Personal God
Posted by Anandhan Subbiah on Jul 27, 2007 in Deep into My Mind, Personal • 10 commentsWhen someone feels incapable and insecure they look and reach out to God for help. You constantly see and hear people pleading to god for help when they feel insecure and incapable in a certain situation. This feeling of helplessness manifests itself into a Personal God. They believe in this personal god because they need it and they want to believe in it. This insecurity makes them create this god that looks over them. Something is not true simply because you believe in it or simply because you want it to be true.A classic case of ” you heard what you wanted to hear when nothing was said” ! .
Everyday disasters take place killing many people. Floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, hunger and disease affect people everyday. Did these people deserve the pain and misery that claimed their lives? The 911 destruction and the Tsunami to name a few . What about Darfur? Why did God not help these people? Weren’t these people crying out to their personal god just as you do? So if their personal god was not willing to help them, what makes you so sure yours will help you? Yet it seems that none of that bothers the supporters of this god. They say that God can do “whatever he wishes” and no one is to question him and his authority.It is surprising that while so many people admit that there is something unjust in the structure of this world they accept all that injustice under the pretext that God must know what he is doing and we are not to even think of questioning him.The funniest thing ever is the fact that he is subject to emotions like us. As his messengers have assured us, he becomes pleased with us or would be displeased with us depending on what we do. He can become angry, mad or loving and tender, depending on our behaviors. That is an awesome power given to us, the decedents of a bunch of African apes, to control the mood of the almighty God, the author of this unimaginably vast universe. That raises the all important question who is the BOSS ? In hindu mythical stories the Gods actually freak out if you don’t pay them attention. The Christian God does not fare well either . From what I have read it looks like he sends insects in hundreds when things don’t go his way .
There are 40,000 children who die every day because of malnutrition and diseases associated with poverty. What test they have to give? To prove what? The other lame excuse is that God is patient? Is that a virtue? Can any loving God sit patiently letting small children be blown up by terrorist bombs, killed in earthquakes and other disasters or simply withered by prolonged hunger? What does this “all knowing” and “compassionate” god want to prove? Why he is so oblivious of the cries of the wronged ones in this world?
No war criminal has done more harm to people than God. Is he less compassionate than humans? Why he does not come to the rescue when his children need him? If God knows the future, his knowledge of the future makes it impossible for us or him to act differently and therefore our prayers and supplications are of no use. What has to happen and is in the knowledge of God will happen anyway, whether you pray or not. Then why pray for the peace? Why pray for the deceased? Why pray for blessing, bounty, protection, forgiveness or wisdom? Isn’t praying a total waste of time? Prayers affect only the one who believes in them.
The mind of a human being can control his/her destiny more than a GOD can.
Well, if a deer gets cornered by a lion it won’t pray to God but it will run for its life.When things go wrong use your brain to plan the next course of action and please don’t sit in one corner and pray.
Great post!
Caught this on Digg, figured I’d toss some encouragement your way.
I saw this post and I just have to say that if you have an opinion or belief that is abosultely fine…but do not criticize or make fun of others who have their’s.
If everyone believed in this “personal god” that you mention the world would be beyond selfish. You haven’t needed to call out to “our God” for any reason yet in your life. You probably had a good childhood had plenty of food never had to worry about money, your parents probably even payed for your education. All you had to do was study. Probably didn’t even have to work your way through college. Let me guess no personal tragedies as of yet..right??? So for someone who has had everything served to them on a silver platter and really had no dire situation to get out from I’m sure you can sit there and say that your “personal God” can get you out of everything. When you are faced with something unbearable….you will look to another force for help. That’s not stupid…that’s what you call hope. I wonder if you didn’t have “our God” to blame for all the destruction, poverty, calamities in the world…who would you blame???? Your heart? Your brain?
Let me guess you have probably contributed or donated $0.00 to third world countries for children or for education. Did you contribute to the Tsunami victims???? Do you do charitable events, fund raisers????? I’m guessing probably not. Can you blame your “personal god” (heart and brain) for that?
“personal” God is selfish…only out for yourself. If everyone believed in their “personal” God I wonder if this world would be able to fit some of the ego and self conceit out there in people.
If everything in the world was perfect…then no one would ever even think of God. God wanted a perfect world…but the people made it the way it is now…because of their selfish heart.
I’m not crusading for the world to believe in God…everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I just had rebut you for making people like us look like fools for our belief. If praying gives us a sense of relief that there might be an answer or things will be better beacuse you don’t have the answers to everything…that’s not weakness or stupidity….that’s just HOPE.
My intention was never to insult folks who worship. If any of my comments seem to indicate that then that definitely not my intent. My best friend is a staunch believer in God and I respect him for that.
