Where is God?

Yesterday I had a talk about God with my Muslim friend. Actually about Allah, but I personally don't think that that matters. It was one of many talks I had, with many people, over many years. I came to the conclusion that most people underestimate God.

So, where is God? The obvious answer is ‘everywhere'. It has been given so many times; it doesn't even register with you anymore. Am I right? And quite frankly, though it's no mean feat to be everywhere, at least we can somehow grasp the concept. We live in a three dimensional world, and within that limit we are able to cope with the concept of a being that manages somehow to be everywhere.

Did this add anything to our knowledge of God? Not really. Because we can grasp the concept, we sort of make God smaller to fit our preconception. Maybe it is more comfortable to talk to a being that is somehow great, but not overwhelmingly so. I don't know. The point is that this is actually neither the point, nor the right answer. Well it is the right answer to the question, but I think the question is the wrong one. So let's try again.

When is God?

So it's a question of time, is it? The obvious answer is ‘he has always been and will be forever'. This again is nothing really new and I could just about repeat myself. Does it mean it has been the wrong question again? No, the question is correct, but the answer is wrong. Not completely wrong, but the answer takes its basis in a wrong concept.

If you imagine time, what do you see? Is it a line that runs from A to B? Like from morning to evening is a line along which we walk? I don't think time is a line. We understand it that way, because we cannot quite grasp the concept of time being space, three dimensional. Like a dot on paper we understand only the dimension we move in. In our conception the dot of ‘now' is on a line with the dots of ‘past' and ‘future'.

In my opinion, that's where we err. Time is space. And within that space, God again is everywhere. He is everywhen. Right now, as you are reading this, God is reading with you, but at the same time he is dictating the Koran to Mohammed, talking to Noah about the Ark, sending locusts into Egypt, and assessing the damage we did to this world in some future I can't foresee.

Once you are able to accept that God is everywhen, you can get rid of a few puzzling questions with this concept. The eternity of God becomes quite logical. He is not eternal, because he is just everywhen. Being everywhen, the question of beginnings and ends becomes moot. God doesn't need to foresee the future, because he is already there. He doesn't need to know everything, as he is everywhere and everywhen.

For me, this settles the problem of the holy books, the Bible, the Koran, and you name them; because God is right now dictating them all at the same time. Out goes the discussion about what was written when; that gives time to turn to the important questions on the scriptures: What did God mean? But that I leave to people who are more intelligent than I.

I hope that my writing makes a bit of sense to you. And I just want to add, please, take heed that I did not use the word religion even once in the text.