"God is not a man, so he does not lie. God is not a person, he does not change."
-Numbers 23:19
"Before He gave any shape to the world, before He produced any form,
He was alone, without form and without resemblance to anything else."
-The Zohar, a text of Jewish mysticism (kabbalah)
"Any name of God which is found in the Bible can not be applied to the Deity prior to His self-manifestation in the Creation, because the letters of those names were produced only after the emanation. . . . Moreover, a name implies a limitation in its bearer; and this is impossible..."
-Judah Ḥayyaṭ
On its surface it is opaque,
In its depths it is clear,
A continuous thread beyond description...
Its form, formless,
Its image, imageless,
Its name, silence
-Dao De Jing, chapter 14
-Numbers 23:19
"Before He gave any shape to the world, before He produced any form,
He was alone, without form and without resemblance to anything else."
-The Zohar, a text of Jewish mysticism (kabbalah)
"Any name of God which is found in the Bible can not be applied to the Deity prior to His self-manifestation in the Creation, because the letters of those names were produced only after the emanation. . . . Moreover, a name implies a limitation in its bearer; and this is impossible..."
-Judah Ḥayyaṭ
On its surface it is opaque,
In its depths it is clear,
A continuous thread beyond description...
Its form, formless,
Its image, imageless,
Its name, silence
-Dao De Jing, chapter 14
For unknown millennia, human beings have been making their gods to be like them. Deities such as the Greek gods (the dysfunctional family on Mount Olympus) and other gods of the ancient world, are easy to see as human analogues, made to play out human dramas. While almost anyone would accept this as true for some ancient religions, not everyone is prepared to point that critique closer to home.
Some would have us believe that God not only condones but commands war crimes and genocide, as in the military campaigns of Moses and Joshua. Some would have us believe that God is wrathful. Some would have us believe that God issues irrevocable condemnations, to send people to hell. Some would have us believe that God would torture a person to satisfy a bet with Satan (Book of Job). It is human beings who do such things.
It is human beings, who commit war crimes, atrocity and genocide. It is human beings who torture. It is human beings who condemn other human beings, and who say that they will burn in hell. It is human beings who will torture someone out of curiosity (Dr. Mengele for instance). The only intelligent entities with a proven ability to do these things, are human beings. We are that malign intelligence.
It is not possible to ascribe any negative human attributes whatsoever to God. God is stainless. GOD CANNOT DO EVIL.
Moreover, positive human attributes such as mercy, compassion, hope, forgiveness, love, are not positive enough to attribute to God. These names all refer to human attributes, and every human attribute is mixed and changeable. Even a mother's love of her child, often considered the highest form of love, is mixed with human neurosis, possessiveness, self-interest and inadequacy. Even a friend's love of a friend, is mixed with this. Romantic love even more so.
Pure love is beyond a human being's ability to emulate, and in some sense beyond a human being's ability to understand.
God is like a great light concealed in a dark shroud. It is hidden, in the words of a 14th Century Christian mystic, behind a cloud of unknowing. Present here and now, every day, and yet beyond words. Beyond sight, beyond sound, beyond touch. It is not possible to speak for God, those words cannot be spoken by a human mouth. We can speak of God, to those who are ready to hear of God, but the words themselves are just gestures, containers of something and nothing. Containers both of knowledge and ignorance. Emanations of God, perhaps, but only temporary rafts which fulfill their function when they are no longer needed.
"They should recall that in teaching spiritual truths the Buddha
always uses these concepts and ideas in the way that a raft is used
to cross a river. Once the river has been crossed over, the raft is
of no more use."
always uses these concepts and ideas in the way that a raft is used
to cross a river. Once the river has been crossed over, the raft is
of no more use."
-Diamond Sutra chapter 6
Does this mean we should all remain silent about things that are more humanly accessible? Absolutely not! Things that are at the intersection of the human and the divine should be spoken of and discussed. They should be discussed more. That is altogether a different thing than delivering an "authorized" biography of God, complete with a white paper on exactly what it is that God thinks.
No one, including the human writers of the Bible or the Quran, should do that. They especially shouldn't attribute the worst of human failings to the only holy and eternal God.
God is clean of human evil. He is completely clear, too clear for us to see.
