I have the TRUTH!

[adeeb]

What is Truth? Is there a single absolute Truth? What simply about the "Truth" concerning God?

Atheist - there is no supreme being known by some as "God".
Christian - one God that exists in three "persons" - Father, Son and Holy Ghost. God became a man to live a perfect life and die on the cross as a redeeming sacrifice for the sins of mankind.
Muslim - there is only One God with no father, mother, son, daughter, equal, partner or anything comparable to Him. This Supreme Being is known as Allah.

(Note that I left out the agnostics because they straddle the fence and say there may or may not be a "god", they just don't know.)

Now can all three of these be true 1) there is no god, 2) there is a God in 3 persons including Jesus, 3) there is only One God without equal? Although each of the adherents to these 3 faiths (yes, atheism is a belief that there is no god) believe that they have the correct "Truth" about God, none of them can prove conclusively to the other that his "Truth" is actually false. Each of these rely upon their own reasoning based on their faith in what they have been taught, faith in a book, or reliance upon the lack of perceivable evidence.

Like a dog chasing his tail - arround and around we go trying to convince the other of "the Truth".

the truth is only one and the other is wrong..

we all believe that, even we are muslim or jew but we need to tell people which one is really the truth, if they dont want to listen, that's their business but as long as we have told them , that's must be in God's hand who He choose to be ahl jannah... the person that life in the paradise as a reward from He the Almighty

 

[جوري]

'When you have eliminated the impossible, that which remains, however improbable, must be the truth' by Doyle has worked well for me..
I like to bring things down to probabilities, possibilities and statistics --if in the end, I find no 'scientific' answer and can safely concede that no scientific measure now or the near or even distant future will be satisfactory, I attribute the answer to something beyond this world--'supernatural'...


works alot in science as well.. in fact
take pain for instance.. it is a fairly subjective issue... no one can deny that pain exists, but there is no way to quantify it.. there are ancillary findings of course, that are unrelated, your blood pressure might be elevated for instance in reaction to pain, body is always heightened under what it perceives to be 'stress' you might have a high sed. rate, or papilledema.. all very nonspecific findings .. they do NOT = pain.. thus what a person does is ask you the pt. to quantifiy what you are feeling and act accordingly obviousely many other things go into that I am just making a simple analogy..

It is a clinical judgement based on many variables non of them are specific to that one chief complaint 'pain'...

It is detective work, deductive reasoning.. exhaust all options, then make up your mind about the rest..

it is a solo journey really.. everything by way of finite detail is left up to what makes sense to you.. should satisfy both the heart and the mind at this stage..

but you need to establish a base line for 'truth' first before you can get into specifics..

anyhow that is what works for me!

cheers

 

[Gator]

Isambard, I am assuming (from conversations I have had with other atheists) that you feel there is not enough evidence to support a belief on any god.
Therefore, until you should come across further evidence, this is your belief: There is no god.
(Am I right? Please correct me if I am wrong. )

Just my own view, but I would not need direct evidence or even indirect evidence of God, I would need a doctrine that would reasonably fit the world I see and how my brain processes it.

How then do you (personally) feel about people, who have done their own thinking, pondering and reflecting, and still come away believing that God exists?
Are they uninformed? Unintelligent? Mislead?

They think differently and come from a different background. As I've stated in other posts, the reason I come to these boards is to explore how people see the same thing and come up with differnt ideas, so good thread.

Hey glo, just some thoughts. Since these are philosophical questions, Truth is not a thing we will find.

 

[جوري]

One last note just as an addendum to what I missed above

It seems unnatural to me for any one human being to go through life without wondering, why they are here, why them as an individual, what is this planet all about, how things work, why the seasons, climates, other people, other creatures, why the aestheitics why night and day, why the diversity, why these feelings.. it is a rites of passgae, anyone who denies that, has to be either mentally incapable of thinking those thoughts, or just simply lying to themselves and the world around them.

it is innate, and it is natural, like things that happen in your body at puberty that are natural... you deem them 'natural' because they are a global experience and anyone that doesn't go through that 'global' experience, has a mal-function a malady which they can either be treated or ignored!...

when you deviate from the 'norm' it doesn't necessarily mean a good thing.... And that translates to all the facets of what it means to be human-- some people will willfully deny their spirituality as extraneous, expect that others should find it extraneous as well, or illogical, then they slap labels, sweeping generalizations, make up tall tales in their mind of how they assume other people experience life as if they have run a fool proof study, or they attempt to find some other universal truth that is more outside the box and 'progrssive'.. but they fail to find the base line on which all other tenets should be established.. so they borrow a little from religion, a little from philosophy, various ideologies, I suspect they live fairly well...

