I was raised with a theistic understanding of God – A figure sitting in an ivory tower, watching over and judging our actions. That was all fine until I started thinking about life and what I was supposed to be doing with it. If I was being watched and judged, what were the rules on which I was being judged? Was I to go to church every Sunday? Was I to complete the sacraments? Was I to honor the commandments? Was I to be nice? Was I to have fun?

It seemed kind of crazy that there could exist a loving God who was judging people when the rules were not clear. How does that work? I’m watching and judging you, but I can’t give you any more specifics than that. Well maybe some specifics depending on whom you ask. But remember if you don’t follow the rules. . . . well . . . double-toothpicks awaits.

What . . . ? That’s absurd. Seems a little harsh.

Christianity’s theistic hypothesis of God leads to questions that have no logical answers – Why do different religions have different rules? Why have the rules change through the years? Why are certain people allowed to dispense with the rules? Why are there always exceptions to the rules? How do the rules get passed down from God?

It has all the makings of God created in man’s image. Like a parent to a child – do as I say or else. Like a religious organization to its herd – We’ve got the answers and if you don’t follow us big trouble awaits.

It is an effective way to control behavior. But the effectiveness wears off when the rules are inconsistent. And that’s the problem with an ivory tower, judging God. There are no clear rules for humanity.

When facts don’t support a hypothesis, science says try a new one.

What if instead of asking who is God, we ask what God is?

What if we look for an answer through the one constant in life?

Change is life’s one constant. And what if God is intimately associated with that one constant?

What if instead of God being an ivory-tower judger, God is the process we know as change or evolution? Evolution for the sake of God experiencing what it is. God the potential becoming God the reality through the evolution of matter.

In this equation, there are no rules. There is no judging. There is no right or wrong. There is just change for the sake of growth, experience and understanding.

God as the process of change isn’t given much credence in Western theology. But maybe it’s closer to reality than we think.

Cut the Crap: God as a separate, judgmental figure.

Bring in Change: God as the process of change experienced through us.

Timothy Velner is a husband, father, attorney and author living in Minneapolis. You can follow his daily blog – a series of discussions between the worry-self and the present-self at – thespiritualgym.me