Most atheists (mostly post-theists) I've met tense up when you say the word "God". I can't say I blame them. It's hard when a word so specifically means your angry and disappointed parents. In fact, one can just swap out "God" for "my parents who hurt me" and find that the meaning of what they're saying is actually completed by the swapping out. I don't hold this against anyone, for the record (although I will argue fiercely that this is the majority of atheists): part of developing as a theist is to recognize that God should not mean "my parents", a process that most not only never actually get around to, but even if they do it's easily the most horrifyingly difficult things one can do. God. Is. Not. Your parents who hurt you. And nobody in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches should mean it either. So what do these churches mean by God?
As always, by means of the crass and crude the profound is revealed:
Yes, pretty much always. Get over it, academics and right-wingers.
"Aha, you're saying God is pantheist!" some will cry out. No, I'm not. We have one more bit to add to the definition, and it comes from Les Miserables, from the revolutionary:
"The infinite exists. It is there. If the infinite had no me, the me would be its limit; it would not be the infinite; in other words, it would not be. But it is. Then it has a me. This me of the infinite is God."
The nearest equivalent to what the historical churches mean by God is a fusion of the above two: an infinite balance that has sapience, total personhood in its own right. If infinity, a mathematically necessary concept, did not have personhood it would not be infinite. If infinity did not have a communion of persons within it it would not be infinite. No, we're not talking about your parents, who were assholes to you. No Catholic or Orthodx text (or someone with a healthy view of God) ever meant your asshole parents. Ever. Protestants might, sure, I'll grant that, but literally nothing else in Christendom is that stupid. No, what we mean is that the sense that everything is connected not only is but what you're sensing is a verb, an action from a being beyond what we could directly observe, for how could the finite truly understand the infinite?
In fact, this has always been what's meant by God: way back in the Old Testament God's response to "What's your name?" was "I AM WHO AM". "I am the thing that exists, existence itself". Not something that benefits from existence, like your or I, not something that claims to be the most existent thing, no, existence. Existence itself is sapient.
Little different from your asshole parents, right?
But so what? Who cares? Cool, you supposedly worship existence itself and attribute personhood to it. That's nice. My parents were assholes and they used your words to hurt me and I'm not going to get into that trap again. Totally legit response, for the record, not wanting to repeat abuse.
See, here's where it gets weird.
Now, let's walk through the logic of denying this concept, that infinity (once again, a mathematically necessary concept for you to have) is not person. Not only do you contradict that infinity is infinite - which is flat out stupid - but now you have to find something to replace that concept. Even five seconds of looking inward should convince anyone that they cannot actually define their own existence; your existence is bigger than your mind's ability to define it. This means you need help to define your own existence, just by definition of you having a mind and existing. Now, the concept that Existence has a voice and can talk to you plugs this problem immediately: you learn to talk to Existence and listen to Him. That's a heartbreakingly difficult thing to do, but it's that or sit empty and alone for the rest of eternity. Make your choices kiddos! But, what if Existence Itself is not alive? What if you accept such an absurdity? You have to look to others in the ever-shifting and frankly incredibly cruel world around you to help you define yourself.
That, right there, is a trap. And we all know it. But do you know why it is a trap, beyond the fact that everyone around you changes and nothing is constant? Because the idea that you can stay fully rational in such a search is dumb. Humans hunger for meaning, which is a communal exercise. And eventually all people will cave to this need, and decide that something that doesn't appear to move all that much will suffice for your canon, your standard. The brain gets tired, it cannot just stand on its own, and anyone with even a modicum of rationality knows this. Eventually you have to find something that resembles infinity to rest in, if Infinity Himself is rejected.
Y'know what looks stable? The government. Corporations. They're bigger than you, on a level that's hard to understate. Clans can look eternal. they're not, but the likelihood of your government and the corportations that keep it going dying out before you looks less likely, and you will have to stop somewhere eventually.
Do you see where this is going? It's not a good place, is it?
This is what totalitarianism looks like. Without God there must be something to attach to that at least appears infinite. And there is only one way to go that doesn't end in a mental breakdown: the state, as an end, as master, as God. By rejecting Infinity you will always circle back to the state, corporations, clan, etc. You cannot be out in the dark alone forever. Societal atheism will always lead to the gulags. Always.
Those are your choices: Existence Himself is God, the state is God, or you just fall apart in the end.
Meaning will never not be communal. Find who you want to define it with.
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