We are all wrong about God

I had a realization this morning.

I studied general Chemistry in undergrad and we were trying to learn about and describe the most basic building block of all matter.
It soon became apparent to me that we (scientists) really had no clue what the heck we were talking about. Scientists had ways of measuring and predicting and calculating effects in regards to concepts that they called electrons and protons etc. but when it came down to it-- they had no idea what it really was, what it was made of or what it really looked like. Somehow electrons are everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Its like they don't really exist, but they have a probability of existing. Its crazy stuff and people that think that we really understand it are deluded Since nothing like it really exists in the world that we see and hear and touch, we have no idea what it really is-- we lack the capacity to do so. Our ball and stick models of atoms help us make some predictions about things, but they are so far from the reality of what matter is, that they are more wrong than they are right. It would be like trying to describe the human body by drawing a stick figure. Its so incomplete-- so un-encompassing, its basically more wrong than it is right. Its pathetic.

This is how I feel about God.

All verbal descriptions of God come so short to describing his glory that they are all closer to being inaccurate than they are to being right.

In that sense, all of us are wrong. No word can be right because there is no word that exists that has the capacity to be right-- God is beyond our capacity of comprehension because He is beyond our mortal experience, much like understanding electrons. We can make some predictions about God and talk about things He does, but when it comes down to actually understanding Him-- our attempted descriptions are pathetic.

We lack the capacity to describe God because our mortal bodies have no capacity by which to perceive God in His glory.

I started trying to make an analogy that grasps what I am talking about and then I realized that my analogy was similar (but inferior) to the analogy of the cave which was made many centuries ago. I guess people have been trying to describe this situation for a long time. Look it up.

That being said, I will share my analogy anyways.

Imagine for a moment that you were born and have remained your entire live deep under the ground in a dark a room that is only comprised of gray stones (though you have no conception of color). Through a miracle-- for a moment, you are taken out of the cave and see a sunset over a lake before the forest covered mountains.


Then after the instant passes, you are placed back in the dark room with the rocks in darkness. You attempt to describe what  have seen to your friends in your dark room. But, deep under the ground there are no words for sun, or light or color, or mountain, or lake or sky or anything that you have experienced.

All we have are words about the texture, size and position of rocks. Big rock; round rock; smooth rock; hard rock etc. To everyone else your description of what you "saw" (though that word wouldn't exist-- "felt" would be the closest sensation to seeing) would perhaps create a mental structure like this (except since the room is dark, it really woundn't look like anything at all):

ROCK DESCRIPTION ONE
It would be like this-- not because you are stupid or bad at explaining things, but because there are simply no words to describe what you experienced. There is no capacity or connecting medium for communicating your experience. It is beyond the shared experiences of your friends and it is beyond the words that you have a shared meaning for.

Now imagine that you attempted to write down all of your experiences in a book:
(this idea is analogous to the Scriptures or other Holy books)

Except, since all of the words available are words are so pathetic and are so general and non-descriptive, they are practically more confusing than they are illuminating of your experience. But you share the words anyways, though you know that only other people who have seen what you have seen will have the capacity to understand what you have written, and everyone else will think it is complete and utter nonsense. Some people will take what you have written down and interpret it a bit differently, so it seems a bit more like this:


ROCK DESCRIPTION TWO


Others take a bit of a different twist and describe it like this:
 ROCK DESCRIPTION THREE

Now the three rock descriptions find that their interpretations are all different and so they all argue with one another about who is more right and who is more wrong. All using words that are incapable of describing a sunset in anything that is remotely capable of being accurate to describe this.

Try it-- try describing a sunset using no reference to color, but only the size and texture of rocks.
Imagine the conversation that would occur in the story I described:

You: "I FELT SOMETHING AMAZING!!!!"
Friend: "what did it feel like?"

You: "REALLY REALLY SMOOTH!!! and BIG!!! BIG SMOOTH!!! SMOOTH BIG!!!, but lots of little non-smooth put together below and a BIG SMOOTH above!!!"

Friend: "how could you feel something that big, your hands aren't big enough and there is not enough space for something like that!?"

You: "well...I didnt feel it with my hands"
Friend: "So what did you feel it with?"

You: "ummm, I, felt it with... my head... sort of... Im not sure how to explain it"
Friend: "you're crazy"


Is this starting to sound like religion to you?

When I talk about God, to be honest, I cannot describe what I have experienced.
I have a lot of word-based "theories" about God and spirits and heaven etc. But when it comes down to it I know that my word-based/mortality-based theories are not Gods "reality", they are helpful in making predictions and in setting up relationships and interactions, but they are pathetic. They are ball and stick models. They are attempts of using rock descriptions to paint a sunset. The words that I use to describe my theories are likely just as insufficient as the words I try to use to describe God. They are incapable of coming close to accuracy because they are describing things beyond my mortal experience. Heaven. Spirit. These things are beyond my mortal capacity.
In order to describe God, we would have to try to describe him using our gray rocks.
And gray rocks, just don't cut it.

Evangelicals and Catholics and Mormons and Muslims and Buddhists etc. etc. etc. are all up in arms with our words and the meanings that we have attached to them. But really, the words that we are using are like a contention of pathetic words between that amount to this when compared to the real thing:

This is the truth!THIS IS THE TRUTH!!!

O NO NO!!! you have it all wrong!! this is what is true!

Which one of the above is the best description of this image below?

Although I believe that individuals can personally experience the Spirit of God and lack the ability to personally describe it, I do believe that God does work through people on Earth to do good. I believe that God oversaw the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter Day Saints and that He does work through His Church and other people of other churches or people who are not of any church.

