by Torquil

Created on: December 01, 2008

An ancient philosophical question from many sources is about the location of God. In traditional interpretations of Christianity, God is in a place called Heaven but was once incarnated into a man. In Judaism, God is also in Heaven but was once located in the Ark of the Covenant which was placed in the holy Temple. In Buddhism, God is abstract and is everywhere. In Islam, God is in Heaven also. In Hinduism, God has many forms and these are in many locations.In other philosophies and religious interpretations God is either within, outside, in everything or in the self, such as Qabalah and Gnosticism or the Religion of Saint John.

I have come to a profound realisation that in fact God is, without question located within the self.

I have additionally come to realise that this is actually the message of many of the great religious teachers and messengers, including Christ and Buddha, who actually were highly advanced in their thinking and reasoning, whatever else they are in human eyes today. They presented their thinking and people intuitively knew it was advanced and would make them develop. Then, because they were not as developed as these great people, they created a lot of religious concepts that became hard shells worn by a stony heirarchy. True religion is not bound by concepts and absolutes, politics or blind human pronunciations. From what I have seen, true religion flows like water. Here is my explanation.

First, the concept of God cannot be comrehended by humanity. He, she or it is far too vast to be comprehended but the concept and feeling of God can perhaps be apprehended to a limited degree through the human filter of our mind. The reason for this is because we are mini creators ourselves. We can relate to the concept of a mega-creator who inspires the universe. Who can relate to it? WE can.

Second, all humans filter everything through their minds. As Shakespeare said in Hamlet, "Nothing is good or bad lest thinking makes it so". Let us look at a rock. we can see it as a rock or we can give it a meaning. This meaning might make it a prized jewel or it might make it a cursed method for destroying something. It is not the rock that is inherently good or bad. It is the human wielding it. However humans seem to have a propensity for labelling things and creating sets of assumptions about them, that then others accept and make real. Before we know it, something is assumed to be good or bad. Who does this? WE do.

Third, humans tend not to see anything beyond

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