As for your other comments Jeena , I worked my ass to be where I am now and did not depend on anybody and I have had my fair share of tragedies and disappointments but that is too personal for me to publish in a Blog. I did not ignore God just because I got everything I need easily , so it is a false assumption on your part. Whenever I was in trouble my family and friends helped me out .
I did give money to non-religious charity and will continue to do so. I have also contributed a lot to Animal welfare organizations.
My only response to all your other comments is “you are entitled to your opinion” and IMHO people who worship are not fools but they are diffrent. As long as religion does not cause destruction I will not even think of writing an article like this but it is so obvious that we are having more problems in this world with people believing that thier God is better than the rest. I stand by what I said Love is God to me and nothing else is .
Hope this settles everything.
Honestly, debating over the existence of God is a seriously complex topic. No matter how much we want to defy and say that there isn’t a God, or that God’s intentions are far crueler than what our forefathers has taught us, it would require days and months of careful scrutinization of all the things we know and what we believe in.
Simply, it all boils down to belief though. True, that there are tragic disasters that God “could have done without.” But if these things didn’t happen, would it have called our attention and changed our selfish ways. Maybe, just maybe they were really meant to happen, they were meant to teach us a lesson.
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Hi,
You are very cool and I love your site… It is very well done!
I can tell you think alot, and thinking is a great thing! I always remind people to think.
I can’t say I disagree with you, because people naturally want to create their own god… A god that believes what they believe, when in fact it should be the other way around.
Anyways, if you believe that Jesus lived and you believe he was the son of God, then you must be reminded of what he said the two most important of God’s commandments are:
1) Love God
2) Love everybody else
Listen and Think about this: You can only LOVE GOD as much as the person you Love the least. It doesn’t matter who they are or what they’ve done… If you do not love them, you can not love God.
Have great day and thanks for the great (thought provoking post)!
ps: I’d love to talk to you more if you want.
– jason (jason.e.minton@gmail.com)
Jason : Thanks.
“You can only LOVE GOD as much as the person you Love the least.”
I cannot complain about this . If being kind and respecting all living things alike is the whole idea of God then that is excatly what I am trying to express.
My problem is not the folks who lead a decent life and worship God but with all those people in the world who have no respect for other human beings and other forms of life in the world (but) believe that they can get away with it as they believe in and worhship God.This is the culture I am targetting
Maybe God does exist and he never meant for humans to use religion to cause so much destruction but that is my question why does he not punish the bad guys so the world will learn that they cannot escape punishment for thier bad deeds even if they believe in God.
I overheard one sad old lady saying that the Tsunami happened because God wanted to reduce the population in the world by causing a natural calamity. This is the most damaging influence of religion that innocent people dying is seen as a act of fury on God’s part when all that happened was a result of a earthquake in the middle of the Indian ocean. If religion can be cleansed of all these horrible misconceptions it will change people like me to believe in God but something tells me it won’t happen in my lifetime.
Compelled by the asterisk named “I” was with personal hosts of host. The beckoning spirit overridden became the toll whom does not react to upsetting wisdom. The once endolled repercussion of faith and fact became evidence of some mere God, in the long run. Each faithful day full of distance measured irreproachable, and even that is saying nothing, this is day, this is week, this is once and for all, the movement of people acting stupid to the beat of a financeer in heat, the wicked roam of a nonplussed superstitious funktoid flaken hater. overheaded uncle2B to major perfect… is quite nice to [consider]
subbiah could go either way the ein blows baby bring in day or just for fun, subbiah
In response, let me point you at this (The full item is at http://waiterrant.net/?p=517):
My thoughts drift back to a time when my godfather and I were in a museum. We’re looking at a medieval tapestry. He’s intently studying the back of it. Puzzled I join him.
“What do you see here?” he asks me.
The back of the tapestry is rough and frayed, betraying the handiwork of the person who made it. The colors are mottled and muted. There’s a lot of darkness.
“A mess,” I reply.
“Yes,” he smiles. “I like looking at the back of the tapestry because it’s a lot like real life. A mess. It makes no sense, there seems to be no order or beauty.”
Then, his arms on my shoulders, he moves me to the front of the tapestry. I look at it. Undimmed by the centuries - it’s gorgeous.
“But every once in a while God gives you a glimpse of the other side and it all begins to make sense,” he says gently.
I’m silent. I know something important has happened but I’m too young to understand.
I look at my godfather. He’s a Byzantine Catholic priest. With his beard and flowing robes he really looks like an Obi-Wan – except he’s the real thing.
“No one is unimportant. We all play a part in designing life’s tapestry. You never know what your effect on people is going to be. When you think the world is ugly, makes no sense, remember there is always another side. If you’re lucky God will grant you a peek.”
Thanks for the comments Tom F.