I have a theory. I have a lot of them, actually, and the less I know about a given subject, the more definite my theory on it is. Today’s theory pertains to religion, and it goes like this:
In today’s world, there are no atheists. Everyone believes in a god, and the most common god is oneself. Anyone who decides what is right or wrong for him or herself is his or her own god. This includes agnostics, “atheists,” and those who nominally associate themselves with a religion or set of beliefs, but use their own discretion as to whether to accept individual tenets thereof.
You can’t do without a god altogether, you see, because there is no “right” or “wrong” in nature, nor there any “meaning” in life. Animals don’t do things because they are right or wrong, nor because they seek meaning. Perhaps humans are just very weird kinds of animals, and right, wrong, meaning, and so forth are things we need to survive in our highly bizarre and improbable “adaptation,” but while animal behavior is easy to explain in terms of survival, human behavior isn’t. Neither war nor compassion make any sense in natural terms; people try to make them fit into the evolutionary schema, but these are nothing more than just-so stories. And no matter what the reason we need these things, natural or supernatural, we need something outside of nature (a god) to make them for us.
As a Christian, there is a distinction to be made between being one’s own god, and being a fully-engaged Christian. Our God could dictate every aspect of our lives to us and demand unquestioning acceptance (because he's God), but instead He graciously allows us to involve our intelligence, understanding, and emotion in our faith. Sometimes we don’t understand, and we choose to accept God’s word blindly because we trust that He does understand. Sometimes we only partly understand, but the Christian faith always allows us and indeed requires that we think and feel, in order to be a true faith.
The basis for our faith is the Bible, and it would in fact be difficult to live our lives in accordance with it, without thinking for ourselves. The Bible reiterates certain general principles over and over—love God, love your neighbor—and a there are a few specific guidelines that are made perfectly clear in the Bible, but a vast amount of day–to-day life is never even alluded to. How we apply those principles and guidelines requires us to think for ourselves, guided by prayer. There is thus a lot of disagreement among Christians about various specifics, which the Bible doesn’t explicitly speak to. The only way to tell who is right about these is to determine who is wholeheartedly requesting God’s guidance, who is thinking about the issues most clearly, and who God has given guidance to. And there’s no way for us to tell these things.
Now, you would probably expect me to say that making yourself your own god is a bad thing. You’d probably be right, but let’s look at this a minute: if you feel that all the major Gods of the major religions have the wrong idea(s), and you don’t care to sign over your self-determination to any other person or set of beliefs, then I guess you are your own best bet as god. The next question is: how good a god will you make for yourself?
Maybe you think you would be a pretty good god. Why not try being a god to someone else too—maybe you could do some good for people who just aren’t as together as you are? Well for one thing, people who do that are usually called “cult leaders” by people who just don’t understand. So we’ll take me, for example: I’m not into coercion, so I’ll just tell you what kind of god I make to myself, and you can decide if it’s something you’d like to sign on for.
I’m pretty nice, much of the time, but there are many situations in life that stump me: you’d be on your own there, because I tend to just stare and stammer or possibly hide in the bathroom when I should be making a positive contribution. I’m firmly committed to the concepts of Justice and Mercy; however, how I apply them has varied quite a lot over the years, depending on my age, mood, and what I’ve been reading recently. Also, though Mercy seems like a good idea to me in the abstract, I don’t really forgive. Other people, yes, eventually; myself, no. Furthermore, I dole out equal portions of hell to myself for things I did wrong recently, things I did wrong decades ago, things that happened that weren’t actually my fault, and things I did that weren’t wrong but were merely embarrassing. So you’ll need to be prepared for that if I’m to be your god.
Also, you can say that we are also “gods” in the way we treat others, since we each have some measure of power over those around us. Here’s how that goes with me: I intend to be nice to people, really I do; but things like traffic, small mishaps, and minor annoyances tend to send me into full Divine Wrath mode. I am often meanest to those who most deserve my love and gratitude: i.e., my husband and parents. If you feel you can adequately defend that kind of behavior in your apologetics work, by all means, I’m your god.
Even when my intentions are all to the good, things frequently go awry. Why? I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I am neither omniscient nor omnipotent; things which were de riguer for most of the old-school gods. I know it’s difficult to see how I can work all things for your good when I rarely have the foggiest idea of what is going on; but that’s something you’ll just have to deal with if I’m going to be your god.
What? Not interested? Well, I can hardly blame you—my god failed me a long time ago. Left alone in a vacuum, I prayed, hoping there would be a God out there who could hear me. Fortunately for me there was: a God who never changes, who not only consistently practices but is Justice, Mercy, and Love. He knows more about me than I know about myself, and He shows me to myself not as I am but as He intended me to be, and as I someday will be—and He shows me others that way too. Though I can never fully understand what He is up to, He shows himself worthy of my trust, and helps me understand more than I knew even existed. He’s a good God. I’ve gotten out of the god business, myself, but I can highly recommend Him.
It's interesting - your idea of people serving as their own gods fits in well with my experience with spiritual atheists. I've known a handful of people who do not believe in a higher power but consider themselves very spiritual - apparently their idea of spirituality is knowing themselves very well rather than seeking to know something greater than themselves. Good post.
Posted by: kim on August 24, 2005 12:39 PM