So I've been writing my book and adding stuff. Lately I have added a few things about God. And this is when I worry that I am going to alienate people who are turned off by the word "God" and don't understand what I mean by it.
I divide the world into three basic groups of people: there are religious people, spiritual people, and atheists. Now some people, like agnostics, might be confused about what group they fall into. I don't really know it depends on the person. Some people might not fall into one of these categories neatly.
Religious people are people who have a religion and believe that their religion is correct and other religions are not. These are the kind of people who believe that you have to accept Jesus as your savior in order to be saved, and otherwise you are going to hell. But someone doesn't have to be Christian to fall into this category, they can be Muslim or Jewish or whatever, and strictly believe their religion and that all other religions are wrong.
Spiritual people have a more all-encompassing view of spirituality. This is the category that I fall under. I believe that a lot of religions contain a piece of the truth. Spiritual people believe there is more to existence than the physical, that there is a spiritual realm. People can be a part of this category even if they identify as being part of a particular religion, if they believe that their religion isn't the only correct one. These people usually believe in God, but people who identify as atheists could be a part of this group if they don't believe in God but they believe in other spiritual things.
When I talk about atheists I am only talking about a certain type of atheists. These people believe strictly in the physical world and that no spiritual realm exists. They don't believe in a soul, and they usually only believe in things that are based on science.
So the view I am trying to promote with this book is the spiritual view. So, it doesn't really matter if I alienate atheists that fit my definition. The thing is, I talk about God in my book. I kind of worry about this, because a lot of people who are spiritual seem freaked out by the word God. I don't mean a god who expects you to worship him and will damn you to hell for all eternity.
When I talk about God, I am not sure if I mean an incredibly powerful, massive individual spirit, like the father in the Trinity in Christianity. Or if I mean just a powerful benevolent spiritual force, like something akin to the Holy Ghost in the Trinity. It could be either one. I'm not sure which one it is.
I just worry that people will think that when I talk about God I am being religious. When I'm not really being religious, I am being spiritual. The way I see it, religions are spirituality. But spirituality is not a religion. Religions are a part of spirituality, and spirituality is something bigger and more all-encompassing.
I was just thinking about this because I mentioned something about God to my sister, or maybe just God came up for some reason, and my sister acted like people who believe in God are complete weirdos. The thing is, my sister is very spiritual, and I think she actually does believe in something that I would call God. But she doesn't call it that, because to her people who believe in God are goody two-shoe weirdos who are very sheltered and hate sex.
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