How to See God in Everything

The following guest sermon was submitted by ULC Minister Dr. D.D. Dolezal. All ULC Ministers are invited to contribute their own sermons for consideration/publication. To submit a sermon, please email it to sermons@ulc.org.

If someone told you that they have seen GOD you would probably wonder what mental state they were in when that experience occurred. You might ask if any drugs were ingested that helped them achieve that experience. But if someone told you that they could see GOD in everything, you would likely take two steps backwards for personal safety reasons and wonder privately to yourself which mental health institute they had recently escaped from. 

Despite this potentially natural reaction to the subject, I will attempt to unpack a logical argument that will hopefully allow you to see GOD in everything. This will require a step-by-step approach and a considerable amount of patience on your part. It is my belief that this “How to” lesson will be at a minimum, an entertaining new perspective on the concept. 

The vast majority, if not all human beings believe in GOD, even those that profess there is no GOD.  Those who say they do not believe in GOD will likely confess at some point that even if their idea of “GOD” doesn’t exist, there is a shared and imagined idea of GOD that their religious neighbors do believe exists. These atheists will often begrudgingly accept that GOD in that respect can be seen as a sort of shared imagination or hallucination by different religious groups; in a similar way that children believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. GOD in this respect, is seen as an imagined amalgam of sorts whereby the different religions ascribe certain characteristics that align with their current idea of physical, moral and spiritual perfection, and then the majority of those within each religious group agree that the words of this amalgam, always given to an intermediary, are perfect, without flaw, the only truth and therefore must be dutifully obeyed.    

In an effort to avoid falling into the quagmire of either of the prior mentioned groups we will instead look at the concept of GOD from a slightly different angle. I will reframe the intellectual point of view for clarity and describe the word “GOD” as a term that includes all that is primordial, infinite, and without limiting attributes. Used in this sense the term “GOD” will allow for the inclusion of everything that is known and unknown, everything that is manifest and unmanifest forever, including all energies and even awareness itself. There are some that would desire under these conditions to substitute this use of the word “GOD” with the word “NATURE.” This is not possible, because the word “GOD” for the purpose of this discussion is intended to express that which is infinite and without limit, while “NATURE” also known as “the objective universe” represents only a fractional aspect of that greater reality.  

GOD in this respect can be seen as imminent, a part of, permeating, and beyond all objects, space and time. GOD is then the subject of all reality and thus is beyond speech and concepts. The word “GOD” in this context cannot be adequately described, for any description would have to reduce GOD to something else. This “GOD” is everything known and unknown. This “GOD” is below, above, behind, before, to the right, and the left of you. This GOD is all of this and even your own physical form. 

To better illustrate this, imagine looking at a plastic bottle. At first glance, it only appears to be an ordinary bottle. But if you look more carefully, you will notice that the bottle is composed of plastic. From that perspective, you can see the ordinary bottle, but you will also see that the bottle is composed entirely of plastic. If you look even more carefully than that, you will suddenly realize that the bottle is in reality, only plastic. Plastic is the basic substance of the entire bottle. If the bottle were melted down, there would only be a lump of plastic. 

So, the object that you saw at first as an ordinary bottle, on closer observation is now understood to be only plastic, and what you originally thought was a bottle, is merely the name and form that the plastic assumed. It is only because of the plastic that the name and form called bottle even exists. From that perspective, you will then be able to see that the plastic is the reality, the basic substance. The plastic could have taken the form of a cup, a pitcher, a phone case, an artificial plant, clothing, a car bumper, a toy, or hundreds of thousands of different forms. Regardless of the form the plastic took, its basic substance would still be plastic. 

It is the same with GOD. It has been said that in the beginning everything in existence, the infinite objective universe, issued forth from GOD. Therefore, every “Thing” is from GOD, of GOD, and in GOD. So, like the plastic, “GOD” can now be seen as the basic substance of the infinite universe, the one true reality, and everything in the perceived physical universe is simply the infinite number of names and forms that “GOD” assumes. Like gold that can be melted into a ring, re-melted into a necklace, and re-melted again into a bracelet while remaining gold; GOD is the basic substance of every name and form in the perceived physical universe. 

