My religion

“I don’t believe in an interventionist God

But I know darling that you do
But if I did I would kneel down and ask him
Not to intervene when it came to you
Not to touch a hair on your head
To leave you as you are
And if he felt he had to direct you
To direct you into my arms.” (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds “Into my Arms”)

These are the opening lines of the most touching song about love. It starts with God, or rather – not believing in him. To be more precise – not believing in a certain “variant” of God, widely assumed to be true: a God who intervenes in the world he has created.

To me, this is a troubling idea: a God existing somewhere beyond our world, giving  us the so-called “free will” but deciding to step in and amend/demolish things from time to time. When things have gone wrong, when we have gone too far, when we need to be disciplined or rewarded – or simply, when we have prayed sincerely enough.

I always wondered as a child: does God listen to all my prayers? So if I want someone else to fail, and I pray sincerely, will he actually fail?

-          No child, - a priest would reply – God only listens to the prayers which are in line with his will.

Back then, this reply seemed reasonable enough. But I have my doubts now: if it’s in line with his will, why pray at all? It would have happened anyway. Or would God be quite absent-minded, and not noticing that some things, that are in line with his will, haven’t been looked after yet? Would God have moments like “Oh yes, that little girl, she needs to get all the volumes of “Anne of Green Gables” under the Christmas tree, I totally forgot”!

I never got all the volumes in one go, but getting them one by one (which wasn’t easy, as the times were communist, and the supply of books was limited) was even better. Was that God’s will? Does God care at all about such details? Or was it pure coincidence? The fact is – I did pray.

Now I don’t think prayers work in this way. I’d rather be inclined to think that if you really want something with all your heart, and that thing really is a good thing – it probably will happen. It might have to do with fields or waves that your thoughts might be producing (I’m not sure about how it works in practice, but I have a hunch that physicists will one day discover that). Whether you are a believer or not. Whether you end your thoughts with a solemn “Amen” or not. I believe that good thoughts have very strong executive power, as opposed to some omnipotent God, sitting in a safe place outside of our world and watching us try and fail.

That wouldn’t be a loving God at all. If he watched us, and decided to intervene from time to time, that would mean he didn’t love us enough. A free will, guaranteed from time to time only, isn’t free will at all.

Anyway, I don’t think he is a HE at all. I’m sure all religious beliefs are to be taken more metaphorically than not. I love metaphors, so I have no problems living next to them. But metaphors they remain… they make it easier for some to get closer to understanding the divine, but unfortunately also easier for some Cartesian minds to completely dismiss them as relics of the past.

 
Willigis Jäger, the most inspiring monk and author I ever came across describes it like this: “God manifests himself in a tree as a tree, in an ant – as an ant and in you – as you. But in none of those creatures does he manifest himself completely. He has infinite potential”.  As the world, with all its good and evil, is a manifestation of God, it doesn’t need any intervention from a superior power.  It’s perfect the way it is.

I believe that God’s love is absolute: it lets us err and fail if we choose to, it doesn’t punish us if we do wrong, it and gives us hope and strength to get up. It lets us deny its existence and doesn’t insist on worshipping it.  Not touching a hair on our head, leaving us as we are. Because as we are – this is how we’re supposed to be. Divine.

I’m not sure if this is what Nick Cave had in his mind. Never mind though – this is what gets into mine when I listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG0-cncMpt8 , shivers down my spine.