I believe in all my arguments against people I have failed to leave out what I believe in regards to the nature of God.
Inspired by an article that I read (think: Originality of Thought post), I've come to realize that when I refer to God this does not ensure that the God of which I speak is the God of which everyone else speaks.
I have said many times that I am an Absolutist. I believe there is an absolute truth and an absolute good, our job is to match our reality to that absolute.
The article in Newsweek speaks as such:
"Young people are openly passionate about religion - but they insist on defining it in their own ways."
"Rather than seek absolute truths in doctrine, they cross denominational boundaries, savvy consumers in the broader marketplace of belief systems. Many describe themselves as spiritual rather than religious."
"For the bulk of the nation's 22 million teenagers, religion and spirituality entail a quest not for absolute truths but for ways to live among relative truths."
The article describes how teenagers have made God to be whatever is most appealing and pleasing to them. Some see him as a "grandfather figure" others as an "evil being" who wants to punish us for are actions all the time, some just claim a God for the desire to have something to believe in.
This, in my opinion, is not God. Because of my absolutism I believe that if we desire to seek a God than our job is not to make God into what pleases us, but to make ourselves into what pleases that God. It's purely weakness to employ a God by your own standards, that implies that you have control over the God, not the God over you. Instead, a desire must occur that instills us not to know ABOUT God, not to DEFINE God, but to KNOW God. That is of course, if you even care to believe Him.