Imagine that you are looking at a table. The table at first glance appears very much like a table. But if you are able to look at the table more closely, you will see that it is not only a table; it is also molecules. And if you are able to look more closely than that, you will see that it is not only molecules; it is also atoms. Each atom its own solar system, composed almost entirely of space. If you are able to look even more closely, you will see subatomic particles. If you look even more closely than that you will see that all matter can be reduced to tiny strands of stuff, finer than ether, that some modern physicists call super strings existing within the quantum field, that are acted upon by something that is as of yet unknown to science. That unknown something, that basic substance is also GOD.

Although the different religions of the world appear to have varying narratives designed to fit their listeners cultural norms and intellectual abilities at the time of their production, they do have some interesting similarities. One such similarity is found in the story of the creation of the universe. 

According to ancient Christians, the energy that put the subatomic superstrings, and thus the infinite perceived material universe into the motion that resulted in creation, is the vibratory energy they call the word of GOD. The Christian disciple John wrote in his book, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with GOD and the word was GOD.”  Ancient Hindus support this theory by claiming “AUM” is the vibration which brings all things into manifestation. It is the representation of the sacred sound; a sonic representation which is the essence of the supreme absolute, consciousness and the cosmic world.

Since nothing can come from nothing, the perceived physical universe must have come from something. This something is the infinite omnipresent reality named GOD that existed before creation, is primary to, and simultaneously exists as all energies and matter within the quantum field that manifests as the perceived infinite universe. This quantum field exists as an absolutely unmoving ether of sorts until it reacts to vibration and manifests into the infinite number of names and forms in the perceived physical world all around you; including the table. 

A renowned theoretical physicist from the United States of America named John Hagelin, in his February 2015 lecture in New Deli, India on, “The Science of Technology and the Unified Field” revealed that the origin story found in the ancient book in India called the Rig Veda (Science Veda) written in 1500 BCE had scientific merit. He showed in his lecture, “One string in the quantum field is much like a guitar string and exists far removed from the perceived material world, almost as a transcendental thing, that has 8 independent ranges of motion or resonant frequencies when acted upon. In the process of creating creation, the string undergoes a metamorphosis, a transformation; several of them. This superstring that lives in ten dimensions goes on to become a bosonic string that lives in twenty-six dimensions. Because the bosonic string exists in twenty-six dimensions it has 24 vibrational states or frequencies. That is not the end. That bosonic string transforms itself again into what is called a pre-fermionic string that has 64 vibrational degrees of freedom and finally through a somewhat more complicated mechanism, in the last stage of transformation, the fermionic stage gives rise to a 192-fold vibrational structure through space time super-compactification in preparation to create the material universe. 192 tones or sounds is the unified field reverberating within itself. 

If you compare that structure to the Rig Veda, which is described as the blue print of the universe by Dr. Nader, the template on which the universe was structured, you see a very similar structure. You see that the Rig Veda elaborates on itself.  The first eight syllables in the first sentence of the Rig Veda match the formula for one super string. The next sentence has 24 syllables, the next sentence has 64 syllables, the next sentence has 192 syllables as a sequential unfolding of unity through a precise sequence. The universe itself is a commentary on the Veda. 

The Veda unfolds from 8, to 24, to 64, to 192 as different packages of wholeness. Each representing the totality of knowledge.” 

Similar evidence is found in the several thousand years old Hebrew “Torah” otherwise known as the “Old Testament.” In its opening sentence it states, “In the beginning GOD created the heavens and the earth.”  And how was the universe created according to this ancient text? The third sentence states, “And GOD said….”  These ancient texts from across the world seem to agree that this GOD is the one true reality, imminent, a part of, permeating, and beyond all objects, space and time. GOD is primary to everything, and GOD is the basic substance of everything. 

So, while it may agitate some to think that GOD is thought of and worshipped in many different forms such as the form of a man or object, those that can see GOD from the perspective I’ve presented understand everything is in GOD, of GOD and from GOD; thus, they can see GOD all around them in every name and form. They can see GOD in everything. And if GOD is all and is in all, what does it matter if one person looks up into space, another looks at the earth, another looks at a statue, or another looks within? No matter where they look, they are all looking at the same thing. This “GOD” can be seen from a pantheistic, polytheistic, monotheistic and even an atheistic point of view at the same time without conflict or contradiction.