the R word

I'd consider myself a religious man, but not by standard definition.

Growing up I was lucky enough to have a very diverse family, attend a Lutheran school and be loved by a mum that is borderline spiritually fanatic. So the abundance of religious beliefs I’ve witnessed have all been thrown into a blender and out came my delicious perception of God.               He exists, or rather, it exists.

 (I’m about to go off on a wild tangent here, but bear with me)

Just think for a moment what it would be like if there was no good, if we had no concept of morality or righteousness. Would that make life bad all the time? But then if there was no good, how could we even fathom what bad is? And if you look at it from the other point of view, if there was no bad, would that make your life only different shades of good? But good compared to what? Let’s face it, good relies on bad as bad relies on good. Like weights on a pivot they coincide, slowly swaying back and forth with the motions of life.

To me good is God. Even if there is no “God” we’d still have good. So I believe God represents the good in people and if you want a role model, as the scriptures read, you can’t find a better bloke than God. In the same perception, evil is the devil. You know that if the devil didn’t exist, evil still would.

So if you haven’t picked up on what I’m saying, to me, God is a face given to the opinion of good.

The only way I can think of explaining it, is if you imagine you’re six years old again, tucked up in bed, waiting for dreams filled with play dough and Pokémon. Creaks and scratches suddenly startle you. Realising it’s coming from the cupboard you instinctively think it’s the Boogieman, giving the fear a face.

 It sounds silly now but that nightmare-ish creature is how you imagined fear, without the fear taking a physical form, you couldn’t see it in your head. You can’t imagine nothing. And with a firm grip on teddy, when you eventually muster the courage to open the cupboard and nothing jumps from the depths, it doesn’t matter, because the seed is planted, when you hear that noise again back comes the Boogieman.

To me God exists in the same presence that the Boogieman does, except on a far grander scale. God is how we see good, not acts of goodness like charity and compassion but the actual form of good.

So even if I don’t believe in God, I believe in the good he represents. Whether like me, you see that as religious or not is entirely up to you. But then again, religion is merely a person’s perception anyway and I guess you’ll never know if I’m right or wrong until it doesn’t matter.