UCCM does not define itself as a religious community, but as an organization of spiritual free-thinkers. In this sense, there is not and can not be a taboo subject, and any questions raised are legitimate and worthy of further thought and response. I would therefore encourage everyone to feel free to ask questions on topics that one no where has dared to raise. 

I am going to start with a subject to which some members or leaders of religious communities usually react angrily, namely, is there a God and what if there is not? There is only one sensible short answer to this question: 'It is given to each according to his/her faith.' Those who don't believe, don't have, and those who do believe, have, regardless of who or what real or supposed evidence is presented. We might as well stop the analysis here, but I will go further. Having absolved myself from the stereotypical yes or no answers to the question, I am free to consider all the possibilities. I can interpret God any way I want. Let's define God as IDEAL from now. Since time immemorial, man has been creating ideals to which he/she measures himself/herself. He/she can then place this ideal within himself/herself and set it as a goal for himself/herself to achieve; as well as placing it outside of himself/herself and above himself/herself, to whom he/she must submit. If we look at these ideals, we see that they have evolved or at least changed throughout history, first they were humanlike (e.g. in Egyptian or Greco-Roman polytheism). These gods (ideals) squabbled, fought among themselves, sometimes took human form, made love to human beings, or even took humans into their midst and cast gods from their own kind to the Earth. This image has evolved and become ever higher, more perfect and at once more inaccessible. 

In this sense, we cannot say that God does not exist, because IDEAL has always existed and will always exist. Nor can we say that IDEAL is not real, because it is present as a mental reality for all who are attracted to it. One can therefore create one's own IDEA or accept an IDEA created by others and place it inside and outside oneself. This IDEA becomes his/her god. 

What if someone does not create or accept any IDEAL? In this case, they do not develop or regress. Think about it, for animals there is no IDEAL, no goal to move towards. An animal eats and does its need when and where it can. A predatory animal will not respect man because man is not an ideal for it, but a potential source of food. If there is no external or internal IDEAL, then there is no moral value system to which the members of society must conform, so everyone will be motivated by the satisfaction of their personal needs, and the limits of this determined by the prevailing balance of power (law of the fist). The minimal development of this is the recognition of the benefits of belonging to a group, because if we are Horde 1, we can safely destroy Horde 2, take their goods, torture their members, because it isn't be stopped by the internal or external IDEAL. 

So, if humanity does not intend to move towards a primitive society, it is advisable to adopt a higher IDEAL that gives moral sustenance and shows a pattern of communal behaviour. From the foregoing, we might be led to believe that the IDEAL was created by humanity. Yes, but where would man get the pattern for the IDEA if it did not exist outside of him/her or within him/her, in some unexplored, hidden corner of his/her being? So, if IDEAL did not exist in the absolute sense, we could not create it, because we would not have a pattern for it! We can say, of course, that there were people who were more perfect than the contemporaries and they were formed to IDEA patterns. Indeed, the entities considered as divine emissaries or divine incarnations became IDEA patterns for humans, and that was their function. They embodied, they formed for us - to the extent of their abilities - the absolute IDEA. If this were not the case, then the question would have to be asked: where did they get the model for themselves? Obviously, from still higher entities, and the question would immediately form an infinite line, at the end of which would be the absolute IDEAL, who is none other than God. God is therefore the absolute or highest IDEAL! 

Man, if he/she wishes to evolve, chooses an IDEAL, places it within himself/herself as part of him/her, it becomes the goal to be achieved, and when achieved, he/she raises the IDEA still higher, and thus moves steadily towards the absolute IDEAL. This is how the development of every man proceeds. At the beginning the IDEAL is another person (parent, teacher, master, celebrity, rock musician, who knows what...), but beyond a certain point of development, the IDEA inside is no longer an ordinary person, but an entity that embodies the absolute IDEAL; or even the absolute IDEAL (God) himself. This is so because beyond a certain level of consciousness, one feels that for him/her the average human IDEAL is insufficient, does not offer any possibility of progress, and then he/she must raise the ideation to a level beyond the material world. This path is called God-realization, and this involves realizing the inner IDEAL raised to transcendental level. 

What happens if someone does not put the IDEAL inside themselves? Then he/she cannot realise it. Because everyone can only realize what is within himself/herself. If someone has a rock musician as an IDEA, but does not live the ideal within himself/herself, he/she will never be a rock musician. If one wants to achieve the absolute IDEAL (God), one must place it into oneself. If for someone the IDEAL is an external ideal, then his/her vision remains dual (dualistic). There is he/she and there is God, somewhere out of reach, who rules over him/her, or who thinks about him/her, whose salvation is to be awaited, or whose punishment is to be feared. This is why the average believer (religious) person, though possessing a highly vibrational outward ideal, can only in a few cases follow the principles of the IDEAL he/she has chosen. They do not actually live according to their chosen beliefs, but follow their inner instinct programs (e.g. fear). They will experience a shift from that point when they are able to live the IDEAL as part of themselves. The transformation of the outer IDEAL into the inner IDEAL is therefore a process in which each person can move at his/her own pace. 

According to this view, the question of whether or not there is a God, and whether or not there is evidence for this, is meaningless, because God exists only as an IDEAL, and is therefore real. In what follows, we will analyse whether the IDEAL patterns of the Absolute are really as far apart as the followers or leaders of each religion imagine.

Margaret Rhasoda-Varga
UCCM head-master
(The sky touches the earth, excerpt)