Provision #588: Probably No God?

by Bob Tschannen-Moran

LifeTrek Laser Provision

Did that title get your attention? If so then the campaign to put secularist posters on the sides of British buses may achieve its intended result. But I think the posters miss the mark. The problem is not with God; the problem is with parochial ideas of God. That's what Abraham Lincoln had to say in his Second Inaugural Address (reprinted below). It is also what I understand to be the true nature of here, now, and forever. God is no Judge; God is Understanding.

LifeTrek Provision

• Ally / Enemy
• Love / Hate
• Here / There
• Work / Play
• Strong / Weak
• Right / Wrong
• Us / Them
• Now / Later
• Up / Down
• Good / Bad
• Rich / Poor
• Bulls / Bears
• Smart / Dumb
• Hot / Cold
• Light / Dark
• Metaphysical / Physical

There's really no end to the list of polarities that play into our jeers and fears. They drive just about everything people say and do. But there's more than one way to look at these experiences. Instead of seeing them in oppositional terms, for example, it's possible to appreciate them as alternate versions of the same reality. That is certainly the way God views these things, if there is any God at all.

Does God love the ally more than the enemy? The strong more than the weak? The rich more than the poor? The smart more than the dumb? The transcendent more than the imminent? Certainly not.

That recognition was the underlying insight of Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, delivered on Saturday, April 4, 1865 in Washington, DC. It was the shortest and also the most memorable of any inaugural address ever given by a US President, before or since. Here is what Lincoln had to say in reflecting on the causes, consequences, and considerations of the war:

"One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other."

"It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?"

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'"

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Apart from two introductory paragraphs, that was the entire Address. Lincoln recognized profoundly that God does not love one side more than the other. Rather, Lincoln saw God as loving both sides equally, hoping against hope that we would exhaust our warring ways and embrace our common ground. In God, there are no sides. There is only understanding of all sides, ever manifesting itself as worthy and true.

It is interesting to read Lincoln's Address now, as the world goes through yet another traumatic woe. If a price is being paid, if wealth is being sunk, then perhaps yet another invisible hand is at play. I recently read a satirical column, for example, that connected our global financial crisis with the turning on of the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. They turned on the particle accelerator generating a microscopic black hole that sucked all the wealth right out of the system. How that's for a theory!

People love to find someone or something to blame. It's called scapegoating, and we do it to God just as much as we do it to other people and things. But I stand with Lincoln. There are no simple answers as to who or what is to blame. There are no good guys or bad guys; there are only people who are seeking to meet their needs as best they know how. We can respect each other for that and, if we choose to do so, we can learn to understand the Understanding that what would make life more wonderful for us all.

That's why I reject atheism as the antidote to worry. God is not the problem. God on our side is the problem. The more we turn God into a tribal leader, the more we're likely to worry and the less we're likely to enjoy life. Lincoln saw that truth and articulated it as well as he could: God was that which would not be denied. God is no Judge; God is rather Understanding.

If you want to stop worrying and enjoy your life, then I suggest you abandon parochial notions of God (rather than abandoning God altogether). Once you get an understanding of the Understanding, as with Lincoln, that the universe is unfolding as it should and that life will make it through one way or another, everything gets a whole lot easier. Forget the dichotomies; there is but one place to be: here, now, and forever.

Coaching Inquiries: Is your God too small? How could you expand your understanding of the Understanding to include everyone and everything? What comfort might you find in such an understanding? Who could join you on the path?

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Editor's Note: The LifeTrek Readers' Forum contains selections from the comments and materials sent in each week by the readers of LifeTrek Provisions. They do not necessarily reflect the perspective of LifeTrek Coaching International. To submit your comment, Email Bob.