Looking For God At the Lake

ON MY HIKE on the hilly rocky trail at my beautiful local lake, I met an older couple and their dog, who were all quite friendly. The dog charged me, looking for love. The lady apologized. No need. Later, I heard the dog, a white lab, screaming. I was horrified, thinking he was in terrible pain or being whipped, until the lady assured me it was a pleasure scream,and I saw the dog in the water, with a stick in his mouth, swimming joyfully. I laughed with joy and relief, and told the lady: "I used to throw tennis balls in the lake to my German Shepherd. It wass illegal, at that particular lake, to be in the water. Somebody took a picture and Wolfgang was on the front page of the local newspapeer,swimming, ball in mouth. The caption said: "Soggy Pooch". Wolfie and I, committing a crime,on the front page. We never got caught". The lady laughed, and agreed it was quite an experience. I laughed and replied that,at the end of our days, our experiences are all we have left. That,she said, and God. So, it was on. I had to jump in. The point I wanted to make is that there are many religions in the world, many concepts of God, and that each of us has our own, individual, seperate path to the top of the mountain, aka "God". I Quickly, efficiently hammered her with facts, as I am prone to do with everyone, being a retired teacher. There are more than forty two hundred organized religions in the world. Sixty two percent of the American people identify as "Christian", which is a precipitous decline in recent years. Facts like that. As I recall, she never explicity sais that she was a Christian. But she was. She referred to Christ, and used the name Jesus several times,as I remember. But, darn it, she was one of the people, and it seems to me that a majority of Christians are, who insists and assume that the Christian religion, her religion, is the only true relgion in the universe. I prefer people who believe that all religions are valid and true,from the point of view of their adherants. that no single religion has all truth, and tht all religions and all philospohies and systemsof belief have some truth. And, that are all quuite limited, and,in most case, symbolic, allegorical, rather than literally true. I can easily imagine beig a born again conservative Pentecostal Christian, and accepting and respecting all other religions, without thinking mine is better or best for everyone. If I became an evangelicl Christian, meaning a Christian who devotedly and fervantly tries to spread and share the faith with others, I think I would do so wihtout embracing the belief that people who I can't converta, and the don't ecoem Christians, will burn in hell forever. I dont't think you necessarily have to believe in hell to be an evangelical Christian, but, well, maybe you do. i assume there are many opinions and writings on the question. Matter of fact, the idea strikes me that when I finish and publish thie essay I'll "google it. Google'll ell you anything, right? I explained to the lady tha I am a pantheist, mentioned Spinoza and Einstein, and she had a much better reaction to it than most devout Christians, which by this time I have figured out she is. No, she didn't like it, but, by golly, she didn't how any open hostility to it, merely a sort of calm, quiet sadness. definitely negative, but acceptable, within limits. We jsut can't keep perpetuating human culture on this planet with a high percentage of humans locked into the mindset that their sacred, beloved religion is the only true one, and that only people who share it are worthy of heaven, and so forth. that attitude simply does not work, and although religious intolerance is not nearly as bad globally as it once, even rather recently, was, its still pretty bad, indeed too bad. I mentioned that "Holly Holy" by Neil Diamond is my favorite gospel song; she didn't even balk at that. Cool. I'm sure she thought it was weird, though. She finished the conversation b expressing the hope that my journey to God ends ends up successfully, or something like that. I was tempted to either say "It already has", or,"gee,wouldn't that tht be cool!", but, Isaid nothing. It wouldn't've done any good. No matter what, whe was going to go away thinking that its too bad that weird oldman doesn't accept Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and savior and is therefore in danger of his eternal soul spending eternity in hell, and hoping that maybe someday he would be saved and come to the truth, her truth, the only truth.