Several of you sent personal emails in response to my last blog entry. Thank you for those! Your comments are profound and valuable. Here are some of them:

Laura: Interesting . . . much like parenting is a concept, when we refer to our mother or father, grammatically we capitalize Mom or Dad when we use it in the place of their name . . . But I see the bigger point [Zac’s] trying to make. And, I also agree that saying the word, god, is soothing . . . probably has to do with our first sounds as children – ga-ga. Curse words often evoke that same fun in the saying!!

Therese: I have to say that I disagree with this all the way through. I have a direct connection with God and I will capitalize His name. He is not a concept; He is our father and our God. He has created us and to capitalize His name is only with respect, even if it is just His name… It is important to me, because I do capitalize for my gratitude for Him of the gift He has given me.

Victoria: Tell Zac that I enjoyed his post. We are all vibration.

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Each of us has a personal concept and name for the All-Encompassing, the All-Knowing. For some, it’s Allah, or Shiva, or God. For others it’s Universe or Spirit. For some it is a concept that cannot be explained. I once heard a guy tell me his concept of God was the sense he experienced when he rubbed a touch-stone he carried with him. I read about scientists researching “dark matter” and in a way, even this is God.

As for me, I believe one is the same as the next. If your “God” is merely a concept – I get it. I accept it.

If your “god” is the peace that comes from focusing on a touch-stone while meditating – I get it. I accept it.

I embrace the idea that any concept of “God” is remarkably similar to another when you dig into the depths of it, however, because of my human condition, I am unable to describe God with my limited language. Nevertheless, I believe that your God is the same God as mine; I think He is big enough to encompass all of that, and more.

My friend Jan put it this way: “God is God and he will do what he wants no matter what human judgments we place on each other, for we are not truly able to understand the awesomeness of GOD.”

Capitalized or not, god is God is Universe is Spirit is….

I accept that. I embrace it.

Respectfully,
David Wine

(Today’s post is submitted by Zac Wine, who continues to challenge my thinking.)

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I don’t capitalize god. I also don’t capitalize him/his/he when I reference god. God is not a name; god is a concept.

A really, really big concept.

Think about this: if you say the word “god,” what does it sound like way down deep in your throat? Or better, how does it sound way down deep in your soul? When you experience the vibration of god, how does it feel in your gut? God, as a sound, has a certain appeal. It’s abstract and intangible like god should be.

On the other hand, when god is manifested in our reality, his name is a materialization of the sound and he has many names—Yahweh, Jehovah, Elohim, Shiva, Vishnu, Brahman, Allah, Jesus…. I capitalize these because I appreciate the idea of the vocalization of god; the sound or vibration of god.

What does pronunciation of Yahweh bring to mind? What does the sound of Elohim make you think of? How does the sound of Jesus make you feel? How does Jesus with the Spanish pronunciation (hey-soos) make you feel? The idea of G-O-D is over-used in our culture and is too misunderstood to break it down as a sound. However god’s manifestations are far easier and more interesting to think about and feel.

I might argue that the name Jesus has too many connotations to be included in the list. Is he the son of god? Too much ego involved in that argument. I’d like to discuss it with Jesus himself—about his name and his source—and and get an answer directly from him that didn’t involve the Romans or Pharisees.

If you want to capitalize god, go right ahead. For me, it feels like I give him much more respect when I treat him non-egotistically; non-human. So with appreciation and honor to him/it/them, I don’t capitalize god.

With respect to god,
Zac Wine

One of my weaknesses is I believe you interpret life the same way I do. I think you think like I think.

Extrapolate this concept to a much grander scale…to the scale of infinity, where we meet God. Somewhere in the grand, human process, we went there, came back and then continued with our day-to-day lives. As we went about our ordinary lives we developed religious and spiritual beliefs in a limited, human state of consciousness. One of these is our definition of God. Most western religions claim to be based on the Bible, which is a source that generates an image of a very human-like God. This result is not surprising with words like, “God created man in his own image.”

Throughout history, we have assigned a “personage” to God which has many human characteristics; we see God in human terms and give him a human likeness. We gave God ears (He listens to us); we gave Him a mouth and larynx (God talks to us); we gave Him feelings like dissatisfied, displeased, and unhappy if we do something outside His rules.

I think God is not a person…especially not in the way that’s been spawned in our minds.

In several books I’ve read recently, God lets us know that he is nothing like we think. In The Shack, he deliberately takes on the appearance of a woman, and then proceeds to call himself “Papa.” In Conversations With God, he very directly states, “I am not what you think.” And although it was not their intention, the authors of Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness gave us the preliminary framework we can use to begin to grasp a possible nature of God. All of these accounts show an image of God that is very unlike anything I have encountered.

For now, I don’t think I am capable of expanding my consciousness to the point of infinity, so I’ll take small steps. I first choose to walk away from my earlier belief that God is human-like. Next, I choose to believe that God is nothing like I imagine. Then I choose to allow God to take any shape He prefers. After all…He is God.

Then again, what do I know? I’m just an ordinary guy with a weakness, who thinks you think like I think.

Curiously,
David Wine

“I talk to everyone. All the time. The question is not to whom do I talk, but who listens.”
— God

In Conversations with God : An Uncommon Dialogue (Book 1) by Neale Donald Walsch.