Quote Originally Posted by overgrowthegovt
My take:

Humans have always had an awareness of something bigger, something ELSE, something transcendent. Virtually all cultures have realized this. What no culture ever could figure out was what the fuck it was. Man likes to label, categorize, put things under the microscope, claim they understand. The meaning of existence and the true awareness thereof is beyond the capacity of anybody, but man hates above all acknowledgement of his own ignorance. Therefore, various cultures turned to their own simplified and accessible explanations, theories that dumbed-down the Divine so the masses can think they comprehend it.

Organized religion is, I believe, the spiritual equivalent of Cliffnotes written for twelve-year-olds...all anyone can understand are the Cliffnotes, which are rudimentarily penned and ignore the real complexities, but of course they think of themselves as Shakespearean scholars.

I think spirituality can only be healthy when there's no theology involved, when we don't try to attach our human labels and presuppositions to something which is FAR beyond the understanding of even the greatest geniuses. We can only hope to have a clue if we recognize and acknowledge that we have no fucking clue, if that makes paradoxical sense. This can only happen when organized religion is recognized as a funnel, a compressing valve that narrows things for human understanding. And since most humans have the ability to understand very, very little of any real importance, this is a problem, indeed.

I don't think God is love--I think he/it is everything. The idea of a perfect, just and all-loving God makes no sense if you take a look around you. No, there's ambivalence, unrest and a bit of a warped sense of humour going on there, I think. Nothing's perfect, so why should the cosmos be? Unless it's perfect in its imperfection. That can sit with me.
I appreciate your reply and would only say that I looked at this world and said there is no God too. The Course in Miracles states that this is the world of the ego and WE are creating the suffering ourselves. That makes sense to me and is evident in our behaviors toward each other. I don't pretend to understand what God is and he is everything. How could I characterize what is all encompassing, I can't. Truth does not respond to illusions. Thanks. MH