William Atkinson - The Complete Works of William Walker Atkinson

I feel safe in saying that the intellect, unaided, is incapable of grasping the idea of a Causeless Cause, but our higher consciousness is aware of the existence of that which the intellect cannot grasp. Because the intellect cannot conceive of a Cause without a preceding cause, it does not follow that no such thing exists. The blind man cannot image or understand color, but color exists. The fish at the bottom of the sea cannot understand or image things on land, but those things exist. Nor could a man form a mental concept of Sugar, if he had never seen it or tasted anything sweet. It is all a matter of experience or consciousness, and without these things nothing can be understood. The intellect, recognizing all its limitations, is capable of deciding matters within its own domain. When the time comes for us to know things outside of the domain of the intellect, we find that we have higher states of consciousness than we have heretofore deemed possible, and we are able to make use of them.

On the intellectual plane of consciousness, everything of which we have any knowledge has a preceding cause—every object a maker. And consequently, the intellect, unaided, is unable to form a mental concept of a thing without a cause—a thing without a maker. This because it has had no experience of such a thing, and has no consciousness of the existence of such a thing. Therefore, Man can never form an intellectual concept of God. He may believe in God, because he feels conscious of his existence, but he cannot through intellect explain or understand the mystery. He will admit that God made Man, but he cannot answer the child’s question: “But who made God?” And yet he is unable to form a mental concept of a thing without a cause—without a maker. For his assurance of God’s existence he must go to a higher source of consciousness. Many men believe in God because they have been told that he existed—others feel a dim perception of his existence—a few have attained to a consciousness of his existence; they know it.

As Man grows in Spiritual Consciousness he grows to recognize more and more clearly the reality of God. From blind belief to a glimmering of consciousness, then to a clearer conception, then to a dawning realization, then to a knowing of his being; then to a faint understanding of his Law, and on and on and on. God is not known through the intellect, but through the Higher Consciousness. And after He is known in this way, the intellect begins to reconcile the objects on its plane to the new conception. Until Man knows everything, he will have need of intellect to use as a tool, in connection with, and in harmony with, his higher source of knowledge. To a man who feels that God exists, no amount of argument to the contrary is of avail; and to the man who does not so feel , no amount of argument will create the feeling. It is something he must get from within, not from without. I am, of course, not speaking of any special conception of God. Some men who call it “Nature” have a higher conception of God than have others who think of God as a being with all the limitations of a man. Names matter nothing; it is the conception that shows what degree of God-consciousness a man has.

Mankind has had all sorts of ideas about God, ranging from that of the stick, stone or tree, to the graven image, sun, anthropomorphic being, up to higher concepts. But all men who ever worshiped a God, be it a stone, an idol, the sun, Joss, Baal, Brahma, Buddha, Isis, Jupiter, or Jehovah, worshiped in reality that Causeless Cause glimpses of which came to them distorted by the imperfections of mental or spiritual vision of the worshiper. The gods of the primitive man seem very small to us as we look back upon them, and the gods of their successors seem but a slight improvement, in fact, some of the latter were possessed of less desirable attributes than the cruder ideal. It has been said that a man’s God is simply a magnified image of himself, possessing all the attributes of the viewer. This is but another way of saying that a man’s concept of God is but a reflection of his own state of spiritual consciousness and mental development. As an object grows larger as one approaches it, so does God seem to grow as we draw nearer to him. And yet, in both cases the change is not in the object, but in ourselves. If you know a man’s idea of God, you know what he is himself, or rather what state of growth he has reached.

The highest idea of God possessed by man carries with it the attributes of OMNIPOTENCE, OMNISCIENCE, OMNIPRESENCE. Many persons admit this, and use these terms lightly, without having the faintest conception of their real meaning. Let us see what these words mean, and then perhaps we will understand better what we mean when we say: “God.”

OMNIPOTENT means all mighty; all powerful. This, of course, means that God is possessed of all power; that all power is his; not some power, but all power; that there is no other power, and consequently all power is God’s power. This leaves no room for any other power in the Universe, and consequently, all manifestations of power in the Universe must be forms of the power of God, whether we call the results of that manifestation of power “good” or “bad.” It is all the power of God.

OMNISCIENT means all knowing; all wise; all seeing. It means that God is possessed of all knowledge; that he knows everything; that there is no place that he cannot see; no thing that he does not know; no thing that he does not understand fully. If there is the slightest thing that God does not know; if there is the slightest thing that he does not see; if there is the slightest thing he does not understand, then the word is meaningless. God knoweth, seeth and understandeth all things, and must have, for all eternity. Such a being cannot make mistakes; cannot change his mind; cannot act or deal unjustly. Infinite Wisdom is his.

OMNIPRESENT means all present; everywhere present at the same time. It means that God is present in all space; all places; all things; all persons; in every atom. If this is not true, then the word is meaningless. And if God is everywhere, there is no room for anything else. And if this is true, then everything must be a part of God—a part of a mighty Whole.

So you see that these words which we have been using so lightly, and carelessly, mean everything. When we can see and feel the meaning of these three words, then we are beginning to understand something about the greatness of God. We, of course, cannot grasp with our finite minds more than the most apparent parts of this great Truth, but we are growing, we are growing.

If we will accept these three words—attributes of God— Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnipresence, as meaning just what they do mean, we open up our minds to a wonderful inflow of knowledge regarding the nature of what we call God. We are able to see harmony where inharmony reigned—unity where diversity was present—peace where conflict was manifested. We will receive a flood of light on the subject, illuminating places that were before shrouded in darkness—making clear and understandable many dark sayings.

With this understanding of these words, we will see that God is the sum of all knowledge, and that we cannot charge ignorance to him on even the slightest point, or the greatest problem. He knows all that is to be known—all that can be known. We will also see that all power is his; that there cannot be room for any power outside of his power, for he has all the power there is or can be. We can conceive of no power opposing the all power. All power must be vested in God, and all manifestation of power must come from him. We will also see that God being everywhere, he must be present in all things, people, places—in us. We will see that God dwells in the humblest object—that we are all parts of the Whole—parts of God’s Universe. Small parts, it is true, but still parts—and even the smallest part is dear to the heart of the whole. The Whole is the sum of its parts, and all persons and things are but parts of the Whole. And no part can be greater than the Whole; and no part is equal to the Whole; and the Whole is the sum of the greatness of all its parts, Manifest and Unmanifest. And we, the Manifest, cannot understand the Unmanifest, to which the Manifest is but as the drop in the ocean.