Time for a New God?

Trigger warning: this post examines religion.

     I’m not one for religion, although I lean toward a universal spirituality. I’ve tried Christianity, several times, but it never stuck. First, there are questions I have for which I could never find satisfactory answers. “You just have to have faith,” and “Because God gave us free will,” always fall short of logical. I was told once that I was too immature to understand faith and just needed to trust the adults teaching me about God, and then I was told to go say five Hail Marys, and five Our Fathers. What I heard in that response was, “I don’t have the patience or the ability to explain this to you in a way you, at 13, will understand. Go away, annoying child.” If your god is so complex that you cannot explain it to a 13 year old, you need a new god. In college, a priest at Notre Dame told me, “You have no idea the life God has in store for you.” Part of me was thrilled that God potentially picked me out for something special; part of me was a little creeped out that God withheld the specifics, given the whole free will concept. Now, I think this was just another version of, “I don’t have an answer for you, go away.”

     Of late, I’m seeing more evidence that either (1) God doesn’t exist; or (2) God left the building a long time ago. Irrespective, the result is the same. I am not only discouraged by the behaviors I see from “God-fearing people,” but my questions are resurrected in the face of the ugly, mean, violent language and behavior promulgated in God’s name. There is a serious disconnect between people and religious philosophies based on omnipotent, loving God. If your god wants you to hate and exclude, you need a new god.

     The contradiction between omnipotent deity and free will has always bothered me, even more so since I met a twelve-year-old boy whose father beat him, as a toddler, with a 2x4, until the child was left severely mentally impaired, but not enough wipe the memory of the beating. Why would a loving, omnipotent deity allow this to happen? God gives us free will – evil is present in the world. That’s what we are told in response to horrible events and tragedies. But, I have to ask, to what end does a loving, omnipotent god give free will to a man to beat a toddler in the head with a 2x4? What free will did the toddler have in this case? If you’re an omnipotent deity, isn’t this a case where you draw the line and say, “Not going to let this happen”? If you’re omnipotent, you’re all-powerful by definition; if you created the universe, surely you can stop a man from bashing in the head of a toddler. If evil is stronger than omnipotence, why would you worship this deity? Our world is replete with examples to which this question applies, that I have to ask, isn’t this evidence that god is a human invention? If god is a human invention, perhaps we need to invent a new god.

     Even if the deist model of a clock-making god who created the universe and stepped back is one to which we ascribe, I ask, if God stepped away from us, why does God need churches? If you wish to pray to your god, go ahead, but the idea that God wants or needs your outward devotion, your public displays of faith, and your cash, just doesn’t work for me. Look around you, religion has been, and continues to be, co-opted for the personal gain of a relative few for eons. Isn’t it time that we evolve beyond that?

     I see a trend among the extremely religious, and I don’t think this is a new trend – I believe we’re just seeing a resurgence of an old crime. Religion, faith, is being used to suppress knowledge and understanding, and I don’t mean in the empathic, emotional sense alone. I look at those using religious principles to restrict the rights of people who don’t fit into a very narrow band they define as “normal," and have to ask why. Because the truth would undermine their fear of people who are not exactly like them. It would also erode the power of the few in charge - those with the direct connection to God. And it’s easy to use religion to do this. 

     The Christian Bible, with the heavily relied upon New Testament, was created, selected, edited, all before year 1,000 CE. Hardly an enlightened portion of human history. The cherry picking of authority from the Old and New Testaments serves only to reinforce the message of the one creating it. If that message is fear, exclusion, and ignorance, there’s plenty of available material.

     There’s also a lot of material that undermines fear and hate, but I see that being ignored, or worse, perverted. Love your neighbor as yourself has been narrowly defined to include only the person standing next to you as you picket the Supreme Court to allow you to discriminate against others. Yeah, see, Jesus didn't qualify the command, he just said to love.

     In my rainbows and unicorns world, I would like there to be a divine entity. Primarily because I would like to believe there will be a reckoning for a man who beats his child (and many, many others). I don’t want that person to get off so easily at the end of their life with a simple cremation or rotting corpse. I want that person to feel the retribution of a god that says you will pay for what you did to a powerless little boy. I would much prefer a god who actually intervened, but since intervention didn’t happen, I hope for punishment.

     If my deity exists, when we reach judgment, the question will not be, “How well did you keep the laws I laid down?” The question will be this: “How did you love?” Did you love in a way that relieved suffering or created fear? Was your love inclusive or exclusive? Did you love in a way that promoted love, or did you love in a selfish way? Did you love things more than beings? Did you promote those who propagate hate, violence, and fear? Did you protect those who hurt others? Because if you actually read the Gospels of the New Testament, the god described in there isn’t the one I see being pushed in front of us now. Maybe we need to push a new god.