Views of God Part I: Apples and Oranges

Mark Chagall: Backcloth for the Ballet "The Firebird" (1949)

Bob and Alice discuss the tastiest fruit. Bob loves oranges. Alice thinks oranges are horrible. She prefer Apples, she thinks apples are not even to compare with oranges. That is a pretty reasonable argument, but the problem is that Bob is not a great fruit connoisseur, so when he talks about oranges, he is actually thinking about pineapples. In that situation it would be impossible to reach into a consensus. They can argue forever.

The same thing happens when people talk about "god". The concept differs completely for each individual. It can differs to an extent as to make their gods almost opposite things. Even if they agree on some traits, there will always be some differences in each person's view of the superior entity. This is also true among people who share the same religion, or even are part of the same denomination. 

Sacred texts do not generally are consistent or clear about the knowability of God. Christians think that although their god cannot be fully grasped, He can be known at a personal level. The problem is that one can discover that their view of God is in conflict with the church's or their peers' view of the Creator.

People form a different personality for their god according to different experiences and ideas gleaned throughout their lives. People who had good experiences growing up, such as a loving family or good friends, generally believe in a loving God, who rewards good people and who respect the free will of his creations. People who had bigoted or abusing parents would believe a restrict God, who is not tolerant of different points of views, who wants them to enforce their morality on other people.

Sacred texts, by excuse of being poetic or aimed to stimulate more than just reason, are very vague and open to interpretation. This gives the tool necessary for people to create their own god with personalities much similar to theirs. The god in their minds is actually them, with all their prejudices and fears.

This stifles argument, since people are thinking of different things when talking about God. So, in the next part of this series I am going to analyze people's views of God and how they compare to each other and I will find a common ground among all those views.

links:

• knowability of God [en]
• What Religious Arguments Are Really About [en]