Religion - Perspectives on God

THE CHARACTER of GOD and IMPLICATIONS for HUMAN LIFE

The concept of "God" as unlimited truth and goodness is not new to me; it is featured in most of the religions to which I have been exposed. In general, every religious view of the Creator in my society seems to share the belief that their God is omnipotent, omniscient, and uniquely allied with their particular religious group.

It is unfortunate that so many with strong theistic beliefs are (apparently) even more threatened by the fact that others may not share any belief that there is such a thing as any "god" than by the awareness that so many others maintain specific religious beliefs that absolutely contradict their own. In fact, some of the most typical responses to finding out that someone is an atheist include biased assumptions that the person must, therefore, be an anarchist, or simply devoid of any moral thoughts or purpose in life, and more likely than God-fearing people to be "selfish." Likewise, it seems that those who learned their moral values strictly within religious principles are ether offended or simply incredulous at the suggestion that moral rules are capable of being derived logically, without reference to any God.

Chances are, if there is any such thing as a "God," especially an omniscient one, he (or she) would give more moral "credit" to those who try to do the right thing for its own sake than to those who do good deeds (or refrain from indulging their immoral urges) primarily out of fear. In that regard, the irony of doing the right thing out of concern for well-being of one's own eternal "spirit" after physical death while simultaneously characterizing those who choose to do right without any such fear or concern about an "afterlife" would hardly be lost on any genuinely omniscient God.