In the church of Jesus Christ, our attempts to describe God come eternally short of His Glory, but the teachings give a clear pathway that enables a person of faith to experience God first hand. I also believe that He does work through anyone who will let Him into their life. God is real, and my inability to describe Him is not a proof of His non-existence, but is further evidence of His greatness and reality.

When it comes right down to it, you are just going to have to experience it yourself, because the scriptures are great and all, but if you haven't experienced the Spirit, it just sounds like a bunch of nonsense-- just like trying to describe a sunset to people who have lived in a dark room full of rocks their entire lives.


The descriptions in the scriptures are like the ball and stick models.

I used to study these ball and stick models in order to attempt to understand something that was actually beyond my ability to comprehend outside of some predictions of what it would do it certain situations (much like our descriptions of God). Ball and stick models are  extremely useful for making predictions and following laws-- just as the scriptures are very useful for making predictions about Gods behavior and following laws.

But these ball and stick predictions are so short of reality. Is the ball and stick model truly giving an accurate representation of your surroundings (all matter). How good of a job does it do representing your surroundings? yeah-- its not really doing that at all. All of the teachings in my religion and all religions and the scriptures and the prophets are in "words".... words are like ball and stick models-- they are not the real thing; they are pathetically inferior to the reality of God; they are incapable of describing my experience of God. And frankly they don't even make any sense at all unless you yourself have experienced God-- and even if you have experienced God, they are still "words" and words are not adequate-- and that is why there are so many religions and different people teaching different things. It is something that must be experienced in order to be understood.

We are all wrong about God. Not because we are saying things that are false, but because it is impossible to actually describe something for which there are no words to describe it and for which there is no shared experience in connection to the word. And so religion acts as a ball and stick model until you choose to leave your cave behind and see a sunset for yourself.

If you want to experience God, I cannot tell you for sure how that will happen, but I can tell you my personal experience and point out some of my behaviors. Perhaps if you follow the pattern that I did, you will be able to experience this for yourself.

I worked with all of my might to not think any impure thoughts and was determined to never think an impure thought ever. I would pray every night, sometimes for hours, to be able to keep my mind pure. I abstained from anything pornographic or vulgar to the best of my ability and fully intended to do so for the entirety of my existence. I prayed frequently. I kept myself as morally clean as I possibly could with a determination to always do so. I abstained from all dishonesty and greed and other such things and intended to always abstain from such things. I read my scriptures every day for months and months and committed to myself that I would read every day for as long as I lived. I prayed every day for years and was committed to praying every day of my life. I wrote in journal every night for years and wrote about what I believed. I chose to believe in God-- (yes, it is a choice). 

I wrote out what I believed in the form of a testimony almost every night for a long time in my journal. 

Then one day, I was reading my scriptures, when I felt something, almost like it was pulling at my heart in a very loving and kind and inviting way; it was a different feeling than anything I had ever felt and so I began to pray--  and it happened: I felt something unlike anything that I had ever felt before, it was completely and utterly transcendent of anything that I had ever experienced. I cannot describe it, but love, and light and goodness are the words that come to my mouth when I try to describe it-- but those words are pathetic in comparison and do not capture what I felt. It was a kind of love beyond any love that exists on earth. I felt so much peace and knowledge and power. But it wasn't knowledge that I can readily describe of knowledge of things that you learn at school-- it was an absolute and sure knowledge and assurance of the existence of God and of His characteristics and His reality-- that He was completely good and full of love (but beyond those words). The power I felt was not the kind of power that we think of on earth-- it wasn't like holding a gun or something ridiculous like that, it was like a power of security and assurance and complete control of all things, I somehow knew that God had this power and I felt it. After a while the experience went away. My eyes were full of tears and my entire body felt a sort of peaceful weakness like I had just grown wings and flown past the stars and returned safely to my bed exhausted and overcome with good things--not a bad kind of "overcome" but maybe kind of like the feeling a parent might feel after being in a situation if they couldn't find their child and had ran all over town trying to find them and then finally found them and collapsed in pure joy and exhaustion of being overcome (not the losing your child part, but the being reunited part). Although the intensity of that individual experience did end, I was completely changed. I have dedicated my life to living in such a way that I could have this experience repeated, and it has repeated, many, many, many times and I have been immeasurably blessed to experience further experiences that are very sacred to me of the same type as what I described here. I cannot determine or choose when I have these kinds of experiences, but I try to keep myself open to God at all times. I do my best to always do as much good as I can and to avoid sin as much as I can, and when I do make mistakes I strive as hard as I can to fix it and not repeat it.

I know that there is a God. Not because I have seen him with my eyes or touched him with my hands, but because He has touched me in a way that I cannot describe to you. I want everyone to experience what I have experienced. Belonging to my religion absolutely does not guarantee such experiences, but if the religion is adhered to, I believe it strongly increases your chances of such experiences... well, at least I will say that I cannot imagine having the resources or encouragement or support to be able to have these experiences without my religion. I am still foolish and ignorant and full of mistakes and errors, but I I am an ignorant fool who knows, first hand, that there is a God, and although I at times may make mistakes or errors in my pathetic wording or thoughts or theories about Him and of His ways, I make no mistake when I tell you: God is. If you choose to reject God, I can only imagine it is because you have not experienced what I have experienced of God, or if you have, then perhaps your experience was so long ago that you have all but forgotten it completely. 

...Also be careful to avoid pseudo-spirituality.