, I’m no fan of politicians and had it been just five years ago, I might have contributed to spreading such a scandal, had the opportunity arisen. This made me think of how we treat those that we, for one reason or another, consider "wrongdoers", if we are given the opportunity. The internet makes this very easy sometimes, as we many times just have to make a few mouse clicks, or tap our smartphone a couple of times. 

First, we don't know what motivates a politician to act a certain way. I can honestly say that I believe that there are very few politicians that aren't bought by corporations. But I don't know this. I don't believe that we should ever hurt anyone unless we do it to defend ourselves or someone else. But it's especially bad if we do it because of something we believe, and not because of something that we know.

I’ve also made a 180 when it comes to my beliefs about what media I consume. I used to believe that we can watch basically anything without it affecting us. Now I believe that every little sense impression affects us in some way. So, looking at it from this perspective, what does the unlimited access to online pornography do to us? This is one of the more interesting questions that the movie raises. 

I used to believe that we don’t have to worry that much about online culture in general. That the concerns people raised were just politically correct nonsense from people that should grow thicker skin. Now I’m not so sure. People do worse things in groups and when there is no accountability, since they are anonymous. And in the end, I don’t think that it’s political extremism we have to worry about, but who we turn into as humans.

Because I know that I at least, would not want to become on the one hand filled with anger, hate and a sense of victimhood, looking at anyone I disagree with as an enemy, and on the other hand desperate for attention and validation, only showing others my best sides and hiding the rest. 

I think that the world is on its way towards something amazing, as more and more people are waking up spiritually. But I believe that many of us, myself included, need to take a serious look at what our online activities are doing to us. This, I believe, is the important point that Assassination Nation makes.

About the movie Assassination Nation, part 1

Here comes some more commentary on social commentary. 

I want to begin by saying that I think that it’s important that we listen to each other’s experiences. Because ultimately, reality consists of nothing but subjective experiences. 

While I believe the movie was way too one-sided, politically correct and had an, admittedly intentionally, implausible story, I found it interesting in several ways. 

The story is about four teenage girls living in Salem (an obvious reference to witch hunts), where one of them gets accused of spreading half the community’s complete online data, sparing no juicy detail. This leads to the whole community wanting to kill them. 

I want to say something about the political correctness first. Because I’ve come to believe that we’ve allowed a society that is for neither common men, nor common women to emerge. And instead of listening to each other’s problems and trying to understand, it’s common that we trumpet our own victimhood, while belittling the victimhood of those that don’t belong to our group. The movie does not contribute anything meaningful here. It’s the same old “women and minorities are victims, while the problems of white men are only in their heads, created by themselves, or by the system that they are part of and benefitting from.” 

So, as I said in the beginning, I think that it’s important that we listen to each other’s experiences. Because ultimately, reality consists of nothing but subjective experiences. And I want to become better at listening to other people’s experiences. Even those that are not interested in hearing about mine. I think that this is where we have to start if we want others to listen to us. Because each of us have very limited information and understanding about the world, so our perspective on it is bound to be flawed. 

About the movie Spree

I have a confession to make. I’m a big sucker for satire and dark social commentary. These are not always the most spiritual movies. But I think that the movie has something important to tell us, that touches us on a spiritual level. I don’t believe that its cultural message is the important one. At least not the one that is most obvious: that social media makes us hunger for attention in a way that feeds our narcissistic tendencies (which people have been pointing out for a long time now). No, I think the real lessons here, are first that the movie interacts with the viewer in an interesting way. And also that it’s a cautionary tale about lack of authenticity.

So, I watched Spree, with Joe Keery from Stranger Things. In it, Joe Keery plays Kurt Kunkle, a rideshare driver that tries to make it as a social media influencer. But after ten years he still has no following. So he starts killing his clients and posts it on his YouTube channel. During the movie, we get to meet his victims, that also have their social media aspirations and hunger for the same attention as Kurt does.

The characters in the movie are very unpleasant, shallow and self-centered throughout. And even if I don’t know whether this was something that the creators intended, but I feel that I as a viewer am left with a choice. Do I look at these characters as despicable people, worthy of my contempt? Or do I see them as poor, lost people controlled by forces that they don’t understand? Do I maybe even turn my eyes on myself, to see if I can find uncomfortable similarities between my and those characters?

I can honestly say that I have some of this unhealthy craving to be seen. And honestly, I don’t really know how to deal with it. Because I put out a lot of content online. And I feel that I have something to say that other people might be interested in. But behind the things that I do, there is this longing for attention and significance. It is not the main motivating force for me. But it is there and I recognize it as a huge ego-trap. And looking back at my previous attempts at publishing content online, I've been guilty of the same type desperation as the mail character of the movie. Which is not something that I'm not particularly proud of.

In this way, I think the movie tells us something important about what our social media culture can do to us. If we approach it unconsciously. Because if we are turned into narcissists by our culture, it is because we let it by not thinking about the people we are and are becoming.