You know when my friend died.. I used to sedate myself for days, because during sleep I felt no loss, I suspect one can live life by same token with completely blunted emotions if sedated, and I don't mean with meds.. just substitute anything that occupies time and it will quiet all the nagging questions.... if you do it long enough, it becomes second nature and not even an issue any longer... it might even be delightful... and then one day life is over!


cheers

 

[ranma1/2]

What is Truth? Is there a single absolute Truth? What simply about the "Truth" concerning God?

Atheist - there is no supreme being known by some as "God".
Christian - one God that exists in three "persons" - Father, Son and Holy Ghost. God became a man to live a perfect life and die on the cross as a redeeming sacrifice for the sins of mankind.
Muslim - there is only One God with no father, mother, son, daughter, equal, partner or anything comparable to Him. This Supreme Being is known as Allah.

(Note that I left out the agnostics because they straddle the fence and say there may or may not be a "god", they just don't know.)

Now can all three of these be true 1) there is no god, 2) there is a God in 3 persons including Jesus, 3) there is only One God without equal? Although each of the adherents to these 3 faiths (yes, atheism is a belief that there is no god) believe that they have the correct "Truth" about God, none of them can prove conclusively to the other that his "Truth" is actually false. Each of these rely upon their own reasoning based on their faith in what they have been taught, faith in a book, or reliance upon the lack of perceivable evidence.

Like a dog chasing his tail - arround and around we go trying to convince the other of "the Truth".

i think one thing that atheists and agnostic do that christians and perhaps other religoins do is that Ath and Agn never seem to claim the Truth.
Rather we just point to the evidence.

I personally get annoyed when they go off saying we have the Truth.
(then pointing to their books)

Once asked for evidence of the truth it only goes down hill.

 

[glo]

Hi all

After a week of spending hours in the early mornings on the computer, my head finally hit the pillow at 7 pm yesterday evening and I crashed for 12 hours! yay!
Nice to see that this thread has continued on ...

The 'truth' can only be experiential. Anything else is 'just' belief.

Depends on how you define the truth.

Ath and Agn never seem to claim the Truth.
Rather we just point to the evidence.

I personally get annoyed when they go off saying we have the Truth.
(then pointing to their books)

Once asked for evidence of the truth it only goes down hill.

I can see that some people have an issue with the word 'truth'.
That in itself is quite interesting.
Believers will point to the holy book and say 'This contains the truth'.
Others (like Trumble here) will say 'There is no truth, as truth can only be experimential.'

For the sake of this thread, I chose the word 'truth' especially (hey, I even put it in capital letters ), because it is a word often used by believers, and because it is such a strong word, which doesn't really leave much room for manouvre.

A question back those of an atheist persuasion:
If you don't think there is such as thing as 'truth', if there is, it cannot (yet) be known by us), then you cannot ever be arguing for your 'own truth'.
All you can do is argue against what other perceive to be 'their truth'.
Would that be correct?

A word of warning:
Those of you who are heavily into philosophy, please be gentle on me with your terminology ... otherwise I will loose the plot.

I know 'philosophers' who are very difficult to talk to, because half-way into your own sentence, they will interrupt and say 'I don't think you mean 'word X' in this context. 'Word X' means such-and-such, whereas I think you are referring to 'word Z'.
That - especially since English isn't my first language - gets hugely frustrating for me! So please spare me!

 

[glo]

One poster (who shall remain unnamed ) has sent me a comment, saying 'No, I know the truth!!'
I know it was sent in good humour and I take it as such (Although, anonymous poster, I have to disappoint you. You are wrong, because I have the truth!! lol)

I mention it here, because it raises a good point.
It is true, we could spend hours having these kind of exchanges here at LI (Come to think about it, we do!) :X

Now, so far I am the only one who has admitted to feeling frustated, when other people seemingly cannot even begin to understand where I am coming from with 'my truth'.
Am I really the only one????
I think not, when I see how some threads are progressing!

