THE "GOD" I CAN LET GO OF.

Atheism really boils down to is the letting go of a belief of "God".  And that three letter word holds a lot of nuance that some people need to let go of.   So what is the God I can let go of.  It isn't letting go of the Creator of the Cosmos as much as it is letting go of a facsimile that has been advertised on the marquises of the religious institutions in North America.   In those churches, there are preachers giving sermons about man being made in God's image, but there is a "God" that has been made in the image of man. That is the God that deserves a good dose of Atheism.  

I am totally aware that along with the rest of organic lifeforms in the cosmos... I had a beginning.  I can attribute that beginning to something greater and more unknown than my parents...  To most the name for that something is God.  To me, I don't want to label it as God because I don't want that to be understood as what a lot of humans have relegated to a common swear word.  Like the English word Love, God has accumulated a lot of different meanings in the world.   

So just for now let's use the  label of the Life Giver.   That seems appropriate, since I am attributing my life as something that has been given to me. 

So I have a label that I can call that which gave me breath... and now I can dispense with "God" and all the baggage that comes in my life from that three letter word.  

So the "God" I am letting go of... or being Atheist towards is this "God"... 

 - The "God" that excludes any human being from love

- The "God" that dictated the bible to humans

- The "God" that hates Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Mormons, Atheists, Drug addicts, Convicts and the LGBTQ community.  

 - The "God" that planned all the destruction in my life and in the life of the planet

 - The "God" that is limited to the male gender, or any gender for that matter.  

- The "God" that designed an afterlife of golden streets, mansions, and every picture of capitalistic North America.  

 - The "God" that can only be found in the pages of a 2000-3000 year old library of Hebrew and Greek books.  

- The "God" in control  (Thank you Thomas Jay Oord for helping me let go of this "God" already) 

- The "God" that only communicates to and dwells in humans and not the rest of nature (Thank you Richard Rohr for helping me let go of this "God" already) 

- The "God" that is insecure and threatened by human thought, honest discussion, internal conflict and doubt.  

There are probably more things I can add to that list, and if I think of them, I will add them as I go.  But it is a good start to at least list some of the things I want to let go of.  Maybe after I let go, I might just find the Life Giver I have been looking for.  That is my hope anyway.