Do you believe in God?

It have always found it quite unhelpful, how people will say "I believe in God" vs. "I don’t believe in God". What does it mean? I would find it more helpful if people would simply say "I know God" vs. "I don’t know God", like people say "I know mathematics" and "I don't know mathematics". Especially, this would allow those who don’t know God and wish to know Her to learn from those who know God, and those who know God to teach to those who don’t know God and wish to know Her (which is the way things work in the East).

Email to my friend Chris who told me today that he believes in God, which is, he argued, one step closer to knowing God than not knowing God:

"Believing is not one step away from knowing. Not knowing is closer to knowing than believing. I think believing precludes from knowing - most believers I know, don't know. Why? Not knowing triggers the cognitive functions of your brain, believing does not. In order to know you need to be INQUIRING and OPEN -- it seems that believing may preclude these 2 attitudes. In order to know you need a STRONG DESIRE. Believing (static) precludes from desire (dynamic). No desire, no knowing.

I have never believed in God or in anything else for that matter, in anything I did not Know. Now I feel that I Know God / that I perceive the Unmanifested. I think that not believing helped me get there. What I had always is an insatiable desire to Know. If you have the desire to Know, then you will Know.

"Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you." Matthew 7:7.

So, do you believe in God or do you sense that there is something which is not manifested as form? What is it exactly that you sense? In what instances do you sense it the most? Dig in! It's all there - trust me :-) - it's been right here with you the whole time..."

Another way to say it:

"Faith is the submission of that part of the mind which has not seen God to the part which has" – Simone Weil