When God lit the fuse of his giant firework and stood back to observe the slow burn before the whoosh which projected the rocket into the void and the big bang which exploded the multi-coloured stars into the firmament, what was going through his mind? When He viewed a sky being populated by a myriad of diverging patterns and then slowly decaying into nothingness did He take full responsibility for his action or did He clap his hands and think ‘job done’ and move on to some other project? Or was it back to the drawing board for another, improved firework? And was God acting alone or as part of a team designing and testing fireworks? Were there rival teams fighting for firework supremacy? Why was God doing it?

There are many questions to be asked of God, if perhaps not so many forthcoming answers. But before we ask the questions we must establish that He exists, or at least did exist, otherwise we are wasting our time seeking to understand and hopefully communicate with Him. Many people believe He exists, indeed some know with certainty that this is the case. A small number believe He does not and never has existed. A lot of people play lip service to His existence without really believing either way, but keeping their options open to seek His help in times of peril, promising to lead better lives if He gets them out of their current scrape. They seldom keep their side of the bargain, but they have nothing to lose. If He does not exist He cannot help them; if He does exist He will maybe get them out of their scrapes and forgive them their past and, hopefully their subsequent misdemeanours. What we need is a view of God such that His existence can be accepted by the majority. It must satisfy those who believe that God is omnipotent and directs every aspect of their daily lives and those who believe we live in an undirected world where human endeavour and random cruelty must co-exist. Our God must satisfy both the evolutionists and the creationists. He, as the marketing people would say, must have broad appeal.

Why do we need such a broadly based God? What is wrong with the status quo where those who believe get along with their specific images of God and those who do not believe or do not care get on with their secular lives? It matters because the world is a very dangerous place and our very existence is threatened in the name of God. Religious movements who are prepared to kill and die for their version of God vie with national leaders who claim to have a direct line to their God who in turn condones their wars. We are conditioned to believe that we with our God are right, and that they with their God are wrong. At a lesser level scientists who promote particular theories of existence that are incompatible in some degree with largely anonymous and often ambiguous scriptures are derided as godless heretics by those who support less credible theories which comply with the same ancient writings. Either set of theories could prove to be correct, but why bring God into it? In the ancient and less westernised world the belief remains that rewards for earthly endeavour and sacrifice will come in an afterlife of milk and honey. In the materialist west the belief is increasingly that as well as this afterlife God should reward us now with silk and money. Can we reconcile these extremes or will our search for the Universal God suffer the same fate as Esperanto?

This book is about God. Now before you close it, please let me explain myself. I do not know whether He exists or does not exist, and I do not expect to find out. However what I do know, as you do, is that manifestations of God exist both for extreme good and, unfortunately for extreme evil. From those that devote their lives to alleviating the suffering of the poor and oppressed to those that blow up the innocent along with themselves, they do it in the name of their Lord. Many others get along with life, generally being good but sometimes being a little bad but doing what they do in the believe that they are serving God or at least that God understands and sympathises with them. We are surrounded by His manifestations; we cannot ignore them and hence we cannot ignore God.

Some know that God exists; He has spoken to them. These include people I know and respect, people of sound mind, and I have no possible reason to doubt their word. I accept that their God exists. That He has not spoken to me does not prove that He does not exist for me. Why should He speak to me? I have not asked Him for any specific help or direction, except sometimes when I am in danger or need something very badly. But most of us do that from time to time, after all we have nothing to lose by asking. If one day He tells me He does exist, and if I am still of sound mind then of course I will believe Him. In the meanwhile I will continue to believe in His manifestations.

Some are convinced that God does not exist, never has existed and never will exist. They are certain of this and claim that they can prove it. He cannot have spoken to them for He does not exist. But how can they be so sure? Many of them, often in their dotage begin to think that perhaps He does exist even to the point of believing finally that He really does exist.

Many more firmly believe that God exists but without actually knowing for sure because He has not personally spoken to them. Even more hedge their bets by saying that they are not at all convinced by the mumbo jumbo surrounding Him but conceding that He might exist. After all as the philosopher Pascal pointed out, you can only win by believing in God. If He does not exist you lose nothing; if He does exist then you may win everything.

