by Gwen Reed

Created on: February 02, 2011

Man invented God, but who invented man? 

There are billions of names for God and there are 6.8 billion variations on a human being theme presently on planet Earth.  A mathematician could calculate how many variations on homo sapiens there have been since we first walked upright and had a degree of functioning brain-power, used language, made tools.  We have no such formula to pursue the many facets of the identity of God.

Arthur C. Clark, the futurist science fiction writer wrote a short story called “The Nine Billion Names of God” in which a Tibetan lama and a computer scientist work together on a program that will project all the possible names of God using only a nine character alphabet.  The project takes a nasty turn as they have come near the end of exhausting all possible names for God.  The computer scientist finds out that when they reach the end of all permutations for the names of God, God will have finished his Universe experiment and there will no longer be a need for life on earth.

How many Gods are there?

When my son was four years old he came home from pre-school in a quiet mood.  He sat at the kitchen table coloring for a while, then looked up and asked, “How many Gods do you think there are, mama?”

 I sensed this might be a trick question, as four year olds enjoy playing word jokes on grown-ups.  “Well, just one honey,” I said.  “How many Gods do YOU think there are?”

My little boy tilted his head and looked up at the ceiling with a smile.  “Ohh… about 5 billion Gods,” he said.

With shock I realized he had named the number of the world’s population at that time.  I took a pause then asked him, “You mean for every person on earth they have their own idea, their own words, their own God like so many tails on a kite?”

“Yes, exactly,” he said and that was the end of the conversation.  He had won that guessing game and now, 24 years later I have still not come up with a better concept of God than his own.

Reverence For Life

Dr. Albert Schweitzer told a story of how he discovered his greatest principle, Reverence for Life.  He was treating a man who was dying from parasitic microbes.   While examining the man’s blood under a microscope Dr. Schweitzer observed the tiny organisms who were destroying their host animal.  He noted that the microbes were as beautiful in their

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