Exploring the concept of a higher power and faith helps prompt us to ask essential questions. Approaching the subject from different spiritual paths is the key. It provides the data you need to make an informed decision.
Regardless of your beliefs in a supreme being, this concept influences your thoughts. It is part of our cultural narrative, which shapes our worldview. Sorry about that. The idea of a divine entity, like God or an imaginary friend, is part of cultural folklore for many people. Much of the modern world is still influenced by belief systems favoring a particular set of religious dogma.
Beliefs about this imaginary entity differ, and it can be confusing. There isn’t one clear set of rules that everyone agrees on. Each religion has its own variation on the theme. Many people believe in a divine being. However, it’s important to be discreet and sensitive when sharing personal beliefs. You must be mindful of the context and audience.
Approaching the Subject of a Higher Power
The topic of God can be a sensitive subject. It can elicit a wide range of negative emotions and feelings, making open discussions challenging. Some people may experience feelings of anxiety, while others may feel intense anger or frustration. For some, this discussion can evoke feelings of fear and uncertainty.
The reasons behind these strong emotional reactions are complex and multifaceted. In this document, we will explore why the concept of a supreme power or God. It can be challenging for some, as this topic can evoke emotional responses.
We want to identify these mechanisms to control them. To do this, we ask questions that help us understand our link to this concept. Writing your thoughts in a journal can help you regain emotional equilibrium.
As you read the article, note the feelings and thoughts that come up. We will explore this subject by looking at the three approaches to the subject of God. We hope it will help you deal with this concept.
Exploring the Concept of a Higher Power and Faith
There are two primary approaches to exploring different spiritual paths. The dividing line is between those who believe in the concept of a God and those who do not. This article primarily targets believers in God, but it can also assist those who do not believe.
The concept of God comes from Animism. (1). This concept asserts all things possess a spiritual essence. This principle originated from early human attempts to explain various phenomena, from dreams to natural disasters. Organized religions are built around this idea.
It is part of human nature to seek answers to the unknown because we want to know how things work. This philosophy goes hand in hand with questions about who we are and why we are here. We hope the following discussion will help you answer these philosophical questions.
Belief, Faith, and Connecting with God
Faith is the belief in something with complete confidence. It is a firmly held conviction without tangible proof. So Western religion is often referred to as a faith. Faith and belief in the unproven is a requirement to accept the concept of God. These two mental concepts are inseparable. You cannot have belief in an imaginary friend if you don’t have complete faith that they exist. Connecting with God is the source of many divine gifts, from healing and prosperity to afterlife rewards.
When approaching the subject of a higher power and faith, keep these questions in mind. We recommend answering these questions before you read further. Then, answer them after you finish reading and see if your opinion changes.
- How do I feel about the subject of God?
- Which approach resonates with me?
- Does one or more of these approaches elicit negative emotions?
- What memories does this quest bring up?
- Can I change my beliefs about God? If so, what would it take? If you can’t, why not?
Please take the time to write your initial thoughts about the above questions. There are no wrong answers because your response to this question depends on many factors. As you read the article, make a note of your emotional reactions. This will help you sort out your personal beliefs from any cultural programming.
The Journey Exploring Different Spiritual Paths
By seeking your higher power, you will discover interesting connections to your thoughts, beliefs, and values. Resist judging these associations. See them for what they are now. You can decide later if you want to change them.
We promote positive changes in the brain when we use our analytical mind. This activity creates new neural connections. It’s good for you and the world. So exploring the concept of a higher power can spark intellectual and spiritual growth.
Another point to remember is your views on God will likely change. We often rethink or reframe our beliefs and values. It happens in two ways, either consciously or unconsciously. A healthy mind can change beliefs and values when we get new information.
Higher Power vs God
Your definition of a supreme being or God can be interpreted differently depending on your beliefs and experiences. Here are some key distinctions:
The word God refers to a specific deity connected to certain religious traditions, such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Many religions promote God as a caring figure who has a personal bond with believers and offers them guidance, love, and support.
The broad term higher power is often used in contexts like 12-step recovery programs. It can refer to any force or entity greater than oneself, which might include nature, the universe, or even the collective human spirit. Both draw from indigenous cultures that formed the ideas of Animism. This was their way of explaining the magic found in nature and the universe.
The dichotomy between higher power vs God is often used interchangeably, as we do here in this article.
Organized Religions
Those who believe in a God or Gods account for approximately 75% of the world’s population. That kind of social mass gives them critical mass for shaping the cultural narrative. The subject of God is the most widely held belief system. The three Abrahamic religions (2) — Christianity, Islam, and Judaism—have about 4 billion members. This number is roughly half of the world’s population.
These religions are not new or original. They are copies of the ancient mystery religions. These are the cults from the Mediterranean region Circa 1 BCE. Everything you find in the Abrahamic tree comes from these earlier cults.
The beliefs of an organized religion can have a significant negative impact on many societies. Their beliefs, superstition, and bias make their way into the laws which govern much of the civilized world. They want to return to the Dark Ages.
