“God”--That Weasel Word

William James called “experience” a “weasel word.”  The same can be said of the word “God”:  It means something different to every individual. Even when we think we’re talking about roughly the same  reality when we converse about God, we’re probably still light years away from one another’s experience and understanding of God.  Does that mean we should stop talking about God? Or stop using the word “God”?

A cultural and global moratorium on the word “God” might give us the time and silence we need to find our way forward at this moment in history.  Since that’s unlikely, maybe we should each observe an individual moratorium on speaking the word “God.”  For a limited amount of we would refrain from using the word and meditate, as honestly as we can bear to, on the following questions: 

• What do you mean when you say “God”?
• What do you think most people around you mean when they say “God”?
• What do you hope when you use the word “God”?
• What do you fear when you use the word “God”?
• What word or phrase would you substitute for the word “God.”