What is God?

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You may have noticed that I'm writing "what" and not "who." The personification of God is key to understand how we as humans have shaped the idea of the almighty force in the universe to have a specific form, may it be a bearded man sitting in the clouds or an elephant-man dressed in fancy clothes.

Is God a man?

In Catholicism, God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is above us, it is among us, and it is inside us. We must pray to God for forgiveness and worship, as he is the creator of all that we see. God created the heavens and the Earth, he separated light from dark, and he sent his only son to die an innocent death.

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Here, God sounds much like a man. He appears to have a will of his own and power to some extent. Catholics argue that if we wrong God's law (a.k.a. commit a sin) we may be punished, but God does not interfere with the decisions we take because he allows us to be free. Catholicism makes it so God seems like a benevolent authoritarian that has a say over whether we do good or not. For Catholics, God is a man.

In Islam (which translates to "submission") God, or Allah, is even more powerful. Allah is above man, and he speaks to man through his prophets, out of which the most important was Muhammad, who also served as a military leader. Allah cannot be pictured, only represented in name. When praying, Muslims must bow down completely having their foreheads touch the ground. Showing the back of the neck is a sign of weakness, as it is one of the most vulnerable parts of the body.

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Killing for Allah is not only right but encouraged. The Qur'an reads on Sura 2-81 that the wicked will be immortal in the company of the flames of punishment. Allah is stern and demands praying several times per day. Allah would not degrade himself to become a man, as all humanity must bow down to him and his eternal glory. For Islam, Allah is not a man, but rather he is all that is right and the only true purpose behind everything. All else is an object of infamy.

In Buddhism, there is no God but a path to liberation. Buddhists follow the teachings of the Buddha, a man who attained enlightenment. He is not God nor his son. Buddha teaches that we may attain the "middle way," which is a path of both asceticism and sensual pleasures.

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The Buddhist God may be thought of as the universe in itself. It is the eternal life that we must aim to understand and to become one with it. Here, God is not a mere thing but rather the essence that lies within all life.

When we step outside of what we already know we are able to learn more. Thinking that God is a bearded man sitting on a cloud will make you act differently compared to someone who thinks that God does not exist at all, and even more so compared to someone who firmly believes in the Buddhist path.

We can be sure of several things:

1. God is something that allows commuting. You want to be in harmony with God.
2. God has certain rules to follow, but we may break them if we want.
3. There is no one to tell us who is right about God.

All that's left is to conclude that God is more likely to be an idea than a real person, which leads us to the following:

Should you care about God?

Many might argue that Atheists have got it right. Why believe in something that has never been proven? Why would I follow the rules imposed by someone who is never present when I break them? I did not go to church on Sunday. Go ahead, punish me.

But wait, wouldn't you follow some of those rules even without a God?

Not killing, not stealing, not telling lies. These are basic precepts that, despite being easily avoidable, make up the profile of a "good" person. Even if Nietzschean philosophers assure that a good person is almost always weak, the truth is that people and history value honor and good intentions.

A way to look at the spiritual concept of God is thinking whether we should care about the things that affect us either directly or indirectly. So, how does God affect us?

Because it is etremely unlikely that he can smite us at will, then his power must be exerted through others. There are already many people who believe in God. There's ISIS, there's the Pope, there are the Jews. These believers all come from the same tree of prophets and religions. But what about the rest of the world and people who do not believe in God? Do they get killed in terrorist attacks? Must they abide by Christian conservative laws? How about the Sharia law? These are things that may affect us whether or not we believe in some deity.

What about Thor? He is an Avenger but also an ancient Norse god. He is "mythological" but wasn't he real for the ancient Norse? What about Buddha? He reached enlightenment and he is a timeless teacher. There are many monasteries dedicated to study his ways. There are so many godly characters and each of them has their own story... may we venture in saying that perhaps not all of them can be real at the same time? If so, how about if none of them are? Seems more plausible than saying "this one is real, but this one is not." Isn't the condition of "real" exerted by the same people who believe in the concept in the first place?

Perhaps these gods are the product of imagination, or perhaps they are the product of extraterrestrials visiting us thousands of years in the past. That might be the case of the Mayans or the Book of Enoch, purposely left out of the Bible, which speaks of angels mating with women resulting in "grotesque beings" being born, known as the "Nephilim."

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There is only one clear answer

God is what we make it out to be. Einstein's God may be the infinite force behind the universal design and your God may be the Flying Spaghetti Monster. There is no one to contradict you unless there is a power structure whose idea of God serves as a method of oppression or control. The Spanish Conquistadores drove their Holy Cross through the hearts of indigenous Americans as a pretext for sacking and raping their culture. The Crusades served as a pretext to take the Holy Land from the Caliphate which extended all over the Mediterranean and unto most of Northern Africa.

Today, ISIS, Hezbollah, and many others kill people in the name of Allah when in reality they are seeking to have a state and to impose their oppressive laws on others. Hezbollah is inside my country, Venezuela, where 80 percent of the population is Roman Catholic. They do not go around killing people because they work with the government in their world-scale drug trafficking ring.

Religion is much like politics, it is a tool, one of the most powerful and timeless of all. Luckily, times have changed, but religious organizations still hinder humanity and evolution with their craving for power.

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Train your body, nurture your mind, and feed your spirit

Body, mind, and spirit. According to many, these are the main components of a human being. To be whole, we must find the fourth path, which encircles the three aforementioned components and creates a way of balance and wholeness. Some lack physical prowess, others lack intelligence, but most of the world lacks spiritual strength. That is why it is easy to manipulate people with religion, speeches that incite hate, lust, drugs, pornography, and social media.

God may be within us, above us, or perhaps we are God, as we must learn to forgive ourselves and to see the extent of our abilities. It's our mission to discover our identity and not be fooled by those who want us to join them in some organization that claims to have all the answers. There is no definitive answer. Questions should keep appearing no matter what. Anyone assuring that they've got it all figured out in a book is a liar. The universe is vast... more than we can even conceive in our minds. Keep asking, keep searching, keep living and then you may find some answers; perhaps not all of them, but they will help you in your path no matter what.

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