How should we understand what God is? Part 7

How should we understand what God is?

Part 7: One of the voices in my head is different, because it’s not me.

Let’s now apply this understanding to what could be happening in a believer’s life of faith. I must say again, I think what’s happening is best explained by accepting that there is an independent personal agent called God. However, some wish to undermine religion by claiming that belief is all just a psychological issue really. So, let’s follow this line of argument as though it has been fully accepted. I still claim that, even as “just a psychological issue”, belief in God is the most profound and beneficial thing a person can do and is an entirely valid and justified way of life. I accept that, historically, believers have made their commitment because they believed that there really is a God. Would anyone be willing to embark on this process if they saw very clearly from the start that God is their own creation – “just a psychological process”? It would certainly be harder, but I don’t see why people shouldn’t freely and with open-eyes embark on such a path. Instead of therefore adopting atheism, I am going to recommend believing in God.

For, what has actually happened when someone reaches the stage of saying, “I believe in God because I have met him through my religious experiences, and now he is my strength and guide in life”? I think it’s this. I will use the example of a Christian, but it works for all religions.

Through continual focus, and regular practice, the Christian applies their attention to God. In this scenario, God does not exist as a person, but they apply their attention to the idea of God. This God has all the qualities of the traditional God, except that this God is now a make-believe figure – he is “an imaginary friend”. However, the believer – in company with other believers who share the same ideas and use the same language in ways that they comprehend within their community of belief – immerses themselves in a value system. These values are embedded in stories with which the believer becomes intimately acquainted, stories which continue to be revered as revelatory of ultimate truth in just the same way as scripture traditionally is. The Christian returns to these stories and prayers over and over again, and as their own life develops so these stories keep speaking to them with ever more enriching overlapping layers of meaning, revealing guidance and imparting strength to the believer. These stories and values become completely embedded in your consciousness (and perhaps your unconscious too). Through the method of prayer – which as we are considering that there is no-one you are speaking too, must now be considered a form of meditative self-reflection – the believer learns to hold in their mind and heart the voice of what a person who was actually God would say. And this is what the essence of God is in this scenario: the believer has succeeded in creating the voice of God in their own mind.