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A Conversation about God
9/27/2004 9:34 AMDear Ben and Rosamund,
I have been reading your book, The Art of Possibility, which is assigned for the Critical Thinking class of my college philosophy department. I am sure you have had several people tell you how much it has helped them and impacted their lives. I, myself, was skeptical at first, because I feared that my beliefs and my relationship with God would somehow clash with the ideas in your book. However, after reading several chapters, I came to the realization that your stories, parables and ways of thinking only re-enforce my beliefs and help strengthen my relationship with God. I just wanted to ask if you know God or have some sort of relationship with Him. The reason I ask is not because of how you have spoken to me, but because of how you literally speak. You speak of love, kindness, and many "things" that are consistent with having a relationship with God, yet you do not speak much or at all about the Bible. I'm not suggesting that if you do not believe in God, that you should, but rather that the way you speak suggests you have some sort of relationship with Him. You do not have to answer if you know Him or not, but I do want thank you for clarifying my relationship with Him, even if you do not directly speak of Him, or the Bible, etc. Thanks.
Dane
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Dear Dane,
Thank you for your beautiful and moving letter. You have put your finger on something vital about Possibility: that it will tend to reinforce whatever we are passionate about. It gives more space for our best thoughts and feelings to grow. As in a beautifully tended garden, the weeds of doubt, resignation and conflict have difficulty getting such a strong foothold. Or, to shift the metaphor, the water in the fish tank of our mind will be cleaner and brisker, so that the fish can swim more enthusiastically and their fins shine more brightly.
I myself do not share your belief in God, but I passionately embrace the notion that humans are spiritual beings and that Possibility is a spiritual domain. In that sense, I do not believe we are far from each other. Where we may differ, is in our attitude to the various ways religious dogmas can cloud the clarity of discourse and close down possibility, in the struggle to establish who is right and who is wrong.
Thank you for your warm response to our work
best wishes
Ben Zander
www.benjaminzander.com
And here is a response from Roz:
Dear Dane,
I think Ben has already answered you, but I thought I would give my take on the issue. My goal was to write a book that would bring people together in love and compassion, and I believe that you would say that that is what God is about as well. Yet many people have suffered at the hands of religious people who were zealous to promote their own version of God. The Bible is not every spiritual person's book. So almost any mention of a particular God-the Judeo-Christian God, for instance, or the Muslim God, will exclude,
or offend someone. So we have created a word for a spiritual realm where no wars have been fought, where no one is excluded and no one is likely to take offense. We feel that through Possibility there is a great opportunity for Peace on Earth. I suppose I am leaving you guessing still about my relationship to God. Very best wishes, Roz
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