Still small voice

I’ve had a few people enquire about my sense-of-faith recently.  This is what I (currently) believe:

# LYN’S CREED:

# God

• That which we identify as ‘God’ is, in fact, the universe, or the state of being, rather than a (supernatural) being. He is not some big patriarchal guy up on a throne looking down on what we do from on high, having created the world in 6 days. God is not the creator and ruler of the universe. God IS creation and the universe. God is creation in the broader sense. God is BEING. God IS being. Not A being.  As such, God is omnipresent and asexual.
• Using human terms to describe God, while it enables us to relate to God, also leads to dangerous over-simplifications by limiting our ability to understand and comprehend what God is, how God works, and what that all means.
• We need to ask God for help.
• Transformation of life is the point of God’s gift of faith.
• God brings us suffering that we may learn humility from our mistakes, and learn to truly forgive those of others.
• While I believe that monotheism is the ultimate truth; I don’t believe any one religion has the monopoly on truth. All nourishing expressions of faith are valid. All roads lead to Rome. All wells lead to the one well-spring. Eventually all expressions of faith will be cross-denominational, because individual schools-of-thought are all missing the point by being exclusionary. There is one body of Christ, one God and we are all part of it.
• Heaven and hell are not geographical locations. They are ways of being. You can be ‘in Hell’ or ‘in Heaven’ anywhere in the world. It describes your state-of-mind and emotional well-being; your sense of connectedness and contentedness in your relationship with God.

# Faith 

• Prayer is more important than belief.
• Faith is a gift from God.
• The term ‘Christian tolerance’ is an oxymoron. It suggests a tone of condescension and propriety that is unchristian, inappropriate and unhelpful. Universal compassion is a much more constructive approach than tolerance.
• I do believe that the bible is still relevant as a source of great teaching and great insight today. I do not believe you need to have read the bible to have a valid faith. Theology is applied contextually, and the language of the bible makes it inaccessible to many people. I do not believe the Bible to be literal, or flawless.

# The church 

• Attendance at a church is not a prerequiste to having a sense-of-faith.
• The church must learn to accept without seeking conversion.
• Inherited, prescribed doctrine is worthless. Mindless dogma is reckless, dangerous and just plain wrong. Instilled faith is not faith at all. For it to have any value, a person’s individual faith must be considered, questioned, investigated, arrived at and understood by their own conscience, thought and understanding. It must not be thrust upon them.

# Humanity

• This lifetime is more than just an infancy-like precursor to eternity.
• Insecurity is the root of our distrust. Fear is our nemesis.
• Trust is the hardest, most beautiful thing of all.
• Compassion is the key to all human relationships.
• It is through community that our lives have meaning. It is through how we live with, through and for others, that our existence becomes holy.
• It is only in the full knowledge of how fragile and fleeting it is that we are able to know and experience true joy.
• Being present to one another is the greatest gift we can give.
• Suffering builds character, humility and understanding.
• Fundamentalism in all forms is reckless, ill-informed and inhumane.
• Humankind is capable of unimaginable, senseless cruelty.
• Humankind is capable of extraordinary kindness and selflessness.
• It is through acts of selflessness that our perception of self is created.
• A curious mind is essential to the societal growth.

# The universe

• Reason is an act of faith. To assume that what we think is correct requires a faith in that which we believe to be true.
• As we learn more about ontology and the physics of the universe, we gain a greater insight into God.
• Evidence-based faith is just as important as evidence-based science.