I wonder whether (at least for us monotheists) this is tied in with the concept of 'salvation' and 'reaching paradise'.
We argue, sometimes aggressively, out of concern and fear for those, who (according to our beliefs) are doomed in the afterlife.
We care for them ... We don't want them to suffer ...
Do care, love and concern for our fellow human beings underpin our frustration???

Similarly, do atheist posters here have a concern for the 'believing posters', wishing for them to get on with life freely, rather than engaging in (what they perceive to be) meaningless or even harmful behaviours.

Are we perhaps a bunch of lovey-dovey caring people, who like each other too much to let go???
(And those who can't be bothered have long since left?)

You think about it, whilst I am getting ready for church.
Could just be that are all a bunch of good friends!

Regards to you all.

 

[ranma1/2]

or as the saying goes.

"My TRUTH is better than your truth."

 

[Eric H]

Greetings and peace be with you glo, thanks for starting this thread,

I feel we need to search for a greatest meaning of One God in order to find a greatest truth for ourselves and my thoughts go….

I believe in one God the creator of all that is seen and unseen and when I walk through town I see a part of God’s wonderful creation. I see people who could be Hindu, atheists, Christians, Muslims and all manor of people all created and given freedom by the same God.

We are all temporary custodians on God’s wonderful creation and we have a duty of care to look after God’s creation, and that comes down to looking after each other whoever we might be.

I strive to live my life on this truth.

In the spirit of searching for God

Eric

 

[glo]

I am of a similar view. I believe that we are most vulnerable to social and belief programming in our youth and that is when religion does its work on people. Christianity and Islam attach a feeling of wrongness to even questioning their doctrines so once the child is locked into the belief it becomes incredibly difficult and painful to disengage. So much so that believers in one religion who do manage to disengage will often latch onto another religion, as they have become dependent upon the sense of direction, purpose, cosmic justice, etc that religious belief has provided them in the past.

I understand what you are saying, Pygo.

What about people who were raised in secular environments, and then affiliate themselves with a religion? There are several examples here in LI, I believe ...
What, in your opinion, would make somebody who was raised to 'think rationally' make such a life choice?

Those raised outside religion are also often raised to prize logic and reason and to see faith and obedience to authority not as virtues but as a vices.
[...]
Yes, I agree with this as well. To an outsider one assumes initially that the religion is invented as a social control tool or comfort aid and experience with believers re-inforces this view more often than not.

I would go further than this.

Monotheism seems to teach that relying on oneself is the very process of denying God. Wanting to be like God, if you like.
The stories of the Garden of Eden and the Tower of Babel are just two examples to illustrate this.
'Turning away from God', 'not seeking him', 'relying on yourself', 'following other idols' are the very worst traps a believer can fall into.
I can see that for an atheist that very teaching is a dangerous tool - it is the very thing that prevents a believer from turning to the 'atheist truth'.

Similarly Islam teaches that nobody should be worshipped other than God alone. That teaching alone becomes a stumbling block to any Muslim who may consider accepting Jesus as their saviour.

It is as if inside our teachings are locked specific instructions to prevent followers from leaving ...

Now, these are two examples that spring to mind.
I wonder if atheist thinking has incorporated similar 'stumbling blocks', which aim to prevent people from moving into other worldviews?
Perhaps there are ex-atheists here, who may have thoughts on this?

Peace

 

[snakelegs]

One poster (who shall remain unnamed ) has sent me a comment, saying 'No, I know the truth!!'
I know it was sent in good humour and I take it as such (Although, anonymous poster, I have to disappoint you. You are wrong, because I have the truth!! lol)

I mention it here, because it raises a good point.
It is true, we could spend hours having these kind of exchanges here at LI (Come to think about it, we do!) :X

Now, so far I am the only one who has admitted to feeling frustated, when other people seemingly cannot even begin to understand where I am coming from with 'my truth'.
Am I really the only one????
I think not, when I see how some threads are progressing!

I wonder whether (at least for us monotheists) this is tied in with the concept of 'salvation' and 'reaching paradise'.
We argue, sometimes aggressively, out of concern and fear for those, who (according to our beliefs) are doomed in the afterlife.
We care for them ... We don't want them to suffer ...
Do care, love and concern for our fellow human beings underpin our frustration???

Similarly, do atheist posters here have a concern for the 'believing posters', wishing for them to get on with life freely, rather than engaging in (what they perceive to be) meaningless or even harmful behaviours.

