About God Rubem Alves   Our thoughts about God do not make any difference. We grieve with what others think about us. Well I say that God does not give a damn. He is like a fountain of clear water. Through the centuries men have messed this source with your stinking excrement intellectuals. They said he had a torture chamber called hell where those places that you disobey, for all eternity, and laughs of happiness watching the suffering of the unfortunate hopeless. They said he is glad to see the suffering of men, so much so that men, in fear, are the most absurd promises of suffering and self-flagellation for his favor. They said he is pleased to hear endless repetitions of prayers, as if he had poor memory and prayer needed to be constantly repeated that he did not forget. In the name of God those who thought themselves in possession of certain ideas have died in fires thousands of people. But the source of crystalline water ignores the indignities that the men did to him. Continues to flow clear water, indifferent to what men think of it. You know the story of the rooster who sang to make the sun shine? For there was a cock who thought the sun rose as he sang. Every morning flapped its wings and proclaimed to all the birds of the hen house, "I will sing to make the sun rise." Immediately thereafter rose from its perch, sang and was waiting. Then the sun came up. And he then, pride, said: "I told you so." It happened, however, that one fine day the rooster oversleep, miss the time. And when he woke up with the laughter of the birds, the sun was shining in the sky. It was then that he learned that the sun was rising anyway, whether he sang, not sing. From that day he began to sleep in peace, free from the terrible responsibility of making the sun rise. It is thus with God. At least that is how Jesus describes it. God makes the sun rise on the evil and good, and his rain fall on the just and unjust. So do not be afflicted with my ideas. If I sing is not to give birth to the sun. It is because I know the sun will come regardless of my singing. And do not worry about your ideas. Our ideas about God will not make any difference to him They are, yes, the difference for us. People who have terrible ideas about God can not sleep right, are more susceptible to heart attacks and are intolerant. People who have ideas about God gentle sleep better, the heart beats are calm and tolerant. I see the sea. I like the sea when the beach is empty of human disturbance, In the afternoon, early morning. The smooth sand, the waves that break without stopping, the foam, the endless horizon. What great mystery is the sea! What fantastic settings are on your

background, out of sight! Forever unknowable! Think of the sea as a metaphor for God. If you have difficulties to read Cecilia Meireles, Absolute Sea. For some time to think about God, I do not read theologians, the poets read. Think of God as an ocean of life and goodness that surrounds us. Romain Rolland described his religious feeling as a "religious sentiment". But the sea, full of life, is uncontrollable. Some people have the illusion that you can bottle God. Who has bottled God has the power. As the story of Aladdin and the magic lamp. In God I do not believe. I have no respect for a God who allows himself to be bottled. I prefer the mystery of the sea ... Some people do not like what I think about God because they no longer believe that their bottles contain religious God ...