What is the dictionary definition of God? “A supernatural being: One of a group of supernatural male beings in some religions, each of which is worshiped as the personification or controller of some aspect of the universe”. Okydoky… now mind you, I am not an atheist but that definition just does not serve my spiritual needs… I agree it is a condensed definition but never the less; it is a definition in our English Dictionary.

So I regress a bit… I really did not enjoy math in college. It was hard to understand and truthfully I have always been impressed with mathematicians and astrophysicists who use math to unravel some of the Universes most intriguing puzzles. In college and even now, I find it useful but somewhat tedious. Still, math is incredibly important for breaking down percentages, measurements and yes religion and philosophy.

Now, I tweeted a bold comment recently:

“When you reduce religion to the most common denominator you have the Universe. Add conscious thought and you have a Responsive Universe… “

After I clicked the tweet button I immediately prepared for the worst. Surprisingly the reaction was quiet and most people agreed and even added their own contributions. My twitter nation is an educated group of yogis, health food fanatics and spiritual minds mixed in with people of overlapping interests. Still, I find I need to explain my definition of God as it relates to the Responsive Universe because after all I wrote a book about it all.

Now imagine you take the top four religions which depending on data are Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Now, I think everyone would agree that these religions all worship a deity in some form that created man and Earth. Each religion has an explanation of our origin and where we go when we die. Each religion has morals and guidelines, gurus and priests. I think people would also agree that religion is inherent to a specific region and a specific cultures spiritual needs and over thousands of years indigenous societies mold and amend these beliefs into the modern religions they are today. It is all kind of the same stuff right?

Now let’s add a little math to the discussion. Just like fractions, let’s reduce those top four religions down to their most common denominator. Reduce them beyond humans, even Earth. Let’s reduce religion or God to its source – the beginning of time as we know it… The Big Bang… Why do we need to break religion down to its most reduced form? Because whatever created the Universe created man who in turn created religion. Still, people tend to interject emotions, opinions and dogma into this discussion. “well the Bible says this”… well the Quran says that”. But you see, math does not deal in dogma, opinions and emotions. Math deals with numbers that add up to solutions that make sense on paper.

So, when you reduce Religion to its most common denominator you have the Universe. Now you could equate this as God and trust me, I do! But people tend of talk of God as a “He” or a “Who”. But in math, God just is…. There is nothing more and there is nothing less. God is the Universe and the Universe is…. People tend to struggle with that concept due to the ego which needs to attach dogma, fear and emotion to the concept of God.

Here is where it gets fun. God (the Universe) created an environment for conscious thought to arise from nothing. You want to talk about miracles? There is nothing more miraculous than conscious thought arising from nothing. People tend to think only a divine interest could create such an environment. But that is not necessarily true. You see; conscious thought connects with energy at the subatomic level and there is an instinctual quality to it that transcends humans and Earth. I explain it in-depth in the third chapter of my book, The Responsive Universe. The point is; through experience and mindfulness we connect to the energy of the Universe which is like our True Nature; constant and unwavering. It is okay if we do not fully understand its workings. Settling into the vastness of it all and understanding that we are connected to it is enough for now. Once we settle into the vastness, we often find that the idea of organized religion for us becomes unnecessary and weighted. The concept of God and the exact workings of the Universe may simply not be understandable in human terms. The Universe is the totality of all that exists, of all that existed before, and all that will come to exist in the future. What an immense trinity! The New Testament in western religion is based around a similar trinity – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As you ponder all of this, consider a new interpretation of that trinity that transcends religion. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are different words for the Past, the Present, and the Future, or Death, Birth, and Regeneration. We sit in the Universe in the present with past and future horizons expanding rapidly beyond us (red shift). How do we explain it all? How do we find meaning in a realm that is so vast we can’t even fully comprehend it? We find meaning in the connections that bind the paradoxes of life; the unity of the Mandala:  God, the Universe, and True Nature are not three separate phenomena we must strive to understand; they are one and the same.

God is energy and therefore humans  are energy… connected as one in a vast matrix of light and matter with a dash of instinctual consciousness that transcends earthly dogma. That is the definition of a Responsive Universe; where science explains karma and an afterlife; where energy and love heal and allow us to evolve.

The Universe is… therefore I am….

John C. Bader

About the Book: www.responsiveuniverse.com

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