Are we perhaps a bunch of lovey-dovey caring people, who like each other too much to let go???
(And those who can't be bothered have long since left?)

You think about it, whilst I am getting ready for church.
Could just be that are all a bunch of good friends!

Regards to you all.

i think the problem is that of people who belong to the 2 religions which claim to have a monopoly on The Truth and believe that they are required to "spread the word".
as a monotheist, i do not believe it is inherent to monotheism
i'm not an atheist and don't understand them so i can't address the other questions.

 

[Trumble]

Others (like Trumble here) will say 'There is no truth, as truth can only be experimential.'

No, I didn't say that, although I could certainly have been rather less obscure! I meant that 'truth' or, more precisely, understanding of what the 'truth' is, can only be obtained by direct experience of it. In religious terms, therefore, that would usually (but not exclusively) be through the contemplative traditions most common in the East, but found in the Western religions too.

The common 'element of truth' you referred to is the same mystical experience, although that might be described and interpreted in different ways acording to existing beliefs and perceptions. For example, an experience that a Zen Buddhist would describe as satori (a flash of sudden awareness, or 'enlightenment') might be described by a Christian as some sort of direct experience of God. Totally different interpretations (it is impossible to dscribe the indescribable!), but if we could get inside the head of that Buddhist and that Christian the experience of 'truth' is the same.

'Truth', in the religious sense, cannot be transmitted in words (written, spoken, or otherwise) any more than quantum theory can be described using the vocabulary of a child's first reader... the vocabulary just isn't up to the task. All it can do is point in the right direction, an that is where faith comes in.. the belief that it (in the form of the Qur'an, Bible, Tipitaka, Guru Granth Sahib, or whatever) does point in the right direction.

 

[north_malaysian]

'To me my truth, to you yours'?

peace

Ok... no problem.

 

[crayon]

One poster (who shall remain unnamed ) has sent me a comment, saying 'No, I know the truth!!'
I know it was sent in good humour and I take it as such (Although, anonymous poster, I have to disappoint you. You are wrong, because I have the truth!! lol)

I mention it here, because it raises a good point.
It is true, we could spend hours having these kind of exchanges here at LI (Come to think about it, we do!) :X

Now, so far I am the only one who has admitted to feeling frustated, when other people seemingly cannot even begin to understand where I am coming from with 'my truth'.
Am I really the only one????
I think not, when I see how some threads are progressing!

I wonder whether (at least for us monotheists) this is tied in with the concept of 'salvation' and 'reaching paradise'.
We argue, sometimes aggressively, out of concern and fear for those, who (according to our beliefs) are doomed in the afterlife.
We care for them ... We don't want them to suffer ...
Do care, love and concern for our fellow human beings underpin our frustration???

Similarly, do atheist posters here have a concern for the 'believing posters', wishing for them to get on with life freely, rather than engaging in (what they perceive to be) meaningless or even harmful behaviours.

Are we perhaps a bunch of lovey-dovey caring people, who like each other too much to let go???
(And those who can't be bothered have long since left?)

You think about it, whilst I am getting ready for church.
Could just be that are all a bunch of good friends!

Regards to you all.

I'm the same way, sort of. I try to explain to people my beliefs and my truths, try to get them to see where I'm coming from, understand my thinking, etc. Over and over. And I get frustrated. But then I reach a stage, where I'm just like "You know what, I'm done. I've done my part, explained all I can. If they still don't get it, that's their problem."

As for the love for other people underpinning our frustration, the people that are really close to me are all muslim, so the people I discuss these things with are strangers/acquaintances, so I've never felt extremely frustrated. I'm sure it would be different if I were a convert for example, where my entire family, all my friends, everyone I've ever known and loved, disagreed with me. Then, my frustration would be through the roof heh.

 

[MustafaMc]

One poster (who shall remain unnamed ) has sent me a comment, saying 'No, I know the truth!!'
I know it was sent in good humour and I take it as such (Although, anonymous poster, I have to disappoint you. You are wrong, because I have the truth!! lol)

Well, in that case prove that my Truth is actually false so that I can "have the Truth", too.;D

Now, so far I am the only one who has admitted to feeling frustated, when other people seemingly cannot even begin to understand where I am coming from with 'my truth'.
Am I really the only one????
I think not, when I see how some threads are progressing!

