Is there a God...

Is there a God? Throughout my study I have basically learned that the Christian religion and perspective of God is either incomplete or too flawed to be the ultimate religion; neither could any other religion suffice. But I do believe that there is a phenomena that exists of which the Judaic conception of God -- or dtao; nibbana -- is directed towards.

Let me explain in this way. When an artist paints a portrait of a small townhouse, he paints with a limited vision of the building. If the house is in his North, he can only paint its South; and if the man does not percieve colour, then the painting may not have the correct colour. This is actually a common belief in many spiritual teachings (See: The Elephant and the Monks ). So let's assume that all existing religion is a flawed perspective of God.

I believe that you need to consider religion in itself to be an artform (definition: a tool used, often creatively, to express something integral or superfluous to the human existence). It however differs from many other artforms because it is a behemoth that encompasses everything else within it: human heirarchy (check), philosophy (check), painting, storytelling, pastoral care (check, check, check), etcetera. To look at religion everywhere in the world, you would be able to find a common set of structure or rules which apply to all of them; and furthermore, no society in the world (as far as I am aware) has existed completely independent of religion.

So is there a overarching form of deity in which all humans are attuned to? Is it a deeply human experience to believe in a religion; and is to respect and admire religion also to respect and admire something deeply human (and beautiful)? I don't remember why I wrote this post, because I've taken some pretty heavy sedatives to assist in sleep. But I just wanted to share some of the knowledge which I have accumulated over the years.

Merry Christmas, and a happy new year

The first addendum I'd make is you seem to rule out historical perspective, as if all religions happened organically. Perhaps the house was purposefully painted with less colors. It's quite a jump then to say all religions are a necessarily a flawed perspective, even more so because your text seems to imply there is such a thing as an universal religion. I'm of the opinion there is not. While there are some universal values (see perennial philosophy), they aren't expressed the same way throughout different cultures, a major reason being that it relies on the language of each culture, which both stems from the intelligence from that particular people and can restrain it further. For example, there are languages in Africa with no concept of future. That is bad enough in itself, but as you might imagine it compounds in a negative loop. Now snowball those effects in religion. I have more to say about your OP, but first let's see if this thread takes off

This 'common' deity is Nature herself, you are a part of her, you act according to her (or should).

Happy Yuletide

Religion's not science, and it doesn't really pay to treat it as such except in actual money, i.e. if youre able to strike a balance between what's adequate, and what sells (in your writing). Like art, science, politics, mathematics, philosophy, etc. religion is a field of inquiry and practice. All these fields begin with certain axioms.
If the mind directs itself as (you) say toward 'some phenomenon,' then that something is necessarily psychological because of the word chosen (phenomenon) to describe it. Is this what (you) wanted to convey?

Christianity explicitly says there's no truth anywhere else and that's one of it's major tenets (thou shalt have no gods before me). Incorporating it into hermeticism is unviable.

That's one of my least favorite parts of the religion, Christian Universalism sounds neat but it doesn't seem very popular.

That's the best part of abrahamic religions my boy, read Girard, read Carlyle.

I'm familiar with both, I find the militant missionary mindset of Christianity and the way they eradicate local religions and culture disgusting. I'm glad they were ousted out of Japan before it was too late.

>as if all religions happened organically
Everything that humans have done is completely natural to who we are. As written in the book Straw Dogs, urban infrastructure is as organic as the complexities of a beehive (paraphrase)

>such thing as a universal religion
I don't in any way believe that a perfect representation of God could exist through the medium of human religion. However, I do believe that there is an core experience that religion is artfully (and sometimes wrongly) expressing.

>Something about Africa
Don't really know what you were saying here, but I do see that different foundational concepts can limit the extent to which a society can understand the wider world. Take the Australian aboriginals who had no form of written texts, and communicated mostly through dance and cave paintings. This greatly affected how they expressed "God"

Nature is important, but I'm directing the attention to something more abstract about the human experience -- such as how psychotics explain (verbally) their thoughts (mental) through spiritual themes like demons (religious expression)

Sorry, but I couldn't comprehend what you were saying. As said in the OP, I am heavily sedated.

but I think you're right in saying that religion is a field of inquiry. I'm just trying to explain that it is a field of inquiry into being human, (and ultimately, an abstract god-type)

I should have clarified that with 'Nature' I meant more than 'the fauna and flora on our planet'. I was talking about the whole, the universe, the driving force behind everything. I see religion more as a spiritual means to connect the organic with this omnipotent Nature, a spiritual bridge, if you wish. I like polytheistic religions more because of the stories. Of course, there are no bearded gods in the sky with spears, hammers and enormous wolves or lions. These 'pagan' (not strictly European, 'pagan religions' exist(ed) all over the world) gods should be seen as archetypes. Each god impersonated certain forces, all of which combined make up this one Nature. That been said, Christianity by example is in a way polytheistic too (angles and saints who all combined are part of this one God.)
Anyway if there is one thing that all religions share in my opinion, it's this spiritual bridge to that which is higher than us mere humans