Religion and Spirituality
by Guy Spiro

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It is written in Genesis that man has been made in the likeness of God. A proper understanding of that idea would truly be a blessing for humanity. Heaven on Earth would become possible. What has occurred instead, however, is the widespread acceptance of the idea of a God that is made in the likeness of man.

It is understandable how this has come to be. Primitive minds can only handle primitive concepts. There have always been those few whose understanding has far surpassed that of the many. Some of them have been responsible for creating the religions. But it is now well past time for humanity as a whole to graduate to a higher consciousness.

Human consciousness and knowledge certainly have evolved over the thousands of years of our history. We know that the Earth is not the center of the universe. We know that the physical is not solid. We play with subatomic particles, and have an emerging nanotechnology that will, as other technologies have, again revolutionize our cabilities and the way we live. We have even recently seen so deeply into space as to look back to the big bang, arguably the beginning of time. Yet our concept of God has remained the same.

Much of early Genesis is a collection of stories much older than the Bible. Many of these stories are attempts to explain the central mysteries of humanity, as well as recount some of the things that occurred in what can only be called our pre-history. A deeper knowledge of these stories reveals the depth of the understanding of those who told them, but a superficial understanding that has resulted in the problems of religion today.

Understanding that we are made in the likeness of God is the key to our moving beyond the lives of pain so prevalent in too much of the world. But as long as we continue to ascribe human attributes to God, our misery will remain. In our attempts to comprehend God, we have projected gender, personality, preferences, and a host of human foibles onto the ineffable. This concept of a God with a male polarity, who plays favorites, gets angry and offended, capriciously builds up and destroys, grants and withholds favors, will bestow what you desire and inflict what you fear, and who cares which team wins the big game, is the cause of much of human suffering. Most of the wars over the past two millennia have been fought in the name of religion. This level of understanding of God is used to excuse and even encourage atrocities all over the world today. Enough is enough.

It is time for humanity to stop imposing our own human failings on the concept of God, and start recognizing the God part of ourselves. God is One. As we are part of the One, the creative impulse of God flows through each of us. We must leave the God of our primitive religions behind and move into a deeper spirituality. We were created in the image of God, not the other way around.