This book is aimed at the whole spectrum of believers and non-believers. Even those that know He exists may gain something other than becoming hot under the collar. Those who claim to know that He does not exist should at least accept Him as an abstract concept; after all nothing can be more abstract than nothingness. What I do believe in is that it is in our common interest, indeed our very future may depend on it, to get God under control. He must not be given unbridled freedom to lead us all to Armageddon. Of course what I should have said is that we need to get His manifestations under control. We cannot blame Him for all the evils we perpetrate under His name. Or can we? Perhaps He is not spending enough time with us or time with enough of us, but for the time being we must assume the responsibility of redressing the situation.

The book is not primarily about religion. Whether God exists or not, I have the highest respect for the world’s major religions and an equal suspicion of the myriad of man-made versions that have appeared in the last century, although I must concede the possibility that one of the latter may turn out to be the one-and-only true voice of God. But I doubt it. However for the believer religion is the predominant vehicle through which God has propagated His thoughts and directions and which religious leaders have used consequently to direct and hone the thoughts and actions of His subjects.

For the non-believer religion must still be recognised as probably the greatest power on Earth, for good and unfortunately often for evil. In many cases religion has been hijacked and used as a vehicle for a small number of people to exert control over the masses and force them to act against their better instincts and indeed against their instinctive believe in a fair and just God. To what extent is that the fault of God or of religion? Perhaps we can survive without believing in God, but I doubt if we can survive without recognising and somehow harnessing the power of religion.

Most of what I write is based on ideas and research of others much more qualified than myself; a smaller part comes from my own imagination. Some of it is highly contentious and cannot be proved, or I think disproved. I have put it all together because I think it is interesting and perhaps may even be helpful. However even my own ideas and conjectures may turn out to have been more thoroughly investigated elsewhere and I apologise to all of those whose works I may have consciously or inadvertently plagiarised. In recognition of my scientific and theological betters I shall henceforth often use the word ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ and only hope that they will not be unduly enraged or offended.

Even if our path does not lead us to any ultimate truths we can perhaps learn something on the way. Generally we will not state that things we postulate are true, just that they are not necessarily untrue. We will conjecture rather than hypothesise, let alone prove what might have happened in the past or what might happen in the future. We are not competing with scientists who have devoted lifetimes to detailed research and contributed to the multi-generational cumulative build up of scientific fact and ideas. Nor are we competing with theologians who similarly have interpreted and explained the ways of God. We are simply not equipped to do either; rather we are interested amateurs eager to share our thoughts with you, without seeking to influence, let alone convert you to any particular way of thinking, except perhaps to thinking more of the value of thoughtful thought itself.

We shall start of by attempting a closer definition of God as the basis for, no doubt, impassioned debate on what we actually mean by God. Also, and without any intended disrespect we shall refer to ‘Him’ and ‘He’ as ‘him’ and ‘he’, even though he may be a ‘she’ or even an ‘it’ or a ‘them’. We shall go on to look at us humans and see if we can identify any reasons why we should have been especially selected to be God’s subjects. We shall consider the body, the brain, the mind and the soul. On the way we will seek to reconcile the competing theories of creationism, evolution and intelligent design. We shall also glance at possible extra-terrestrial humans and human-likes that may also be subject to God’s influence. For the sake of the confirmed non-believer we will not ignore nothingness; in fact most of us can gain by knowing a little more about nothing.

We will proceed to showing how God, at least in part might have been designed and built by some higher power or might have evolved through natural processes, if not quite from nothingness itself. We will go on how we might already be in the process of planning and designing a new species of human being to supplant ourselves, even to the new lot having its very own manufactured God. Finally we will postulate a path to Utopia where we have all contributed to the design and production of a benign Universal God who can be accepted by believers and non-believers alike and who will guide us through life to our heavens and non-heavens. Sounds simple enough? Unfortunately, as we will find out, the Devil is in the detail.

© Vic Forrington 2009