My Primary core
belief must be that there is a God.
I personally believe strongly that there is a God and that s/he
was responsible for the setting into being the universe and all its
wonders. For myself there is no contradiction with evolutionary
thought and believing in God because my version of God is big enough
to do the job that way. From my perspective limiting God to the
literal interpretation of the creation of Genesis is proving that
the believer is too scared to accept a really omnipotent and
omnipresent God. For by allowing that God could do the job with such
care, finesse and patience via evolution then God is truly
impressive beyond human comprehension. We can only view that side of
God which our limited understanding allows us to see, hence when the
original writers of the Biblical creation account tried to explain
the process they gave it their best shot with what knowledge they
had available at the time. And they did a pretty good job when you
consider that they got the basic evolutionary pattern without ever
having any of the technological marvels available today.
My Secondary core belief about God and what s/he is and intends
is Love. Above all things, to my view God represents Love. In the
same sense that an artist can love a creation, that a parent can
love a child, only once again with the caveat that God’s version
of an emotion must be in it’s entirety beyond our puny
understanding as humans to comprehend fully. For me when someone
acts out of love, most especially Agape’ then they are expressing
God. In it’s most concentrated form my belief in what God is would
be : God is Agape’ (magnified beyond our complete comprehension).
When any person, or animal for that matter, expresses love of
another they are expressing God. I believe that those who say that
all love is in some way self-centered or selfish are wrong. While I
do not deny the existence of selfish behavior, in fact self-centered
love can be a good thing that allows us to continue to exist when
the world seems set against us or just not worth living in, to deny
the love one feels for those outside of self is to wholly deny not
only the human potential for good but to deny God. For God is
Agape’. When a parent dies protecting his or her young they are
not just acting out of a biological need to propagate their genes.
Notice that I said not just doing so. I do not deny that there must
be some inherent component in our biological selves to continue, but
that it is not the full picture. Everyone who has read, seen or
heard of acts of inexplicable self-sacrifice to protect another has
witnessed God. For Christians this very directly leads to the story
of Jesus.
In direct sequence to God as Love comes my belief that we are
called to actively follow a path of love. Most of humanity is not
ready to set aside all of their personal lives and adhere to such a
path as that of the late Mother Teresa, yet most are willing to
recognize her as an exemplary illustration of living an active brand
of Agape Love, and hence according to my belief - God. This version
of what we are supposed to do does not allow for any version of
bigotry, abuse, racism or violence since all of these things are
incompatible with Agape’/God. If we are called to actively express
Agape’ through our everyday lives then we cannot accept or condone
separation or segmentation unless voluntary. Thus if a version of a
church calls for repulsion of outsiders they are not acting in
accordance to the calling. If a person or group chooses to
live outside of traditional society or in ways different from the
surrounding society they are to be loved and supported as long as
they never are forcing such upon anyone including the members of
their church. For those within the Christian community who feel that
they must stop people who think differently than they do, let them
recognize that approximately two thousand years ago Christianity was
the splinter group outside of society looking in. Loving acceptance
of our fellow human beings is simply at the core of Christian
thought and if we choose to express it then let us fully express it.
If we accept that God is Agape’, and if we can accept that by
being God’s creations we therefore all have a portion of that
majestic, incomprehensible Agape’ love inside of us in some
fashion, then our job is to connect to that portion in every other
being. This inevitably leads to a rejection of all things hateful or
hurtful to others or ourselves: from bigotry to the wanton
destruction of our environment, from war (supposedly religious or
otherwise) to the degradation of another human being. There is no
place in a life centered on and led by Agape’/God for any of it.
It sounds so simple… It is a lifelong journey of attainment,
never fully completed until we reach that final core belief in my
personal faith: there is an afterlife which I cannot currently
comprehend. That is where the journey will finally end. I will at
that point have the answers to many currently unanswerable
questions, but until then I have a small set of core beliefs that
keep me going.
-- Bambi Longcore
