he stood up and said , my brothers , while it is undisputed that there is that than which nothing greater can be thought , and it has necessarily all positive attributes , including existence ( though not on our merely contingent , ephemeral , material level ) ; nevertheless , who is to say what view or image of that being has the most truth ; that which would paint it as a stern and distant father , or that which portrays it as a loving mother , as present to us as the air we breathe , flesh of our flesh , and bone of our bone , in whom we live and move and have our being ?