The goal of these systems is to control the culture and create cash flow. The Roman Catholic church is at the top of the list for wealth (4), but they have kept their financial holdings confidential. Some estimate with their cash, real estate, precious metals, and art, they are the wealthiest sign entity on the planet. They have mastered indoctrination, promoting the dying-god religion and afterlife across generations.
When we ask what is your higher power, we are treading on sacred ground. When you understand the answer to this question, you can manage how it affects your thinking. As you review each of these three ways to approach the subject, make a note of the other concepts that are attached. The metaphor of God has several common elements. Beliefs about the afterlife and guidelines for moral behavior are associated with the idea of God.
Factors Affecting Your Worldview
We use social media several hours a day, exposing ourselves to a great deal of harmful propaganda. Extremist religious and political propaganda is hard to avoid. These are the principal sources of today’s harmful bias and prejudice. They use propaganda and psychological manipulation to reframe issues and values.
Observe your social environment. The concept of God is everywhere. It is programmed into the cultural narrative through subtle and direct forms of self-hypnosis and group hypnosis. Both are the brainwashing tools of Western organized religion. It triggers our deepest fears.
This programming affects your beliefs and values. It can program you to protect and support the boundaries of the system. Many see this kind of brainwashing as a slippery slope that leads to more extremist ideologies.
You can see the effects of this negative propaganda on culture. When Western religion becomes the dominant force in a culture, certain traits follow. It promotes favoritism, segregation, discrimination, and favoritism. These always lead to violence against those who do not follow the sect in control of the cultural narrative. This discussion will help you recognize this type of social manipulation, and then you can also assist others.
Approaches for Seeking Your Higher Power
As we are exploring these different spiritual paths, it’s important to remember that most people use more than one approach. It’s likely you have one primary perspective and at least one other that you use for connecting with God. Don’t disregard the validity of any perspective. If you disagree with it, find out why you feel that way.
— Reason
— Philosophy
— Faith
— Experience
Reason as a Path for Seeking Your Higher Power
The first way to approach this subject is through reason and rational thinking. People who like this approach want evidence on which to base their conclusions. The three primary disciplines that provide this kind of information are logic, math, and science.
You may not see these disciplines as spiritual paths, but they are. They pave the way for making better decisions.
Logic is like a tool that helps us think clearly and make good arguments. When we use logic, we look at the reasons behind our beliefs and see if they make sense. For example, if we believe in a supreme being, we can ask ourselves why we believe this and if our reasons are strong.
Thinking logically helps us build a solid foundation for our beliefs. The study of logical reasoning and the spiritual axioms are a must for any serious spiritual explorer. You can get a firm foundation just by reading two articles on this website. These are the tools that help you sort out fact from fiction.
Math is another way to explore the nature of the divine through numbers. Math is all about patterns and order. The beautiful patterns in nature, like snowflakes and moving planets, make us wonder if a divine engineer made this order.
Math helps us see the beauty and structure in the world, which can lead us to think about our beliefs. Mathematics is a discipline that provides evidence as statistical probabilities. This can help us greatly in an area where facts and evidence are lacking or are of questionable validity
Science is the study of the natural world. Scientists use experiments and observations to learn about how things work. When we look at the universe, we see it follows certain rules, like gravity and the laws of physics. Some people believe these rules were created by a supreme being. Science helps us understand our world. This understanding can lead us to consider the idea of a higher intelligence.
Logic, math, and science help us in exploring the concept of a higher power and faith through rational processes. These fields help us ask questions and spot patterns. They help us understand the world. This can make us think about something greater than ourselves. These disciplines are often overlooked on the journey to understand the idea of God. However, they are essential to validating our conclusions.
Philosophy as a Path for Seeking Your Higher Power
When we explore the concept of God through philosophy, we look at the proposition through fresh eyes. This helps us gain new insights. One way to do this is by looking at classical cosmological proofs. These are arguments that try to show that there must be a first cause or a beginning to everything, and many people believe this first cause is God. The famous philosopher Thomas Aquinas said everything has a cause. If we follow these causes back, we will find a first cause. He called this first cause God.
Another important part of philosophy is asking existential questions. (5) These are big questions about life, such as “Why are we here?” and “What is the purpose of life?” Philosophers like Søren Kierkegaard and Jean-Paul Sartre thought a lot about these questions. They explored how belief in a supreme intelligence can give life meaning and help us understand our existence.
Many philosophers discussed exploring different spiritual paths and the concept of God. Saint Anselm created the ontological argument. It claims that God must exist because we can picture a perfect being. Since a perfect being must exist in reality, God exists. René Descartes also talked about God, arguing that the idea of a perfect being must come from a perfect being itself, which he believed was God.
Metaphysics is an important part of philosophy. It explores the basic nature of reality and existence. It looks at what is beyond the physical world and what it means to be. For example, Aristotle’s ideas about “substance” and “essence” explore what it means for something to exist.
In seeking a higher power, metaphysics can help us understand the nature of divine existence and how it relates to the physical world. An example is the metaphysical argument for God’s existence. This argument suggests that the universe’s existence and order hint at a higher, non-physical reality.
