God

In all countries and at all times, most people have thought that there is more than what we see — someone above all things, who made all things and sees all things. The word this book can use for this is god.

The different things people say

In some countries, people say there is one god. In others, many gods. In others, that god is in all things — and in others, that there is no god at all. People have seen gods in the small lights in the black sky, in the sun, in the big waters, and in the growing grain. Countries near each other have said different things; people inside one country say different things; and a person can say one thing when they are young and another after many years.

What people do

People who hold to a god go, all at one time, to their own buildings — buildings made to feel bigger than people, with high tops and coloured light falling in. There they say thank you, and ask for help, and make music all as one. They say things to their god that they say to no person. They give money to people who have no money, because their god asks it. And in many of these buildings, people eat a small piece of bread with each other, and it means more than bread.

The hard times

People hold to a god most in the hard times: when someone they love dies, when they fear, when they have to choose and no choosing looks good. A god is someone to say things to when no person can help — and someone to thank when a good thing happens that no person made.

People have hurt each other about this, as well. Countries have hurt each other about which god is true and which words to use. It is true and it is sad, and it sits in the same book as the coloured light.

The question

Is there a god? This book tells what people know, and here it can only tell what people feel and think. No one can show you a god like this book can show you an atom — and no one can show that there is no god. People have asked this for as long as there have been people, and the asking has made books and music and beautiful buildings and long, hard thinking.

Some questions in this book do not have an end. This is one of them — and it is the first one. People were asking it before they could write.