Ans:Yes - As a Child, I attended protestant churches, and schools, and had some teachings about the Trinity. As a Child I always had this image in my mind that God was this fellow with long white hair and beard, sitting on a throne, and had the Angel Michael , Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost with in reach, or that they were sent out on some mission. Additionally of course, there was the Devil, who resided in Hell. Where the oversight is in all this I believe is in confusing the idea that Man was made in Gods Image, where we are actually making God in our image which seems to be the case in most religions, but what they do have in common is God.
Upon growth I had to wonder about the wonders of the Universe, and the notion that if God did make everything then every thing was actually made in the image of God. I also became impressed when learning that Galileo had attempted to demonstrate to the Church at the time, that we were not at the center of the Universe.
I have come to understand that God for me actually translates into something I call the 'Gift of Divinity' which does explain why God's Image is in everything, and including the Universe, and that we do not have to be in its center in order to have the sense of the Divine. In other words, the Gift of the Divine is in all of Us when we seek to find it; consequently God's image is however we wish, and capable in seeing it.
I find myself Praying sometimes, such as when seeing the kids pictures in television that have lost their lives in Iraq. I don't assume that there is a switch board in someplace called heaven that responds back with "As you will appreciate he receives many millions of prayers a day and it is not possible to personally reply to each". Prayer to me, first before it can actually go anywhere else has to go deep in side of us, and in doing so can yield wisdom or prudence. It all depends on why and what we are praying about and for, and what are reasonable expectations are about it. I believe in dealing with in our own selves, generally we will hear the answer to our own prayers; In other words, 'to Thine own self be true'.
As far as Heaven and Hell are concerned, I'm willing to accept that the wonder that creates life has plans for it, and no matter what those plans entail, that they possess the same wisdom as the phenomenon of Life itself has. About Hell, that just seems to me as to what we create for ourselves in this world when we do not regard the Wonders of Life.
More over, that's my own beliefs, and where each of us are entitled to our very own, or represented by a religious following, but which should I believe should never be imposed on others; as belief I content must be discovered as part of our personal path in life.
Orion Karl Daley
Balanced Party Presidential Candidate for 2008
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