God and Ourselves

Does God exist? At some point in any person’s life this question finds its way into their mind. There are numerous approaches to justifying the existence of god whether that be through religious texts, science and mathematics and even spiritual awakenings. Of course, there are groups of people who are not devoutly religious. Granted, that does not mean that they are pure atheists. Most people have been exposed to religion within their lives - that is how deeply rooted religion is in our society. I don't intend to talk about religion or answer whether god exists, rather I intend to find what it means to understand oneself and its connection to God. As much as we as a society would love to find some form of evidence which guarantees the existence of God, it will likely not be so evident or easy to believe. 

People have different perceptions of God. They construct the idea of God in their own way and it is often a reconstruction of their own selves. No doubt, there is no way for me to prove this, but I believe the possibility that we perceive things differently is greater than the possibility that we perceive things in the same way. 

Essentially, loving God is a form of loving oneself. God possesses all the qualities which we desire to have and is exempt from all the qualities we wish we did not have. We know that he is omnipotent and all encompassing yet we only focus on qualities that connect God to us. There are two entities which know everything about us from what we genuinely love to what we genuinely hate and the lives we have lived from our own perspective; they are God and ourselves. 

On the one hand, God is solace. A lonely man who believes that he is despised by people around him may turn to God to be saved. He may put his trust in the existence of a cosmic being and comfort himself with the idea that there is at least one entity who he can love.

On the other hand, God is someone to despise. An individual who has suffered throughout their life may choose to curse and foster a hatred of God, believing that God is the root cause for their problems. It would ultimately be much easier to accept that the world has some form of order to it rather than solely consisting of chaos. Even if it means that it was specifically ordained to go against you.  It would be much easier to understand there is a legitimate reason for one’s life : their experiences, their identity and their suffering. All individuals desire to be saved and there are times when the concept of God appears in its rawest emotional form.

In both situations, their belief in God reveals a part of who they are as people. The lonely individual both wants a person who loves them but also wants to experience loving another person. Whilst the bitter man fears the world around him and is only sustained through his outrage against God. 

Believing in God and loving God are two separate concepts. Belief does not facilitate love and the idea of love can extend beyond whether something is “real”. No doubt God exists within the mind. Of course that does not prove his (or her) existence in reality but what does it matter. If God is different for every individual, there is no guarantee that choosing to believe in God will influence the lives of others. Unless God were to appear in all his extravagance, our lives would ultimately continue. Even if he were to, would we as individuals even choose to recognise God if he did not satisfy our own criterion of what it means to be God? Are we not humanising God through religion by giving God morals, feelings, strength and an image? Wouldn’t the concept and nature of God be so far away from human understanding? We have already proven that God is not human for that lies in God’s very definition of being.

Personally, I dislike it when individuals attempt to prove God with rationality.or the very existence of God is bound to go against rationality and logic. For God is not limited by how we as humans view the world; God’s very definition is a being which transcends all that. God is not a place for rationality, in fact it is a topic where we must throw out the desire to be logical.