God In The World: A Debate

I lied. There is no debate. I mean, really, I could not think of anything more dreary than a debate with some sort of atheist or-worse-agnostic about God this-or-that. God's in the world. That's that. Of course, we must hasten to add that if God were to be seen on the street, we should treat Him as if he were a homeless person or a squeegee guy. That, too, goes without saying. So, at the risk of appearing totally off the wall, I shall tell you a story about God in the world. During the run up to the War in Iraq, I had paid close attention to the news. I tend to read a great many foreign journals, having discovered a long time ago that other people have other perspectives. This is an important point of the story. So, finally as the USA approached the war, I sat down one morning and prayed. Then I meditated, letting a motif of "what is the real case?" sort of float along with the meditation. After awhile, I opened my eyes and said, "There are no weapons of mass destruction." I immediately realized this was fairly radical, not to mention odd and a long-shot. I mean, surely Saddam's housecleaners will leave behind some sort of detonator or uranium caked ash tray or something. You cannot dispose of everything- 100%! However, I took the position that there were absolutely NO WMDs. This put me in a group of about 10 people in the world. It also put me in an odd place if I were to debate the war. How would you like to debate something when your opponent has a decidedly bizarre belief: 100% of all possible WMDs do not exist in Iraq! Well, long story short...we know how that came out. Of course, I had not wagered any money on it either, so my sense of justification was and is mixed with frustration. Yet, we have within us the ability to see Reality. I needed prayer to help. Maybe you don't. I do not know. Reality is the world and God is in the world...how could we miss anything? I do not believe that God talks to people. As I have said before, I do not believe in God; rather I expect God. God is not a concept describing something that may or may not be true. My faith is not a scientific experiment. I expect God. God made man in his image. There are many men and many different viewpoints. ( there, that's that business about reading foreign newspapers. ) Therefore, God is Uniformity and Diversity, the One and the Many. I must go out and seek diverse opinions, then I must retreat from the world and meditate. In this way, I can attempt to take the many opinions and create a uniformity, that oneness being the opinion of ME, myself alone. The Divine does not exist solely within the singular area of my meditation. The Divine also exist outside, in the marketplace where many are gathered! This process of going out and then retreat is analogous to the divine: the one and the many...a going out into the universe and a retreat and withdrawal into isolation... ...then we come back from this isolation, and we have new wine and new wineskins!