Two Basic Beliefs

I think when it all comes down to it, most every religion (and philosophy often seen as religion) has two things in common.  One is, there's something greater than ourselves out there.  Two, you really ought to treat other people decently.

When it comes to 'something greater', everyone seems to differ on what it is.  One God, many gods, both, a cosmic collective energy, spirits or energy in everything around us.  I once knocked some bark off a tree by accident, and when I touched the spot underneath, it was warm from the sun and I understood, REALLY understood, that I was in contact with another living thing.  I was once lying on a bench next to a still lake, and the perfect reflection of the far shore looked like an odd mossy tree, and for a few moments I was aware that Something Big was all around me.

But, when I think of "God", I still go back to the loving father God from my childhood.  I'm not into the "God doesn't have a gender" concept, and it kind of irritates me when people make a huge point of believing in that concept themselves.  But my mom worked and my dad stayed at home with us kids, so I got years of a loving, nurturing, protective father.  Combining that with how I was taught Jesus talked about God, I had no problems whatsoever translating those properties into some all-loving father figure.

But another property of a father is to teach your children to walk on their own and to let them be their own people.  So I think of that, too.  A God who cares deeply about us, and understands that we are who we are, we need to make mistakes to grow, and that we're not perfect and never will be.  And that's okay.

Part two - the Golden Rule.  There's a variation of it in pretty much every religion and philosphy.  My favorite is the Bible quotation I learned as a kid, 1 John 4:7-8.  "Dear friends, let us love one another.  For love is of God, and everyone that loves is born of God, and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God, for God is Love."  That there, THAT verse, is the one I wish more people would use and spread.  If I have one thing left guiding how I act as I try to figure out what I really believe, that's it.

Someday, if I see some kind of hate protest, especially ones trying to use the Bible as proof they're right, I hope I have the courage to counter with that.