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Essay: Why Everyone Has a Different Perception of God

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  • Published: 1 April 2019*
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Everyone has a different perception of God. Even atheists (those who don’t believe in God) have an image or concept of God in their mind. Its human nature. Just because you don’t believe in something doesn’t mean you don’t have an idea of it. When I picture God I imagine a human-like figure. This is anthropomorphism. I believe I had gained this perception at a young age as my image of God is not extremely complex. Throughout history, different groups of people have had a wide range of perceptions of God.  For example ancient beliefs from the Palaeolithic period suggest how religion (and therefore God) has always been apart of our world. They believed in a higher being who was thought to have an animal shape or to be capable of changing and combining shapes. Such zoomorphic higher beings appear as mediators and as personifications of the supreme God. In the series ‘The Story of God with Morgan Freeman’ in Season 1 Episode 4, Freeman questions if there is some universal concept of God that all religions share. “One divine form of energy.” He discussed how in India they believe in millions of Gods (female, male, non-human) each with a different power. Every family has their own God that they worship and that they ask for help in return for worshipping. Christians, Muslims and Jews all worship the same God (monotheism). Freeman found that the differences between these religions lie in the way they see and worship God. For example, Muslims believe that God is beyond imagination. They see God in all things that are beautiful (immanent, manifests in the physical world). Christianity understands God as omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), omnibenevolent (all-loving), omnitemporal (in all times/ beyond time) and omnipresent (everywhere). If all of these are true then God has already decided what’s going to happen in every single case. I believe that God is transcendent (beyond human understanding). I believe that is why throughout history we have struggled with the concept of God.

So why do some people believe in God (theism) and some don’t (atheism)? Firstly, let us look at why people believe in God and worship him. The question of life and its purpose is forever surrounding the belief in God. People now and in the past have struggled with this and so have put their belief into something tangible. For some reason, it is easier for people to believe that all life was created by God than by science (the Big Bang Theory). People believe that God is responsible for all acts of nature (lightning, etc). People believe in God to dignify themselves and to give themselves meaning. Some say that we are even hardwired for religious experiences (such as meditation). Evolution also is another reason for theists to believe in God. Some people believe that evolution is the sign of God (natural selection). Charles Darwin showed us through the Darwin Theory (living organisms have descended with modifications from species that lived before them) that we were not a random accident but we weren’t designed either. He somehow proved to theists that God is the author. He is sustaining everything and evolution is the mechanism by which he does that. There is also said to be evidence of God in the brain. Scientists have studied brain changes during religious experiences like meditation. During meditation, the frontal lobe becomes more active. Whether this is God or the act of concentrating on God is another question, but many believe that this is the key to answering the question, ‘is God real?’ I am not convinced that God is in the brain. I think that someone could believe in and worship anything and the same brain activity would appear across those people.

Now let us look at why people don’t believe in God. It can be said that there is far more factual and real evidence towards this side of the argument as there is no ‘real’ proof of God. Majority of scientists do not believe in God.  Most scientists are strict materialists. They believe only things that you can feel, see or touch are real. This mindset is common in atheists. Many people believe that science has in fact made God irrelevant (contrary to prior paragraph). Scientists have a lot of ‘real’ proof that shows how humans are the ancestors of monkeys and apes through evolution. Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist and the founding father of psychoanalysis, had unique and fairly influential views on religion. Freud believed that religion was an illusion, He believed that worshipping God is a defence mechanism against anxiety. In other words, God is essentially security blanket. He believed that OCD and religious practices shared similar attributes. People with OCD believe there will be negative consequences if they don’t do something. People who believe in God generally believe that there will be negative consequences if they do not worship or have faith in God. While Freud brought up an interesting perspective on God a lot of the things he said and believed are questionable (his theories have even been proved to be damaging — his perspectives on female sexuality and homosexuality are reviled) so we have to take his opinions with a grain of salt. However, the concept he brought up is extremely interesting. I agree with Freud in the way that religion is a security blanket for many and that it can show strong similarities to OCD.  

The Problem of Evil questions the existence of God like no other philosophy.  The Problem of Evil is the idea that if God is all-powerful (omnipotent) then he should have the ability to prevent evil from happening and if God is all-good (omnibenevolent) he should want to do this too – yet evil still exists. This is known as the inconsistent triangle. There are two types of evil; moral evil which is caused by human beings (e.g. violent acts) and natural evil that occurs without human intervention (e.g. earthquakes, illnesses). Many argue in defence of God and attempt to explain how God’s existence is not refuted by the level of evil on earth (a theodicy). For example, the most popular theodicy, the free will theodicy, states that God is good and all-powerful so he gave us free will. If the world was perfect then we would all automatically believe in God and we wouldn’t have free will. Being free however also means we have the choice to do evil things (which some people choose). While this theodicy somewhat proves the inconsistent triangle is consistent, it only refers to moral evil not natural evil. One theodicy that excuses all forms of evils is the idea that we can’t have good without evil. Without sadness and pain, we would never know when we are happy. This is the same concept for good and evil. If we take good and happiness from God’s hand then we must take evil and sorrow. Other arguments against the existence of God that follow this same concept are found in the drama, ‘God on Trial’. This film was based on a true story and focused on a group of prisoners (Jews) in the Auschwitz concentration camp who questioned if God was the one guilty for their suffering. Some believed that the suffering was a test of their strength while others disagreed and said He was guilty because the survival of His people was no longer certain. What was interesting was how not many people in the barrack ever questioned the existence of God. They were instead arguing about why they were suffering and why God wasn’t helping them as most of them had never done anything to deserve it. Some believed that people had not been following the Torah (the Jewish laws of God) and so the suffering during the Holocaust was a punishment from God. A strong argument for God was that He is not good and before that moment He had just been on their side. The man who brought up this point followed by talking about the countless theological events in history where God wreaked unforgiving havoc on an ‘opposing’ side. One example the man brought up was when God drowned the Egyptian army when they refused to obey orders to not pursue the Israelites fleeing through the Red Sea. I struggle to believe that these past supposedly true events occurred at the hand of God (or that they even occurred at all) as in this day and age we have not witnessed many ‘miracles’ like the people in the bible seemed to witness. I do believe that God is good and that the freewill theodicy makes the most sense out of the many theodicy’s that people have created. I found it particularly interestedly how the barrack of Jews came to the conclusion that God was guilty and not good but when they were being sent to be killed they still prayed anyway. This shows that people believe and pray for God for comfort and it can help a lot of people get through hard times.

To conclude, I believe that religion and the belief in God is good and generally beneficial to the world as it tells you have that you have 24-hour surveillance. I think that this encourages justice and good. However, religion and the belief in God can also be harmful when extreme (extremism). I believe that with or without God there will be evil in the world and that if God made the world perfect, then it would be like our lives were designed for us and we would have no control. However, I do not think that God exists. I think that a lot of religion and the culture behind it is beautiful and creative but I believe that the existence of God is a figment of our imagination created so that we can find answers to some of life’s most unanswerable questions.

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