Out of many, one. A plural one.
The world's monotheistic dominant religions tell us a conversion story - how humanity moved from many gods to one.
What does it mean to have one god? It means one way, one answer, one people.
But we're starting to find that humanity is not just one people. We are many.
Our first response is to fight each another. We argue about which people is the one people.
Only after we have done real damage to each other do we wake up with blood on our hands and questions in our minds. Is there really just one god and one people? And if there is, will we be able to stop fighting about what and who it is?
The world acts like a broiling mass of contradictions and conflicting truths. If any religion is to survive, it must reflect that. If our one god cannot allow for these contradictions, it will shatter.
And so our doubts leave some of us empty-handed - with no god at all. One god seems so much more powerful than many, but fundamentalism has made that one god rigid and brittle.
When god breaks into so many contradictory pieces, it bears nothing and everything.
Nothing, because there is no god so powerful as the one we thought we had. But everything because the shards and pieces fall into an infinite kaleidoscope of contradictory truths, all free of the old rigid structure. The new world is broader than the old - allowing for everything instead of just one thing.
What does it mean to have one god? It means one way, one answer, one people.
But we're starting to find that humanity is not just one people. We are many.
Our first response is to fight each another. We argue about which people is the one people.
Only after we have done real damage to each other do we wake up with blood on our hands and questions in our minds. Is there really just one god and one people? And if there is, will we be able to stop fighting about what and who it is?
The world acts like a broiling mass of contradictions and conflicting truths. If any religion is to survive, it must reflect that. If our one god cannot allow for these contradictions, it will shatter.
And so our doubts leave some of us empty-handed - with no god at all. One god seems so much more powerful than many, but fundamentalism has made that one god rigid and brittle.
When god breaks into so many contradictory pieces, it bears nothing and everything.
Nothing, because there is no god so powerful as the one we thought we had. But everything because the shards and pieces fall into an infinite kaleidoscope of contradictory truths, all free of the old rigid structure. The new world is broader than the old - allowing for everything instead of just one thing.