Theological arguments are another way to explore the idea of a higher power through philosophy. These arguments use reason and evidence to discuss the nature of God and religious beliefs. For example, the moral argument suggests that our sense of right and wrong comes from God. If there is no God, some philosophers argue, then there would be no objective moral values.
By approaching the subject of higher power with philosophy opens our minds to new perspectives. It prompts us to ask questions and learn from the great philosophers. This can lead us to a greater understanding of who we are. In the process, it gives us more information to make an informed decision about our beliefs in things like an imaginary friend.
Fath as a Path for Seeking Your Higher Power
The third path for approaching the subject of God is faith. Almost everyone who prefers the path of faith has deeply held religious beliefs. More than likely, they are part of the Abrahamic tree. (2) They assert faith is the only approach to a divine entity.
Faith is to believe things without evidence. Admittedly, this takes considerable effort to maintain. The modern world surrounds us with resources and facts. Training the mind to pick between ideas and facts is stressful. If you define your higher power with faith, you will require a lot of reinforcement. You’ll need to subject yourself to semi-weekly sessions to combat the increasing conflicts. The struggle to reconcile facts results in a condition known as cognitive dissonance or “the religious headache.”
Faith in religion requires unbelief in all the things that contradict your beliefs. There is a growing volume of evidence that conflicts with faith. The underpinning arguments of Western religion have the same flaws which are exposed by the problem of evil.
This group does not accept scientific, rational, and logical proofs. Faith and belief are the tools for connecting with God. So, the lack of proof is a proof of their faith. They claim faith is the only correct path to Divine revelation. This group rests its authority on sacred texts and a charismatic leader’s leadership.
You shouldn’t discount the use of faith as a method for everything. Faith and hope are the basis of a positive outlook. We build every plan of action, expecting it will succeed. Faith and hope help us through life’s adversities. These attributes allow us to overcome obstacles. Faith is also a valuable component of your truth-seeking machinery, not as an excuse to ignore the facts but to regulate attitude.
Approaching the Subject of Higher Power by Experience
Last but not least are those who say that experiencing God is the only sure way to know Him. This third approach to understanding God is all about personal experience. It’s different from using reason, philosophy, or faith because those methods can be flawed. Instead, this method relies on direct experiences of the divine as proof.
Many people who have these experiences describe them in similar ways. They talk about feeling “oneness” or a “transcendent silence.” People who believe in this approach think that these experiences are proof of divine energy. They see the search for a higher power as a quest for a personal, eye-opening experience.
Ancient cultures invested a lot of time and energy in these processes. They often used psychoactive substances to change consciousness into non-ordinary states. We don’t recommend this approach. Their goal here is to connecting with God, the Universe or Higher Divinity, and they sought any means necessary to achieve this goal.
In Christianity, some people, like St. Teresa of Avila, had amazing experiences where they felt very close to God. St. Teresa had visions and felt a deep connection with God, which made her faith even stronger. Sufism is a mystical branch of Islam. It includes practices like chanting and dancing. These activities help followers connect deeply with God. In Hinduism, people believe their soul is one with God. They use meditation and yoga to feel this connection and experience oneness with the divine.
Buddhism teaches we can achieve ultimate peace, known as Nirvana. We reach this state through meditation and understanding the true nature of life. Jewish Kabbalah is all about meditation and contemplation. It helps people explore God’s secrets and feel closer to Him. In many indigenous cultures, shamans use rituals and drumming. They also use special plants to change their states of consciousness. They believe these experiences connect them with spirits or the divine, helping them heal and guide their communities.
By approaching the subject of a higher power through experience, we grasp how emotion is used to persuade our decisions. We can ask big questions about life and learn from the experiences of others. This helps us understand the world and our place in it, leading to a greater understanding of who we are.
Final Thoughts on Exploring Different Spiritual Paths
Of course, the approaches above are pure extracts. Some people use just one of these methods. However, most people use a combination in differing degrees.
Each path offers unique benefits. Reason allows us to use logic and evidence to understand the world and our place in it. Philosophy pushes us to ask big questions and see things in new ways. This helps us discover fresh insights. Faith gives us trust and belief in connecting with God or a higher power. It offers comfort and guidance. Experience allows us to meet the divine directly, making our understanding deeper and more personal.
We can understand God better by approaching the subject with an open mind. This discussion should help you in seeking your own understanding by showing that there are many paths to explore. You might be attracted to logical reasoning, philosophy, faith, or personal experiences. Each of these paths can lead you to a closer connection with the divine and a deeper sense of meaning in life. Embrace the journey and remain open to the insights each approach can offer.
We are all different. Your research may provide different conclusions. A lot depends on the source of the data we use to make important decisions. We also have different skill levels, backgrounds, personalities, and instincts. Our life experiences are like no other. So, your beliefs about God will probably change. A healthy mindset can change beliefs based on additional evidence.
References
This article is an updated excerpt from—How to Find the Truth (2001) by JJB
(1) Animism.
(2) Abrahamic Religions.
(3) World Religions by Population.
(4) World’s Richest Religions.
(5) Existentialism.