WHAT IS GOD THAT I MAY BELIEVE IN GOD ?

             WHAT IS GOD THAT I MAY BELIEVE IN GOD ?

    The Constitution of the United States prohibits any Religious Test for a Candidate for President of the United States. However, as a person, I have a First Amendment to free exercise of Religion and to Free Speech.
    Often times my beliefs and faith are challenged by Church groups, or a non-religion group tests for anti-religious beliefs. In addressing my beliefs in God, I present the problem of God to all interested listeners. I welcome any input or valid information on the subject of God.
    I was asked the question: "God is good, right ?"  I will now respond:  -   When dealing with words like "God" and "right" and "good"  there must be an understanding of the definitions in the Mind of the Communicator using the words.
    When dealing with the word "good" we must also define what is "bad". The opposite defines what it is opposed to. In this case, the opposite controls what is "good"  because anything "bad" cannot be "good."  The same applies to the word "right." We must know what is "wrong" as it defines the opposite of what is "right." After Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they then knew what was "good." Genesis 3:22, Then the Lord God said: "Behold, the man has become like one of us, to know good and evil." (God spoke in the plural).
    So now we come to the problem of God. So if I am to say I believe in God, what is it that I believe in ?   May I ask: "What is God that I may believe in God ?"
    According to Genesis 1:26 God must be a collective unity of many - - - "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; " In Genesis 11:3 the People also spoke as a collective unity - - "Come let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly."  Genesis 11:4 - - And they said, "Come let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens: let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the earth."  Then in Genesis 11:7 God said: "Come let U go down and there confuse the language, that they may not understand one another's speech." 
    But in Exodus 6:7 God is in the singular stating: "I will be your God." Now we have another problem. Is God one or many ?
    Then in Exodus 32:1 - - "the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, "Come make us gods that shall go before us."
    Isaiah 14:12-14 - - "O Lucifer, son of the morning! ... For you have said in your heart ... "I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation  ... I will be like the Most High." And with that, God cast Lucifer out with a third of the Angeles. So there appears to be a Power struggle between God and Lucifer.
    And so if God truly did make Man "in Our image" and we are made in the image of God, then we might look at this as an Allegory of the Elements in Mental Conflict in the Human Mind. The three types of Motive or Impulse in the Mind being: (1) Reason - the faculty that calculates and decides; (2) Desire - appetite - the sense of bare physical and instinctive craving; and (3) Heart - spirit - pugnacity - enterprise - ambition and courage, which are often found in conflict with unthinking impulse.
    So when your reasoning decides you should loose weight, but your desire craves an extra slice of pie, then your courage or ambition  should assist your reasoning to resist temptation. But when people get involved in Religion for assistance with the internal conflicts in the Mind, then the Religious Leaders assume the job of Reasoning for the Group. The Group, through social facilitation or peer pressure, imposes resistance to temptations of desire. (Heart - Courage).
    So then being made in the image and likeness of God, the three Elements in Mental Conflict compare to the Holy Trinity as: (1) God the Father to Reason; (2) God the Son - Jesus to Desire; and (3) God the Holy Spirit to  Heart or Spirit.
    Jesus, being God in the flesh, overcame the Desires and Temptations of physical and instinctive craving. In the darkest hour, Jesus prayed to the Father to give him strength and courage. "Nevertheless not my will, but Thine be done."
    In Isaiah 14:12-14, addressing Lucifer, "For you have said in your heart ... I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit on the mount of the congregation ... I will be like the Most High." - - This is where your Heart-Courage-Ambition has sought to overtake Reasoning.
    Reasoning sits at the top of the hierarchy of Mental Elements and has Power over the Heart. The purpose of Fasting is to keep Desire under control of Rgroupeasoning. Fewer mistakes would be made if we paused - - to allow Reasoning to think and decide, rather than being pulled into something  by Desire, or charging forward on Courage and Ambition. Things of the flesh or physical cravings are not bad things, but they must be controlled by reason or endured by courage. All living things have physical or instinctive impulses or cravings, which are necessary for survival.
    Now I have shown how the Mind is in the image and likeness of God. But our Mind is not God. We must look for God outside of our Mind. We must look to the outer world, lest we entertain a false belief that our Mind is God.
    The Church as an Association, or Social Organization, is a Collective Unity, that operates as a Unity. In Genesis 11:3-4  the People declared in a single voice: "Come let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the earth."  In this Collective Unity, the People sounded like Lucifer in Isaiah 14:12-14.
    The Church, having an internal hierarchy of rank and order, establishes rules and determines what is good and what is bad. The Idol of the Tribe has deep roots and tendencies in the Human Spirit. The Collective Unity is a Spirit separate from the spirit of the individual. The individual must give or pledge his or her allegiance to the Collective Unity, or be excommunicated or cast out. The Collective Unity is the Idol of the Tribe, and a very powerful binding and controlling force.
    The Collective Unity sings praises and worships with music and chanting and ranting, and a feeling of euphoria that comes is called "the Spirit of God." And the Religion becomes a Religion of feeling good, and anyone who takes away from the good feeling is either changed or cast out. They say, we must stay together, and do all things to increase and enhance this good feeling. We must live this way to feel good. We must avoid negative people because they bring us down.
    The Collective Unity or the Idol of the Tribe is all about feeling good for the People, and it is all about control by the Ruling Group.
    So what is God, that I may believe in God ? - - For me, it is more important to determine what is not God. There is a way that seems right, but the way therein leads to destruction. When I have found all things that are not God, then I am much closer to understanding what God is.
    When I was a small child, I believed in Santa Clause. I was told the stories of the North Pole, and the Reindeer, and Santa's helpers, and how on Christmas Eve, Santa Clause would sneak in and leave Gifts and fill the stockings with candy. Everything reinforced this belief, and I always found the Gifts and candy that Santa Clause left when I woke-up on Christmas morning. But gradually, my awareness increased and my reasoning developed, and without anyone telling me, I figured out that there is no Santa Clause. My Mother was Santa Clause.
    In the youth of the Human Race, we were aware of very little of the earth or universe, and our reasoning powers were undeveloped with little collective exercise or experience. However, we formed beliefs, and when we developed a written language, we wrote down our stories and beliefs.
    The Human Race is now much older, and more aware and with more collective experience, and our reasoning has developed to a greater extent. - - Are we to forever hold on to the belief in Santa Clause ?
    We should begin to clearly determine what is not God, so that we may continue our search for what is God. - - If you ask me if I believe in God, I would have to say yes. However, I am not quite sure about all the things that are not God, and my list of things that are not God is still unfinished and incomplete.
    I am however, happy to know that I was made in the image and likeness of God. This is a clue which I must get to know better.