Where does God live?
Now that I'm 82 years old, I figure there's not a lot of time left for me in this life.
All my life I've been hearing about God and how he often talks to people directly, well special people.
I've been hoping that one day I might hear from God, a few words, a pithy sentence or two, possibly a conversation?
But despite all my efforts no words, no conversation, not even a postcard or an email.
Perhaps I'm expecting too much of God?
But if God is as all knowing and as all powerful as they all say, surely it would not be too difficult for him to send me an email?
In Tigray they talk to God directly.
They go to a great deal of trouble to make these conversations with God happen, they even carve churches out of rock faces in cliffs and sometimes very high up on a mountain.
I think their desire to communicate with God has pushed them to seek extremely risky pathways. Inside some of the rockfaces, cliffs or mountains, these "churches" have survived for centuries, and artworks created millennia ago still shine on the walls and ceilings.
Debre Damo Monastery
https://www.beardandcurly.com/homepage/destinations/africa/ethiopia/tigray-rock-hewn-churches/
Well I don't much fancy climbing a mountain just for the pleasure of speaking with God. I don't think God should expect us to risk our lives to have a chat.
I've noticed that in other parts of the world such as in Greece, other monks have sought extremely high places where they may speak directly with God. Obviously they too believe that God lives "high up there" in the sky.
Here's a shot of a famous monastery at Mount Athos in Greece:
Once again you can see they have gone to a great deal of trouble getting close to God. Imagine lifting all those rocks and all that lumber and all those supplies to put it right up there on the top of that cliff face, and it's only for men, no women allowed!
Imagine that... God is said to have created men and women, and you all know that without women there would be no men, but women are not permitted to be in these high places to talk to God!!!
Fanjingshan in China:
Well blow me down! I'm gobsmacked.
I recall from the days of my religious indoctrination when I was too young to argue with the adults who were indoctrinating me into Christianity, they had some stories in their religious history books about heretics who claimed to be able to talk to God directly while they were toiling in the fields and pastures and that they therefore had no need to go to church and put money on the plate.
These heretics did not fare too well. The Pope sent in some faithful Crusader Knights who had recently come back from slaughtering people in the Middle East, to teach these heretics a lesson. So many military actions occurred in which innocent peasants who could talk to God without going to church were slaughtered by the Pope's knights.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albigensian_Crusade
From Wiki:
"Pope Innocent III declared a crusade against the Cathars. He offered the lands of the Cathar heretics to any French nobleman willing to take up arms."
Anyhow, there are other churches from around the world where people made their place of worship underground, such as the catacombs in Rome, Paris and many other places. They were not only underground churches but also served as hideous cemetery vaults for storage of skeletons and skulls.
Fortunately I escaped the efforts of my tribe to indoctrinate me into the monstrous religion called Christianity, but I soon discovered that people of other religious faiths also desired to reach high places to speak to God: Moses supposedly went up to the mountain to receive the tablets from God, and Muhammad went to Mount Hira didn't he?
Other similar crazy religious practices include the tombs of the Pharaohs whether they be pyramids or chambers carved into the sides of mountains or cliff faces.
And long before the Egyptians there were those ancient people who lived in European caves which already existed, which did not need to be carved out of the rock because they had already been carved by millions of years of earth processes.
Those ancient folk left us so many enigmatic paintings and carvings, but their caves were not usually filled with skeletons.
So I think there is a clear anomaly here...
up in the sky or down under the ground,
where does God live?
I don't think he lives in Gaza.
If God lived in Gaza he would find himself under attack from his very special "chosen people".
I have never worked out why God chose the Israelites as his favorite people against all comers, but I suspect it is because it was those very same people who wrote "The Book"! And if you are writing an account of why you are better than all the other people who live surrounding you, you might invent a little white lie such as "We are God's chosen People!"
But even among God's chosen people who have been demolishing Gaza for almost two years now, under the pretext of chasing out Hamas, which we all know is nothing short of "retribution' or "vengeance", a vengeance which knows no bounds... a crime against humanity which in numbers of the dead and maimed and wounded far exceeds the number of the Israelis who were attacked on October 7th 2023...
If I could have a chat with God. I would like to ask him this:
Why do you have favorites?
If you made us all, all human creatures as well as all the creatures great and small, why do you favor one group of humans over another?
When Palestinians go to Mosque (if they still have a Mosque to go to) and when they pray to you under the Arabic name of Allah, why do you not listen to them but favour the Israelites instead?
I'm still hoping to receive an answer before I run out of time.
pt
15.08.2025
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