God is a very complicated thing and how humans relate to God is even more complicated.
As an agnostic, I don’t deny the presence of God, I simply define God in a different way than others do.
God is infinitely unknowable and a powerful presence that manifests in billions of ways. Humans have not the ability nor the insight to comprehend this presence in full.
Anyone who claims to know the secret of God is either lying or woefully ill informed.
We don’t know and that’s the point. So, what has happened is that for thousands of years (maybe longer) we have made up stories. Those stories were turned into the Bible, both the old (Judaism) and new testaments (Christianity), the Veda (Hinduism), the Tripitaka (Buddhism), The Four Books (Confucianism), Tao Te Ching (Taoism) and the Qur’an (Islam). These books were turned into religions and those religions have been managed by men.
No, white men aren’t the only ones who wanted to “lord” it over others, all men enjoy that activity. The books had to be interpreted and they were exclusively interpreted by holy men. Most of the time (not always) these men used their community standing as a benefit to self and built huge palaces for worshipping and prayer and of course, the most important of all, tithing. Giving the church as much of our money as possible has been thought to give glory to God. It does not.
The Riches of the Church
This is not to be derogatory towards men. It is simply that men have used their power to write and then promulgate the writing into religions that are exclusive and that glorify holy men. This is how we know beyond a *shadow of a doubt* that religions is not *real*.
If this narrative sounds derisive and ironic it is because the truth of religions has not usually been discussed in any way that approaches the realistic truth. The emphasis here will be on a realistic truth.
There are many versions of “the truth” and even of “a truth”. There are as many truths as there are humans on planet earth. I will attempt to provide insight and information about the state of religion today and how we as humans can understand our relationship with life. These are two very different concepts.
According to Britannica.com, Carl Jung introduced the concept of the COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS as a “form of the unconscious (that part of the mind containing memories and impulses of which the individual is not aware) common to {hu}mankind as a whole and originating in the inherited structure of the brain.”
According to Jung, the collective unconscious is made up of knowledge and imagery that every person is born with and is shared by all human beings due to ancestral experience. Google May 15, 2020
A Universal Collective Unconscious
There is a collective unconscious that is a psychology concept and there is “the” collective unconscious (COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS) which is much broader and wider than a psychological concept. It is the basis from which I write. That is to say that the COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS includes all humans that are alive. Yes, that includes ALL humans that are alive, as well as all of those who have left us and passed away.
When we pass away, we pass into the COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS and join all of those that have gone before us. We are not of any form when this occurs, we are simply all of the invisible parts that make us up, including energy. For some, such as Mother Teresa, much love and giving was returned into the COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS to be circulated and distributed once more.
We also carry the COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS within us as a part of us that includes all of who we are, our historical memories all the way back through time and the part of the COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS that collects all of the energies of those who pass. Currently, very few humans can access, in a conscious way, the COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS, it is just not available to us. Many have touched it, lived it and can access it now. Many are blind to it and cannot access it in a conscious way.
What are we but stardust? Deepak Chopra
This life energy is a part of each and every human that is alive today. We bring with us all of the COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS.
Here is the truth of the COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS: it does not require tithing, it does not require that we build churches, statues and paintings to honor it. The COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS is simply what is. You will not find that in 2000 years the COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS is the greatest landowner on the planet (such as the Catholic Church has been). You will not find a preacher or an interpreter. It will continue to simply exist as it always has. It exists without the acknowledgment of humans and will continue to do so. Though in time, the COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS becomes more well known by people.
We dissipate into the COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS with all of our deepest human traits intact, if our love is deep and strong, it comes with us. Our traits then fulfill other constructs as needed. When we pass, we are no longer a form, we are not separate or individual, we are part of the universal COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS.