It Doesn’t Matter What You Call It
The creative force has been called many things. Some call it God. God is the personification (or a symbol) of this omnipotent and omnipresent power. I prefer to avoid this term because it has negative associations for too many people.
Writers refer to it in a variety of ways:
- Higher Power
- The Source
- Spirit
- The Life Force
- Infinite/Universal Intelligence
- The Presence
- The Oneness
- Universal Love.
I refer to it mainly as CI – Creative Intelligence – because this conveys precisely what it is, but will use other terms too.
Do you have a preference? Are you put off by any particular term? Why do you think that is?
Whilst everything around me is ever-changing, ever-dying, there is underlying all that changes a living power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves and re-creates. That informing power or spirit is God.
In the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists; in the midst of darkness light persists. Hence I gather that God is life, truth, and light.
God is love. God is the supreme good. I know that I can do nothing. God can do everything.
-Mahatma Gandhi
“Life”
J. Krishnamurti, a distinguished twentieth-century teacher educated in both Eastern and Western traditions, urged us not to be put off the idea of CI by worrying about what we call it.
He wrote:
There is only one God as manifested in you, but I am not going to use the word ‘God’. I prefer to call this Life.
If you don’t like the word ‘God’ (or any other particular term), follow Krishnamurti’s advice and substitute the word ‘Life’ or any other that feels right to you.
Read the quote from Mahatma Gandhi above again, substituting Life for God. How do these words strike you now?
The nature of Creative Intelligence
The religious powers-that-be describe the qualities and characteristics of their particular deities in various ways. For example, the Old Testament God was equally capable of loving and acting out of vengeance, but beware if you were not one of ‘His’ chosen. The supreme being of Islam, Allah, and the God of Christianity are loving, fair and merciful, but mete out stern justice to non believers in the after life. These beliefs are a matter of faith, relying on scripture written long ago.
However, there is another way of learning about Creative Intelligence. Its qualities can be inferred from science, experience and common sense. The world around us provides plenty of evidence that intelligence is at work. It has beauty, order, meaning and intent. What kind of power could produce these effects? Only a positive, bountiful and constructive life force. What would life on Earth be like if this were not so? Could we exist? How long would we survive? A destructive, negative life force would surely destroy its own creation.
The only sensible conclusion is that CI must be good, and since it flows through everything, then everything too must in essence be inherently good.
Creative Intelligence has a direction in mind for the universe, and since we can’t prevent it from pursuing its purpose, doesn’t it make more sense to try and understand it and harmonize with it?
God says to you, I have a dream. Please help me to realise it. It is a dream of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, whose war and hostility, greed and harsh competitiveness, alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts.
-Bishop Desmond Tutu
Creative Intelligence is Positive
CI is positive energy, a moving, active force that enables the universe to unfold in an orderly way. Imagine what it would be like if this were not so. Could life on this planet, where everything is in perfect balance, have been created by a malevolent power?
Only human ignorance and shortsightedness disturb the balance of nature. Imagine if we were to disappear like the dinosaurs millions of years ago; CI would soon return the Earth to its natural state of harmony. If humans were to raise their consciousness, rise above their destructive behaviors and help CI realize its dream of a perfect world, it would surely happen more quickly.
