God, your ego

I’ve been meaning to write on this topic for quite a while now but as usual, procrastination got the better of me. With Christmas coming up and all these Jesus posts popping up on Facebook reminding me that religious nuts are still out there , now seems a good of a time as ever.

During the summer I visited my family. My mother, a devout Catholic and a Sunday school teacher, naturally began the annual dinner-table discussion about my atheism. The conversation slowly turned to what I felt were the evils in the bible and it ended with me asking her, bluntly, if she believed that death penalties as ordered by God were warranted. I don’t remember what her reply was but my next two questions were; should I be stoned for being a disobedient child and should her gay friend be stoned for being homosexual? Her reply was no, because those laws didn’t fit with today’s society. While I agree with that statement, it was interesting what she had done. She had decided which part of the religion she wanted to follow and through the process of verse elimination had created her own personalized God.

In the last few years I’ve debated, argued and discussed the topics ‘religion’ and ‘God’ countless of times and one thing I’ve noticed is that the perception of God and religion is much like snowflakes, no two are exactly the same. What I mean is, each person has a different perception of what they believe God is, what God wants and what God stands for. Just like every preacher can somehow have an entirely different perspective of a verse in a holy book and yet somehow, every one of them can claim that is how God intended the verses to be interpreted.

My mother isn’t an isolated case of someone creating their own God. I have a number of friends (whom I mean no disrespect to) that have their own perceptions of God. I recall a conversation that I had not too long ago with a Muslim friend of mine who stated that he tries to refrain from sinful activities “at least during Ramadan”. Clearly the logic behind this was that his personal God does not mind if he indulges in activities specifically outlawed in the Quran, as long as he refrains during Ramadan (and he plans to continue with them right after).

It is through the countless cases like these that I’ve come to the conclusion that God does exist, as you. More specifically, your ego is God. God is what you want him to be, how you shape him to be. You have created your own bearded man in the sky based on your likes and dislikes. Haven’t you ever wondered why someone’s personal God always seems to be a reflection of that person’s specific beliefs and character? How their God always has the same opinions as they do?

A quick look at any discussion/argument/debate on the internet regarding God vs. no God will show hundreds of people of faith, each attempting to prove the atheist wrong with a different story of what they believe God is. It is all too common that religious people of the same faith can agree with “God”, but not with each other. A great example is homosexuality. Scrolling down a pointless online argument, a Muslim man and two other Christians hold the belief that homosexuality is an abomination according to God. A further two Christians have presented the argument that God loves homosexuals but they should not start same-sex families. A number of others have stated that they do not believe their God would create homosexuals and it is entirely about choice, not nature. The popular opinion is that God hates the act, not the person. A lesbian who is presenting her arguments seems to have a very forgiving personal God who loves her nonetheless because her sexual orientation is not “her choice”. Each perception of how a person’s God views this topic is directly related to the opinion and personality of the person themselves. It's likely you could trace a person's background from the details surrounding their God.

I could go on and on. A few examples;

• - The friend of mine who mentioned in a conversation about religion that he believes his God has given him the wisdom to choose what he wants to practice from the teachings in the Quran.
• - Christian friends of mine who come up with a variety of reasons as to why they do not have to follow the teachings of the Old Testament.
• -Jewish people who find a variety of loopholes in the "no working on Sundays" law.
• - The relative of mine who loudly stated that “God is great” because the family has food on the table, while ignoring the millions of starving children across the planet.
• - Numerous friends of mine of both faiths who would aggressively (verbally) defend their religion and proclaim the greatness of their God, while drinking, smoking and being sexually active.
• - The rich churchgoer who feels God is happy with him because he donated a large sum of money for the decorations put in the church, which he mainly did because he wanted to be more comfortable there, instead of to the numerous charities available.

In each scenario the person possesses a certain behavioral trait, cultural upbringing or even simple desires. The characteristics of their God is directly related to these factors. No matter what is said in their religious texts, the follower of the religion adapts the traits of their God to suit their desires. The fact is, there is no deity up in the sky, merely your ego and a fictional creation that you have shaped based on your mental abilities and in an effort to reduce cognitive dissonance, you have made it an alter-ego of yourself thereby ensuring that you and your ‘god’ will never differ in opinion.