To believe in God and to say that He is—that God exists—does not constitute fraud or hypocrisy. But to assume and to assert “I am God” without having realized Him: one who does this, commits fraud indeed.
All faith is based on intellect. There cannot be faith without intellectual conviction.
Things beyond the intellect, things infinite and unlimited, cannot be understood by or through the intellect, which is finite and limited.
To understand the infinite and unlimited, or at least to get an intellectual idea of them, one must first of all assume that THEY ARE, that the infinite and unlimited really do EXIST. This comprises the data, so to speak, of the theorem. After all, we know not who and where God is; indeed, we know not whether or not He really is! But to understand, that is to say, to get an idea of God and His works (as explained in religious books or illuminated by the wise), for that, we must first take it for granted and believe that He is, that such a being as God exists. With that beginning and belief, we start in search of Him.
The people of the world, the masses of humanity, do not really believe in the existence of God. They merely fear God as some unknown mythical being who rewards the good and worthy and punishes the wicked. It is the punishment of hell created by God that they fear more than God Himself. For if they really believed in God and took His Existence to be real, if they were afraid of Him, their behavior and actions would be quite different from what they are now, with all the rampant dishonesty, wickedness, and so forth. If people at large really felt any fear of Him, they would be ever alert not to do anything that would displease Him or that He would not like.
If the masses really did believe and have faith in His Existence, they would at once set out and start to find Him and would never rest until they actually achieved this end. For when love for God comes, fear of God disappears; and when that love reaches its highest point, the lover finds that he himself is the Beloved. An atheist who disbelieves in the existence of God makes no progress. If all were to embrace atheism, there would be no progress on the path to Realization. But one who remains an atheist after receiving the intellectual knowledge that a Realized one gives him cannot be accused of fraud; indeed, this knowledge would enable such a one to advance towards realization of the goal of Truth.
– “Meher Baba’s Tiffin lectures”, p341
28-November-1926; Lonavala