ArcaMax

Q: My friends have told me lately that I tend to see a dark side to everything. We got to talking about spirituality, and I told them I believe there can be a God, but that such a God is indifferent to us. The reason I think this is because we are too small and minute to be noticed by a gigantic being capable of creating a universe millions of light-years across. Moreover, how can we truly conceive such a being?

Since I'm incapable of understanding God, I try to compare on a human scale the smallest being of which we know. I assume that what God is to us, we are to the amoebae.

Say a scientist devotes himself to the study and care of amoeba, and he analyzes them and provides the best living conditions possible for them to survive. He can't devote his entire life to this practice. He has his own needs as well. He also can't give his attention to all amoeba; just the ones that show up under his microscope. Do the amoebae know about the scientist? Do they pray to him and ask him for help and guidance? Even if they did, is he capable of understanding them? If he says he hears their prayers, how long till he gets fitted for a straitjacket?

If the amoebae believe there's a God, do they envision him as a more perfect version of themselves? Put in this type of perspective, it leads to my downward spiral. It leads me to believe that we are truly incapable of understanding God, and he in turn, is incapable of noticing us, much less understanding us.

Forget proof that God loves us and cares for us. I want proof he even knows we're here. All I've got is testimony from one source book on events that presumably happened thousands of years ago. I need something more substantive than bushes going into spontaneous combustion. Thanks for reading. – (From R)

A: I love your amoeba-based theology. God is not a finite scientist. God is an infinite being who does more than just observe us. God loves us and has made each of us in the image of God. That is the link. A part of us is like God. There are no parts of the amoebae that are like the scientist.

We can see in other people the image of God that we can see in ourselves and that forms the basis of our divinely inspired ethics. We revere others for the same reason we revere God. We also believe that this non-material part of ourselves, our souls, has a journey in store for it that continues after the death of our material bodies. That journey of the soul after death will put us in touch with a higher level of understanding of God’s nature and mystery than we can achieve here and now in our embodied existence on planet earth.

You wonder about how a force so vast can touch us so intimately. Consider the force of gravity which affects us just as it affects the farthermost stars.

I am amused and touched by your spiritual curiosity. Not being able to fully comprehend the greatest mystery of the universe is not a refutation of God. It is just a consequence of our finite minds. I ask people who have come to your questions if they can fully understand the nature of love or courage or forgiveness? Phenomena do not have to be vast in order to be beyond our ken. We only understand so little which is the point of your question. Ultimately faith is not an act of knowing things. Faith is an act of trusting things.

The word “Amen” which concludes our prayers does not mean “Truth”. It means “Trust.” We trust in God the way children trust in lullabies. The words of every lullaby are different but their meaning is the same, “Do not worry, my little one. Everything is going to be OK.” God is the place where all our lullabies come true.

Read again the lullaby of Deuteronomy chapter 30:11-15,19:

“For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil…choose life.”

(Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including “Religion for Dummies,” co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman. Also, the new God Squad podcast is now available.)

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