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Essay: "God"

by Jayson Hawkins

"People believe in God because they've been conditioned to believe in God" - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
Who or what does one refer to when speaking of "God"? In our society, people generally assume that "God" refers to the Christian deity, but that assumption is built more on the time and place or our birth than on any meaningful definition of what "God" is. To the founding fathers of this country, many of whom were Deists, "God" represented Natural Law -- the rational and scientific order in Nature. Although this "God" (which they also call "Providence") had nothing to do with the Bible, both Christians and non-Christians alike were satisfied merely by the use of this non-specific term. "God" was a word subjective enough to accommodate each individual's imaging of what the concept of deity meant to them.

We've all heard the saying, "Man was created in the image of God," but a far more accurate statement would be that "God is created in the image of "Man" (or woman as the case may be). The author Robert Anton Wilson has observed that we're all human chauvinists. After all, if we were dogs, wouldn't our "God" be a dog too? (This particular example is a reference to Aleister Crowley's statement that he had "wrenched DOG backwards to find GOD; now GOD barks." But that's neither here nor there). I recall being stunned as a kid to hear KRS-1 proclaim on "The Arsenio Hall Show" that "in the Posse Bible, Jesus was black." Even though I've never figured out exactly what the "Posse Bible" is, I have come to understand the spirit of what he was saying -- Who doesn't imagine their deity as having traits similar to one's self? Or, as Peter Steele of Type-O Negative so eloquently sings, "Jesus Christ looks like me." (In which case J.C. looks like the captain of a Goth-metal basketball squad, which I suppose is no more or no less valid of an observation than that of the "Posse Bible.") If we, as human beings of a myriad of races and cultures, naturally tend to recognize and honor deities similar to ourselves, another question comes to mind -- Why would anyone worship a "God" that was foreign to and/or unlike one's self? Alice Walker addresses this issue in The Color Purple when she writes, "When I found out I thought God was white, and a man, I lost interest." Unfortunately, many people in the world today have yet to come to the realization that they're chasing Gods completely alien to themselves and their ancestors. The resulting paradoxes can only lead one to inner turmoil and neuroses, rather than being in balance with what is normal and natural. Personally, I'm a devotee of Woden (Odin), the God of my European forebears. I don't say that as an endorsement of this specific deity. Rather, I see in Woden characteristics that are like myself, as well as other qualities that I aspire to. It would make no sense for a Sioux, a Hindu, or a Jew to dedicate themselves to Woden; likewise, it would be silly for my to devote myself to Wakan Tanka, Shiva, or Yahweh. I respect these peoples and their Gods, just as I expect them to respect my folk and my god. However, their Gods are not mine, and mine is not theirs. Even others of Anglo-Saxon of Teutonic heritage may not identify with Woden but rather with Donr (Thor), Freyja, Ziu, or any of the other deities of the northern European pantheons depending on each person's tastes values. With as many different ethnicities and personalities as we have on this earth, I'd encourage each individual to research their own rich culture and history. Hopefully more and more folk will take the time to do some soul-searching and discover was "God" means to them as individuals instead of blindly accepting a generic "one size fits all" deity. I'll take individuality and diversity over mob-mentality and universalism any day.

"The idea that there is one people in possession of the truth, one answer to the world's ills or one solution to humanity's needs has done untold harm throughout history." Kofi Annan, U.N. Secretary General