Why My God Is Derivative

I find everything complicated, because I am quite simple.

A complicated thing will not squeeze into my simple brain, so I simplify it to fit.

Now when I consider a thing, I consider my simple version of that thing instead - it's easier.

That book that I just finished reading? I don't need to read it again. I've got it all up here. Well, the main points.

The United States Of America? I've never really been there, but it's just England with different labels, maps and accents isn't it.

History too.

The universe? Yep, even that. Got a tiny model of it up here. It all works. Sorted.

Even God. I actually think that he corresponds to the tiny simple version of him in my brain too. Sorry - He / Him.

This all leads me to draw simple conclusions about many, if not all, of the original complicated things.

God loves. Therefore we are all loved by God.

However my version of a thing will not be the same as anyone else's, because we will have made different choices in how to simplify it.

God is just. Therefore we all receive justice from God.

Well, they can't both be true. Can they?

We will also each form and frame our understandings from our individual experiences too. Hence, I perceive God as a man. Of course I do. I am a man. I can't even get my head around what God might be like as a penguin.

Of course beginning with our differing notes can also lead our calculations in different directions too. I had a terrible argument this morning with my penguin.

But the great thing about objective truths is that we can both keep on clarifying our conflicting versions by learning more and more detail from the same original source. One day we might even agree, at least on some things. That'll probably require us to listen to each other though. A lot. I might find that I need to consider things like love and justice together, rather than as exclusive alternatives.

As a human being, the very brief simple accounts that I have of Jesus seem closer to what I think really ought to be true about God, than any other version that I retain a copy of.

That might sound like a simple outlook. It is. It's an outlook.

Well, that's my understanding.