The
need for a personal god
This essay was written in response to
an email I received from a person who has had a sudden feeling
that god is his best friend.
By: Ali Z
A lot of people think of god as their
best friend, someone they can count on, and someone who loves
us. They assume that God is intelligent, loving, caring, wise,
and someone who would help us if we asked him. They believe in a
god that worries about us, but what makes them believe in such a
god?
A Muslim friend of mine once said
"help out a poor person or a person in need whenever you
can, because it pleases god". I answered him "both
science and logic can prove that such a god that you speak of
does not exist". He replied "your mistake is that you
try to prove everything with science". So I asked him the
obvious question "if science and logic can't prove that
your personal god exists then how can you prove such a god to
me"? He answered "I feel it inside me", so what
makes him feel such a god inside him?
When someone feels incapable and
insecure they look and reach out for an invisible force or power
for help. A close friend of mine has cancer and he constantly
prays to god that he'd win the battle. You constantly see and
hear people pleading to god for help when they feel insecure and
incapable in a certain situation. When nothing in this physical
world can help them they plead out for god. They believe in this
personal god because they need it and they want to believe in
it. They feel this personal god inside of them because they want
to feel 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. Yet
another example, for those who've been in Iran know that most of
the poor people are religious while you rarely find a wealthy
religious person. Could it be because the poor feel insecure
while the rich feel they don't need an invisible force to make
them feel secure?
So how do you fight this insecurity?
Through knowledge and understanding. For example you and I would
never jump in a tank with a shark or most definitely never go
diving in waters infested by sharks, but you watch scientists on
TV perform such a dangerous task. The scientist that gets in the
water has studied the sharks deeply and thoroughly. He knows the
sharks actions, why they act, how they act, and when they act.
If it was me and you in the water the only thing left for us to
do is to start pleading god to save us, however the scientist
uses his knowledge and understanding to save himself, and his
knowledge is indeed a more powerful weapon to help him than an
invisible god. Which takes me to Dr. Ali Sina's words
"often the more educated people do not believe in
religion".
Then my Muslim friend above replied
"I have asked god for certain things to see if he exists
and they have all came true". When I told him that these
were just coincidences, he didn't agree.
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? Why did your caring and loving
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?
When we use our knowledge and
understanding we realize that to define god as a creator and to
think that god has feelings is absurd. This is explained even
more clearly and with detail if you read Chance
or Intelligence? written by Dr. Sina.
Ali Z
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