I love it when people say things like this to me: "I've been afraid my whole life, and I didn't know it ... I'm tired of being afraid ... I don't think God wants me to be afraid ... and I'm not going to let fear rule my life." Having been a priest for nearly 20 years, I've learned to appreciate the profoundly religious significance of their meaning. A few weeks ago, I heard it again on the radio. An interviewer put this question to a young woman on the streets of Cairo, "Aren't you afraid?" "No," she quickly said, "I'm not afraid ... I'm not afraid anymore."
The Spirit of God can be expressed in many ways, and that's definitely one of them. That's how the process of liberating, transformative change begins. The world changes because the relationship we have to our fear changes.
There are many different kinds of fear, and some fear is obviously good. The fear that alerts us to real danger, focusing our energy and attention when we need it, can save our lives. But most of our fear is not like that. Most of it is unacknowledged, manufactured, manipulative -- and harmful. Its source lies in social, economic and political forces that seem more powerful than we are, despite the fact that their existence depends almost entirely on the power -- the fear -- that we give to them. Harmful fear divides communities. It undermines our health, spiritual sensitivity, our capacity to make sound moral judgments and our faith. Rather than being a lifesaver, most of our fear makes us our own worst enemy -- and a very real threat to others.
It's not easy to perceive the extent to which our public life has become ruled by fear. At times like this, we need religion to help us discern the difference between reality and illusion, so we can move through our fear. Sadly, tragically, some churches may be an obstacle (they may reinforce our fear) rather than a help to people in need. For example, I know and believe that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Psalm 111:10a), but it's easy to respond to the "fear" word, rather than the sense of humble awe that this famous biblical passage is meant to instill. I know too that "there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18a), but it's easy to forget that when my thoughts are imprisoned by fear and my heart is closed to one of the genuine purposes of spiritual traditions: to free us from the fear that tries to rule our lives.
Fear has set down some deep roots in our public and private lives, but it doesn't have to be this way. With the support of God and faith, which are not separate from courage, we can find it within ourselves to reach down and pull out the poison. We can do this by cultivating the spiritual instincts that we've all been given. I'm thinking of awe, love, intent, conscience, community, rest and faith. If we fail to cultivate these instincts within ourselves, then the primal fear response will take us down a road that seems safe and secure, but turns out to be a dead end. It could quite literally be a dead end for a lot of people, both our friends and neighbors, and many more that we've never actually met who are made in God's image just as much as everyone else.
Let me make three easy suggestions: First, let's take a major hint from the practice of yoga. Let's learn to breathe easily again, as a form of prayer and prayerful living. This will cultivate loving-kindness in our bodies and souls as a way of life. We need that right now.
Second, let's go outside and experience the awe of a power greater than we are in God's green earth.
Third, let's cultivate a real sense of community and conscience again, remembering that no one person, or one people, is the very center of things.
If we think that these practices are have nothing to offer -- in effect, that fear has more power than us, or the Spirit within us, or the Spirit in God's creation -- then we need to think again about the world and what it means to be a person. We can learn to see what the fear within us is really like: disguised, as it usually is, as self-righteous anger, prejudice and the belief that I or we know better than everyone else. Once that happens, fear loses its power over our souls, and we can love again, and find the answers that we need in this turbulent time.
Rev. Jeffrey Mark Golliher, Ph.D. is the author of Moving Through Fear: Cultivating the Seven Spiritual Instincts For a Fearless Life.
Collective rituals aside, only the thoughtless and clueless drop to their knees.
I was lost once in a thick fog. A fog so thick, I could barely see beyond the hood of my car. I was scared. I remembered that the road I was on intersected with a highway which would get me back home. It was knowledge that helped me.
My dog was attacked by a Rottweiler and I was on the other end of the leash. Oddly, I wasn't afraid. I don't know why. The only thing that was going through my mind at the time was getting my dog away from the one attacking her. I did get her away mostly unhurt. After it all, I still wasn't scared. I was angry, but not scared.
Please keep this in mind, fear is not a bad thing. Fear can keep you alive. It makes you aware of your surroundings and you can react or not, depending on the circumstance.
When those of us who have been able to free ourselves from the superstitions that have been hammered into our brain as children ask for verifiable and falsifiable evidence that support any god claim, we are told that "None So Blind, As They Who Refuse To See".
This is a cop-out. Either bring verifiable and falsifiable evidence forward or acknowledge that what you have is blind faith in things that have no verifiable and falsifiable evidence. There are no other options.
Imagine that Boeing launches its latest 797 plane and that this plane was never tested because a 2000 year old holy book wrote that all you had to do is pray for safe arrival.
How many of you who despise evidence would be willing to fly cross country on such a plane?
I'm sure you would all do this because you claim that your god is the most important thing in your lives without any evidence for its existence and committing to get on an untested plane is just so insignificant to any god isn't it.
How many of you have ever bought a used car solely on the word of the "used car salesman"?
So from now on, you will fly on an untested plane simply on the claim that the manufacturer says it is safe UNTIL someone can prove that the plane is not safe?
"In the same respect you cannot prove the infinite does not exist with deduction and logic either". So, are you suggesting that we do not use our rational thinking abilities? DANGEROUS. As Goya said "The Sleep of reason produces monsters".
What does the "unity of God" actually mean? Can the opposite - the disunity of God - be true?
In what way is "emphasis on religious differences, etc." a "god"? Can we believe in race as a supernatural entity?
What does it mean to say "God is in each of us"? Literally? Metaphorically? Can you point to the bit of inside you that is God? Can it be surgically removed?
What does it mean to "open your consciousness"? Is it the same as opening your mail?
What does "the unity of God's spiritual consciousness" actually mean? Again, can God's consciousness be disunited?
How does a being reveal itself "in the condition of love"?
What does "love is... a spiritual and physical unity" actually mean?
Could you try to actually communicate some sensible ideas here, instead of gibberish soundbites?
This does not consist in making repetitious questions of love, but the awareness of love and pure consciousness in all things. Love and discover for yourself the unity.
“What does the "unity of God" actually mean? Can the opposite - the disunity of God - be true?â€
Raymond unity is everywhere, in the minutest parts of our bodies, in the vast space of the cosmos and in the interconnectedness of all things. This consensus is an alternative to the traditional dualistic thought of many separate inert existences. This unity of all things in an intangible consciousness expands our perceptions of the material world and gives us a better understanding of the natural laws of Life as they apply to the individual and his\her relationship to the universal scheme of things. It is a view of unity and harmony that softens the harsh cutting edge of an isolated existence without love. Raymond in your mind you might believe in disunity and feel free to express that.
In what way is "emphasis on religious difference¬s, etc." a "god"? Raymond
In that the same way I can say your religion seems to be questions.
“What does it mean to say "God is in each of us?†Raymond
Raymond this is for you to experience. I experience it and if you don’t that is OK that is your experience.
First, let's do some breathing exercises (widely acknowledged to relieve stress)
Second, let's go outside and experience nature (widely acknowledged to relieve stress)
Third, let's cultivate a real sense of community and conscience again (guessing, but...)
To claim these simple physiological and psychological exercises for Religion is going a bit far, isn't it?