Yes, of course, it is frustrating for me. For example, I would love to stand on the street corner with a sign, "Believe there is only One God without equal and that Muhammad is His Messenger" and have everyone that read that sign to instantly believe. (many may find that comment threatening and offensive). Yet, I have spent hours conversing with Christians about religion to no obvious avail. At least, they know what Islam really is (as I understand it, that is). My responsibility is not to convert, but rather to spread the Message the best that I can. I believe that even Prophet Muhammad (saaws) felt this same frustration as indicated by some of the ayat that I have read.

I wonder whether (at least for us monotheists) this is tied in with the concept of 'salvation' and 'reaching paradise'.
We argue, sometimes aggressively, out of concern and fear for those, who (according to our beliefs) are doomed in the afterlife.
We care for them ... We don't want them to suffer ...
Do care, love and concern for our fellow human beings underpin our frustration???

Perhaps there is some Truth in that. I think that you have observed that a lot of my communications on LI have been with Christians. I do have love for the sincere Christians who try to follow God in the best way that they know and of course I want them to see that the thing they are putting there faith in (Jesus being God) is the very thing that is the unforgiveable sin (shirk), according to my understanding of what the Word of God, the Qur'an, says. That is why I am so happy when I see one that is making that transition to what I see is the Truth, like recently on this very forum.

You think about it, whilst I am getting ready for church.
Could just be that are all a bunch of good friends!

Regards to you all.

Perhaps you would agree that the ones we care the most about are the ones that we spend the most time communicating with. Oh, I also care for my Muslim brothers and sisters immensely, but I feel less of a need to convince them of the Truth - as they already have it (from my point of view).

 

[MustafaMc]

I'm sure it would be different if I were a convert for example, where my entire family, all my friends, everyone I've ever known and loved, disagreed with me. Then, my frustration would be through the roof heh.

Yes, my wife and I am the only Muslims in our respective families. There is no masjid in my city and, due to my business trips, I may go 2 or 3 weeks without even seeing another Muslim. As a former Christian, I feel the sincerity of some Christians to truly worship and follow God the best they know. However, I happen to believe that they are misguided and have gone astray (as they believe about me). Like a shepherd I try to bring the lost sheep back to the worship of One God (as they too try to bring me back to Christianity).

 

[Muezzin]

No, I didn't say that, although I could certainly have been rather less obscure! I meant that 'truth' or, more precisely, understanding of what the 'truth' is, can only be obtained by direct experience of it. In religious terms, therefore, that would usually (but not exclusively) be through the contemplative traditions most common in the East, but found in the Western religions too.

The common 'element of truth' you referred to is the same mystical experience, although that might be described and interpreted in different ways acording to existing beliefs and perceptions. For example, an experience that a Zen Buddhist would describe as satori (a flash of sudden awareness, or 'enlightenment') might be described by a Christian as some sort of direct experience of God. Totally different interpretations (it is impossible to dscribe the indescribable!), but if we could get inside the head of that Buddhist and that Christian the experience of 'truth' is the same.

'Truth', in the religious sense, cannot be transmitted in words (written, spoken, or otherwise) any more than quantum theory can be described using the vocabulary of a child's first reader... the vocabulary just isn't up to the task. All it can do is point in the right direction, an that is where faith comes in.. the belief that it (in the form of the Qur'an, Bible, Tipitaka, Guru Granth Sahib, or whatever) does point in the right direction.

Have you ever read Memento Mori by Jonathan Nolan? (Parental advisory, by the way, swearing and stuff) It was made into the film 'Memento' by his brother Christopher, but the story's very different.

Anyway, your post puts me in the mind of a certain passage from that fiction. Nolan discusses the limbic system, the different parts of our personalities struggling to control our actions. Here's the quote:

This is the tragedy of life. Because for a few minutes of every day, every man becomes a genius. Moments of clarity, insight, whatever you want to call them. The clouds part, the planets get in a neat little line, and everything becomes obvious. I should quit smoking, maybe, or here's how I could make a fast million, or such and such is the key to eternal happiness. That's the miserable truth. For a few moments, the secrets of the universe are opened to us. Life is a cheap parlor trick.

But then the genius, the savant, has to hand over the controls to the next guy down the pike, most likely the guy who just wants to eat potato chips, and insight and brilliance and salvation are all entrusted to a moron or a hedonist or a narcoleptic.

