How can ‘God’ be repurposed?
For me, atheism is simply a protest against all mental idols of God. It is a rejection that any belief in a God can be held as holding God itself. Atheism denies a ‘God up there’ by affirming only what is right here. If anything divine can be found right here, so be it. But it cannot be held as God. Nor can we synthesize a God from what we find, for this is the definition of what an idol is.
So what are we to do with the divine experiences we do know? In lieu of mental idols, I suggest instead we as humans make mental altars.
What is a mental altar? Whereas a mental idol claims knowledge of a God beyond our natural human limits. A mental altar simply acknowledges and affirms divine experience and mystery as at hand. Upon a mental altar we may affirm our most heart-felt and holy experiences, both for ourselves and for each other. And yet we may or may not use the notion of ‘God’ to reference such phenomena. Either way, ‘God’ must not become an idol to us, nor a counter-idol against human faith. For no human altar is absolute.
Moreover, a mental altar accepts the distinct limits of the dualistic nature of our human condition. The studies of epistemology and metaphysics show this duality clearly. In short, this duality is that we may experience the divine both inside and outside ourselves. Yet neither our world outside nor our hearts inside are ever sufficient to encompass what divinity might be in and of itself.
The repurposing: And yet it seems there must be an ultimate unity to this duality we are limited to. Otherwise this duality should not appear so consistent upon what we know, what exists, and how we find ourselves diced up in it all. Alas such ultimate unity is only a guess. But if we can accept our duality, then perhaps ‘God’ can be this unity to us. That only by denying God upon our own negating duality do we transcend the limits of our altars. In this way our soul-fledging altars become our sacred space for all spiritual seeking and sacrament.
Thus faith in God is admitting that we know our altar only, and not God per se. And yet the amazing grace is that this altar is our very point of contact to whatever the divine might be. This altar becomes the faith-point from which to live life more fully and pursue the good in spite of what ails us. After all, isn’t this what the New Covenant is all about? Grace, by faith.
If we as humans can train ourselves and our religions to accept these limits and work within these tensions, then I believe God can become a very real way for us to share and live-out our spiritual journeys in love and in harmony with one another.
So let us each place our struggled notions of God squarely upon the altars of our lives. Let us stand courageously in the cleft as our certainties are sacrificed in pure and open faith. Let us rise with scented smoke as our shackles are accepted by the flame and consumed. For we ourselves become this living sacrifice. And as the embers of grace glow gently in our hearts, let us at last be free of our idols of God.
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