Digression

In some religious programs, I’ve heard some of the preaching people saying:”God told you this or that, and you should obey what God told you”. And, of course, every time I hear them saying it, my only question, I would have for them, would I have the opportunity to be with them face to face, surfaces:  “How would you know that God spoke to you?”  Then as my question is answered by no one, as my question is triggered by television or radio religious programs (which I’m watching and listening to out of curiosity), my question is replaced by the hope, which so far I found  to be hopeless, that in some future programs the preachers, of all religions, would answer this very important question I’m asking in my mind, so that people will be absolutely sure, and I would like to emphasize absolutely sure, that when  they’ll  hear this or that, will be able to say that it comes from God and when they’ll hear this or that will be able to say it comes either from their own minds or other people’s suggestions. How would these people, listening with an uncritical mind to these preachers know what “Practicing the word of God” is, as some preachers are saying, if they cannot be sure that God spoke to them? Then, my mind elaborates further and tells me that reading the Bible, or all the other sacred books, such as the Koran, the Talmud,  the Buddhist Scriptures, etc., does not mean that God  (whatever God is called in any language and culture) spoke to you, but it rather means that you are reading what some people, wise or not,  recorded (what they thought worth recording, and were at the same time  in the position of being allowed of recording their thoughts – that is, they were in line with the current views and  politics of their times, or else their views would have been suppressed and never would have been printed for ages in order to come to our attention in the 21st century ) within books that are seen by some human beings, even in the 21st century,  as sacred (as the words of God; and in saying this I’m not saying that I’m intolerant of their beliefs. What I’m doing is to ask, the preachers and their followers, one question with the hope of receiving an answer). But to come back to the preachers, I’ve heard one of them saying that, when we look into the mirror, God tells us that what we see in the mirror needs to be improved.  And curious as I am, and always open to experiments, one day I looked into the mirror as advised by one of the  preachers  and I saw myself fat.  So, according to the preacher, I thought, should I think that the thought that came into my mind (which was “I shall definitely have to get slim, as I look rather fat at the moment” – after all, the sciences of this century tell us that being fat is unhealthy) was a thought that God put into my mind? Of course it has not escaped me that would I have lived in Rubens times, the thought God would have put into my mind would have been that I looked as one of the Three Graces; after all Rubens would have never painted the three fat women had he not seen them as beautiful – probably a way of seeing beauty put into his mind by God? (and, mind you, it has occurred to me that it is perhaps God that made me think that Rubens’ Graces are rather fat; could this be so?). Does God’s ways of putting thoughts into our minds change as much as our minds change with time?  And saying this, I end my train of thoughts with a second question, I’d love some of those religious preachers, I listen from time to time out of curiosity, to answer: should I think that while looking into the mirror in the 21st century, God put into my mind that I’m rather fat, and that the same God, had I lived in Rubens times, would have put into my mind the thought that I was rather splendid?