Great story by the way. I think both it and your post are very true.

 

[Uthman]

Guys...guys....it is clearly I who has the truth.

 

[Pygoscelis]

What about people who were raised in secular environments, and then affiliate themselves with a religion? There are several examples here in LI, I believe ...

I've actually studied this, way back in my undergrad years ago. A good bood on it is entitled "Amazing Conversions" by Bruce Hunsberger (who was my prof).

Some people find there way to religion through family and friends or emersion in a culture of it, slowly changing into it. But FAR more often it is a quick change following a major life event or emotional trauma. Though there may be exceptions, by and large people feel their way monostheism (which is all we studied) and think their way out of it. There are usually good feelings with becoming a believer and bad feelings with losing faith (initially, that changes with time).

I'm not saying that believers don't think. I'm just saying that the vast majority of believers don't become believers by thinking their way into it. It was either programming in youth or emotion brought them there. The smart ones are actually then harder to deconvert because they apply their intellect to find ways to justify their belief and hold on to it.

Monotheism seems to teach that relying on oneself is the very process of denying God. Wanting to be like God, if you like.
The stories of the Garden of Eden and the Tower of Babel are just two examples to illustrate this.
'Turning away from God', 'not seeking him', 'relying on yourself', 'following other idols' are the very worst traps a believer can fall into.

Yes. The monotheist religions are all very much about obedience to authority and so the non-religious or anti-religious are prone to be the opposite, rebels against authority, prizing individualism and self direction. You find this on most surveys, religious people finding things like faith, obedience, acceptance, and approval by peers to be important than non-relgious people do. While I'm talking about them, the surveys also have usually shown believers to hold more of a black and white, good and evil type of mindset whereas the non-religious more likely to see in grey.

I wonder if atheist thinking has incorporated similar 'stumbling blocks', which aim to prevent people from moving into other worldviews?

I have noticed some amongst my ahtiest friends. They can be so into requiring "evidence" for all claims that they won't even consider something that sounds unlikely to be possible. These are the ones who will tell you with absolute certainly that there is and could never be any sort of higher power in the universe. They could have God appear before them, perform any miracle they asked for, etc and they STILL would not believe.

 

[glo]

Greetings,

Interesting thread, glo - thanks for bringing it up. The subject of truth is a deeply controversial one. Philosophers have spent whole lifetimes trying to get to grips with it.

Perhaps we will solve it here in LI!

The idea that god is a concept invented by primitive humans in order to explain unexplained phenomena and to keep society under control has just seemed incredibly obvious to me from a very young age. However, I wanted to try and inform myself about the question as much as I could, so I held off from making a firm decision on it until I was between the ages of eighteen and twenty. It was only then, after reading, thinking and wondering a lot that I realised I'd actually been an atheist all along.

It's interesting to read that.
I had a religious upbringing and walked away from it, because I felt pretty much the same: religion was a man-made institution, invented to control people ...

That was my view for some 20 years or so, until I had (uninvited and unexpected) what I might call a 'Jesus experience'. It left me convinced of the following:

• God is real
• God cares about me personally, and
• Jesus is God himself

Now, I have no desire to explain this experience in greater detail - and I don't think an Islamic forum would be the right place to do so ...But it had a profound effect on me.
I probed and analysed what I had experienced: I am a mature woman of sound mind, I am emotionally reasonably stable, I have no diagnosed mental illnesses, I was under no influence of drugs or alcohol ...
I have looked at it from all angles, but five years later I am still convinced that the experience is real and that God is real.

That has changed everything!

It doesn't mean that I don't have questions.
It doesn't mean that I don't have concerns about the power and authority of some religious leaders, and about any personal motives they may have.
It doesn't mean that I don't have respect for the teachings of other faiths or worldviews, and that I cannot draw from them.
It doesn't mean that I don't read certain Bible passages with complete puzzlement.
It doesn't mean that I have switched off my mental capacities, and that I don't still have to make my own moral and ethical choices - and that sometimes those choices are not in line with what other people may interpret to be God's will. I am still responsible for my own actions!

But it does mean that if I believe God to be real, then I want to know more about him, the more the better!
I have a desire to be close to him, in every possible way. And yes, that means putting God in the centre of my life ... (Perhaps a bit like music seems to be central to your life )

Peace