I cannot believe in a God-form so what can I reason? Much conflict has been placed at the door of religion. I don’t accept this. Conflict is caused by politics, whether in a religious or secular culture.
I am not religious, but I am spiritual. To me, the former is a social interaction of shared belief. The latter is an inner feeling – a bonding to fellow man, environment & universe. The two can work together but are different.

THE CULTURE STRIPPER

If you strip culture from any religion you usually find the same things – belief in higher intelligence, a way to commune with it, memory of a previous perfect state, an understanding of our imperfection and a moral code.
Similarly, almost all major religious icons share a life pattern. Frustrated in youth, they question. This leads to a spiritual crisis within which they overcome adversity. This turns them into a charismatic on a single-minded path to change things.

UNIVERSAL PSYCHOLOGY

We can argue that below all religious expression there exists an ‘under religion’ shared by all, suggesting that all religion begins in a ‘universal psychology’. Upon this a specific cultural story is built. This is powerful and gives people meaning and direction.

When the stage is reached where a whole society believes, doing real physical things in society, then the God-form takes on an element of reality, for if it is ‘truth’ or not, the outcome would be the same. A cultural force becomes existent above the individual, and takes on an intelligence all its own. This element is what I call OverMind.
Thus, religion can be seen to have a universal oneness in ‘under religion’, which is all inclusive; and specific elements of OverMind based on culture or environment, which fragments mankind. Could an understanding of the former lead to a new tolerance in the latter?

UNIVERSAL INTELLIGENCE

This said, I am convinced that a real form of universal intelligence could exist. For analysis of this, you need to go to the Paranormal page, which delves into the possibility in the last two parts.
As a taster, science tells us that evolution destroys the idea of intelligence. Yet computer programs now exist that are evolutionary in nature, evolving new programs of their own. Yet before this can occur, a form of subtle direction must be placed in the form of a ‘basic design function’. Is this so with the universe?