Letters to the Editor
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What does "God" mean?
This is my observation, based on growing up with a minister for a father, a crisis of faith at the age of 14, and lots of research:
With very few exceptions, people believe in the God they want. They believe in the God that reflects their world view. The God that punishes things they don't like.
They don't want to know what the bible really teaches. My minister went to a Presbyterian seminary. He has many stories of classmates whose response was, "I can't go back to my church and teach this!" when they learned what the bible actually stated. Because the reality of the bible contradicts what the congregation believes, or wants to believe.
Look at the concepts of Heaven and angels. There is nowhere in the bible where it says that everyone who dies goes to Heaven. In fact, the bible says something very different. But people constantly talk about someone who has died being "in a better place," or "looking down on us." And a human who dies does not become an angel, according to the bible. Angels are a completely separate class of being. But it is a firmly established part of American culture that people die, go to heaven, and become angels. The story of Clarence in It's A Wonderful Life depicts the Heaven that a large percentage of Americans take for granted.
Even though the bible absolutely contradicts this version of Heaven.
According to what I have learned, the writings that were included in the New Testament are a minority of the available texts. The idea the there is more to learn as we discover more texts seems obvious.
Here we have writings that have been suppressed. That these suppressed writings would cast doubt upon ideas that have "stood the test of time" is not surprising. It seems part and parcel of that universal truth of mankind, that those in power want to hold on to their power. Surely this isn't a surprise.