5. Perceiving God: Believing or Knowing?

My deepest desire is to find the pure meaning of God, as taught by Christ. There is not a day that I do not think of God and what it truly means. However, when people ask me if I believe in God, I cannot answer affirmative. The reason for this is the limitation and wrong concept that the question entails. The question asks me if I believe in a limited view of God. The God that is asked about is not in accord with how I have come to see God. The premise that makes someone ask, is not the one my understanding of God is based upon. And so the answer is ‘no, I do not believe in God.’

God is to me another synonym for truth, absolute truth, the Truth. Has anyone ever asked me if I believe in Truth? No. The question sounds pretty odd. Knowing, rather than believing is applicable to Truth. Truth is true, regardless what we believe or know. But only when we know it, we can see it for what it truly is. To believe something to be true means we do not really know it is true. To believe something is not the same as knowing a fact. Truth can only be perceived in knowing, not in believing. And so it does with God. God can only be perceived in knowing, not in believing—that is, if one accepts and comes to understand God as synonymous with Truth.

‘To believe in God’ has been the general accepted form to talk about God. Why do many see God as something we can only believe in? Mainly, because God is Spirit and cannot be seen by the senses. If God was material, you could point out to a place or shape, and say: ‘This is God.’ Everyone could see it, and there would be no confusion about it—or so we think. Since God is not material but incorporeal, it is generally thought God can only be felt somehow, or believed in.

But why would it be impossible to perceive of something incorporeal and spiritual that we can know instead of believe? Every new invention came forth from an idea. We cannot grab ideas with our hands, yet they prove to be pretty useful and practical to us. The same with numbers: they can be drawn or carved out of wood, but their ideas are immaterial. The understanding how to use numbers enables us to calculate bridges and to count the sheep. And so it is with love. One can show love, give a hug, and give a symbolic flower to a friend, but the love itself is never a material thing. Yet, we know love and we all need it. We also recognize the concept and importance of good, without pinning it down to a material object. We know that good is unselfish and honest. Moreover, we know honesty is more valuable than dishonesty. These examples of immaterial ideas are known to us without needing material senses to track them. Our spiritual senses give us the proof of spiritual existence and operation. Belief takes no role in it.

If belief will not teach us more about spiritual operation, it does not mean there is no hope or faith involved in the process. Hope and faith encourage us to move forward and upward. They are incentives that guide us in realizing the effortless spiritual knowing that we have within our reach. Hope and faith are footsteps to understanding. Blind believing is not. We do not close our eyes before we jump and hope we will land safely. We use the senses to perceive a safe landing.

Spiritual knowing also results in a natural trust. To know how to calculate a bridge with the right materials, gives us the trust to do so, and enables us to walk on that bridge without fear. On the other hand, to build a bridge without any understanding of the materials, the constructional principles and gravitational forces is foolish, and any trust from it is unfounded. To give your life to a God you believe in without understanding God and without comprehending the divine work, is not a founded approach—regardless the beauty of its motives.

Knowing God also takes out the mystery of it. To clad God with mystery and vagueness is no advanced approach. To say that God cannot be scientifically known or understood and can only be believed, is limiting any possibility of progress in learning and knowing God. Instead of progress, such vagueness is a breeding place for error in the so-called name of God. Darkness and ignorance allows abuse to slip in. Today, many terrors and errors are committed for what some call God. Some of these errors are visible to some, but many are hidden. Mystery and darkness is a perfect hiding place for error. That is why we need to take away that mystery and mist about something so beautiful and eternal, that we may call God. Take out complexity, and we find what is simple and natural. Take out the darkening sense of mysticism, and we find spiritual light. Take out error, and lies, and we find Truth. Take out belief and mystery, and we find Science—the knowing of God. Take off the veil, and we see the face of God.

Having said that error is often hidden, let us remember that Truth is existence, and that error and lies are non-existence. Error, lies, can only seem true in belief. Truth is true in understanding. Error is the denial and ignorance of Truth. Only understanding can reveal us how to make distinction between error and Truth. Yet, in the mist of ignorance, lies are more easily accepted; it does not need understanding.

The Bible states Jesus saying: “And ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free” (John 8:32). It does not say: ‘Ye shall believe the Truth, and the belief shall set you free.’ This could not work. Beliefs keep us captive and limited. Only the understanding in Truth can unlock us of these imprisoning beliefs. But, because of belief’s hidden nature, it is often not seen. It is not just chains and locks that keep in or out. It is the belief that feeds the resistance to Truth that keeps us in the realm of belief and limitation.

Freedom is not found in your exercise of whatever we wish to do at our own likings, possibly at someone else’s expense. Freedom is found in Truth, as the Master teaches us. Belief limits us from our true capacity. Knowing Truth shows us infinite possibilities—and it is right at hand, for the “Kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:14). So the Kingdom of God is not a material state or a sentimental experience we grab with our hands. It is knowing the Truth that is ever available and ever present. Even when our hands are locked in chains, deliverance by Truth is within our reach.

Is Truth cold to some? It is not found cold when Truth is properly understood. Truth is unbendable; you cannot fool it. And yet, it is also Love because Truth is constructive. Truth blesses all. Lies, error and dishonesty, the antidotes of Truth, are ingredients for deceit and corruption, which bare no resemblance with Love. Love, or good, cannot be separated from something constructive as Truth.

Mary Baker Eddy describes God as “Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love” (S&H 465). All these are synonyms for God. So God is as much Truth and Love, as it is Principle, or Soul. The depth of these synonyms declare that each one of these synonyms is equally God. That is why the study of these synonyms can help us to gain a clearer perception of God.

And so with every advancing step we take, we take it not to believe more in God, but to gain a higher understanding of God. Understanding goes together with our perception of God. We understand in the degree that we perceive the true God, Truth. That is why I cannot answer within the question if I believe in God or not. I strive to seek God. But the seeking is not added by arousing sentimental feelings and beliefs around the word God. The seeking is a constant prayer to do good and to know God.

Mary Baker Eddy sums it all up in the following question: “What is the difference between belief and understanding?” She answers: “Belief is a decision made from reasoning in material things. May be a false conclusion. Understanding is a demonstrable knowledge obtained from a clear perception of the real and eternal. ‘Now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; then shall I know even as also I am known’” (DCC 214).

Love,
the Hanna


Abbreviations:
S&H: ‘Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures’ by Mary Baker Eddy.
DCC: ‘Divinity Course and General Collectanea of Items by and about Mary Baker Eddy’ compiled by Richard F. Oakes.