Finding God

They say the devil's in the details. I don't think so. I'm pretty sure that's where I found god (deliberate little g).

At a monthly meeting of my Reiki friends, one of them asked if she could pick my brain about a class she was preparing. We sat down to talk and she told me how she was trying to figure out how to teach Reiki to people without the Christian framework in which she practiced it. (NB - Reiki has no inherent religious beliefs associated with it and I prefer it that way, so her decision seemed both wise and in the keeping of the original spirit of the teachings). She then went on to explain that she was asking me because I was a scientist and an atheist. Really? Wouldn't I know if I were an atheist? I was shocked. I have known this woman for 5 years or longer. Surely she has heard me talk of the Creator, or Spirit, or perhaps even the Goddess? What are those if not faces of god? To her way of thinking perhaps those do not constitute "god" because they are not HER god.

I will admit that many of my science colleagues are devoutly non-religious - a few even atheist. But there are also devout Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and Jews among them. Science is one thing that crosses barriers of ethnicity, religious beliefs and cultural identity. I have been a scientist by occupation for 26 years and by brain patterning since birth. I can't imagine doing anything else.

In those 26 years of study, I have come to realize that our world is so richly textured and delicately patterned that it could not be simply random acts of evolutionary pressure that resulted in what we experience. Most of the last 24 years I have spent studying a single gene and the hundreds/thousands of proteins that are needed to make sure that is gets expressed in the right tissue, in the right time frame and at the right levels. I still know almost nothing about how it really all works. That is just one gene. What of the other 29.999 genes that are regulated differently and yet must still flow together like a symphony to create life as we know it. Yeah - it's a lot to consider the complexity. Then to imagine it evolving accidentally? I'm not sure I can believe that. And all of science which draws me like a lodestone whether it be particle or astrophysics, nerochemistry, developmental biology all of it seems too perfectly constructed, too unified and way too incomprehensible to have come into being without a little help somewhere.

So like I said - I found god in the most unexpected place. I found god elegantly occupying the strands of DNA. I have never questioned or doubted his/her existence. Not for a single moment. Do I have the hubris to give a face to that god and then insist that everyone see him/her the same way - NO! I am pretty sure my description and understanding of god falls way short of his/her essence and is merely a construct to enable my feeble human brain access to something beyond my ken. Do I think that my path is the only one to god - certainly not! In fact, I have many friends who have arrived very close to where I am by very different paths. I think that is so cool.