God: who are you; what are you? Part 4

God: who are you; what are you?

Part 4

This is a theoretical possibility – though I am reluctant to judge that this is so – not least because this “3^rd voice” so often seems to strike through the dross of usual concerns to reveal a distinctively different – and better – angle on the subject. It is a “divine” angle because it is so elevated, altruistic, principled, beneficial. As I know myself to be not a terribly nice person, this voice sounds so incredibly wise and loving that it’s reasonable for me to think: “This is not me talking now”.

So, is God’s voice just the work of our own minds? Of course, God’s voice always speaks with our voice. It uses our vocabulary and sentence structure. It uses our core ideas and values. Because we are the only person who has access to our own minds, then we are aware that the “internal conversations” are going on in our own minds. By the way, how else is any of this going to happen? If God is going to speak to us, where else would he do it except in our own minds – using our normal words and thought forms – but imbued with his nature. None of this is necessarily arguing against God. Nevertheless, this “voice of God” is clearly experienced as existing in our own minds – just as the other voices which we readily accept are our own voices exist in our own minds. Therefore, it is natural to say that this “God’s voice” is our own voice too really – and religious people have simply made a mistake. Interestingly, this conclusion is so natural that it makes me wonder why anyone ever thought that it was God’s voice. Are the points above about the “higher” quality of this voice really sufficient to make us think: “That’s not me; that’s God”? Is it because this “voice of God” is so often taking up a moral position contrary to our own desires? So, in our internal conversation, although we’re putting up a good battle with ourselves to “do the right thing” we know that “really” we want to do the selfish thing. So many people successfully talk themselves round to the selfish point of view that we mustn’t take an easy psychological way out and say, “Ah, so God is just the internalised voice of moral authority – Freud was right all along”. It seems more honest to me to give God (“the voice of God”) a bit more credit. My cunning self-interest is quickly grinding down the resistance of my principles when the voice of God commandingly cuts through: “You will honour me and put your self-interest to one side”.