When thinking of God and religion, what come to my mind is the God of Abraham. To identify God as the God of Abraham is somewhat misleading because, as mention in my last post, the term God defies definition. The God of Abraham, the version of God referenced in the Holy Bible. is being used because it is the concept of God, I know best.
Not every religion thinks of God as the God of Abraham, but three religions do: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Theistic religion existed long before God called Abraham to go on a journey to a promised land that Abraham would never see realized in his lifetime, nor in the lifetimes of his two sons, their children and their children's children's and their children in the following 400 years, during which time, they mostly resided in Egypt.
The God of Abraham is also the God of Moses, the God of Jesus, and the God of Mohammed. In the story of the burning bush (Exodus 3), God commissions Moses to return to Egypt and ask Pharaoh to release the enslaved Israelites. Moses, being more than a bit apprehensive about returning to a land where he was wanted as a murderer, asks God, "Who shall I say is sending me?" To which God cryptically responds, "I am who (that, which) I am. Tell them (the Israelites) 'I am" is sending you."
The Hebrew derivative of the this phrase is "Yahweh" is equally cryptic since, like "I am," it is linked to the verb "to be." As the name of God, Israelites were forbidden to say it, substituting the word "Lord" when speaking of Yahweh. "God is" is very close to the non-descriptive concept of Einstein's use of "God" which I understand to be a metaphor for the ultimate Theory of Everything being sought by physicists.
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In Genesis 4, we encounter the first religious acts recorded in the Bible. The story of Cain and Abel identifies sacrifice as the first religious rite directed at appeasing God. We don't don't know why Cain or Abel decided to offer sacrifices to God. There is no mention of God requiring a sacrifice at this juncture in the biblical narrative, which likely means that the authors of Genesis didn't think it was necessary to talk about an origin of something they saw as a necessity blood sacrifices were apparently deemed more appeasing than offerings of produce like wheat and barely.
The most demanding and severe religious rite we know of at the time of Abraham was offering a blood sacrifice of one's child as the gods or God would command. So when God commands that Abraham sacrifices his only heir, Abraham obeys and takes Isaac to a mountain top to sacrifice him. As Abraham is about to do so, an angel of God stops him and, finding a ram, Abraham offers the ram instead.
Sacrifice is at the center of all religions as an act of submission to the will God (or the gods) even to this day. This sacrificial sense of appeal and appeasement of a divine entity or entities is alive and well today, even though human sacrifice has been taken of the table in a legal sense, although it remains symbolically alive in Christianity. Perhaps the most famous human sacrifice of all is that of Jesus of Nazareth, whose crucifixion by the Romans is considered by Christians as a sacrifice to atone (pay the price ) of humanity's sins. The Sacrifice of the Mass (the rite of Holy Communion) in Christianity is considered a re-enactment of Jesus Christ's original sacrifice.
Religion provides the basis for the moral paradigms that regulate or gives a sense of order to the lives of its followers. The God of Abraham, for example, creates a covenantal relationship with Abram. As such, God renames Abram to Abraham. Then, in order to establish a religion, a binding covenantal relationship marked by ritual, God demands that every male in Abraham's service is circumcised. The idea of circumcision obviously predated this event in Genesis and was adopted to indicate that the household of Abraham, the tribe, had its own God. Again we see a form of blood sacrifice was required to seal the deal.
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Theistic religions, as a whole, are associated with the acquisition of power through appeal and appeasement of a divine source. Hence, the authority of rulers is rooted in religion and remains so to this day. Even in secular governments and societies, the trappings of religion remain alive and well. Sacrifice is still required to appease, if not a divine god then a god-like state. The correlation between religion and the state is strong. A patriotic allegiance to God and Country are virtually indistinguishable.
The God of religion, above all else, is malleable. That is why there are so many theistic religions in existence today. A much quoted saying regarding religion attributed to Seneca states, "Religion is true to the common person, false to the wise, and useful to the powerful."Religion is often coopted by leaders of a given state to exercise control of its citizens.
I find there is demonstrable truth to this statement being exhibited in the rise of religion-based nationalism throughout the world. This is particularly evident in the rise of Christian Nationalism within the United States where God has been enlisted to serve the MAGA movement in portraying its candidate in the upcoming Presidential election, Donald Trump, as chosen by God to be elected president during the national election in November of this year.
Of course the only people who will be impacted by such a prophetic prediction are those who are ardent Christian supporters of Mr. Trump. If he wins, it will confirm the prediction. If he loses, it will be (in the minds of his ardent supporters) because of a lack of faith in God, which is how ardent fundamentalism works in every religion; the prophetic prediction is never wrong, the people are.
The wise are always in short supply, while the "ardent believer" is not hard to find and is there for the picking by an authoritarian who can plug into their blind trust in the authority of an apparent "strongman." Such is the malleability of religion and the fickleness of the human mind.
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By in large, theistic religions don't encourage critical thinking. Establishing an indoctrinated identity is the mode by which most theistic religions generally operate. Like Abraham never being able to realize the promise of a Promised Land in his lifetime, most theistic religions do not hold the promise of a promise land, a Nirvana, a heaven (or a hell) in this life. Rather, they engage in a wait and see approach that depends on whether a person merits some form of an afterlife or in many cases will be sent to a paradise or to a hell. Theistic religion rarely allows for the possibility that we humans are capable of solving this world's (our) problems by addressing the evil or sin we create. Instead, we are encouraged to defer to God and await a final judgment.
Raised an indoctrinated Christian, I understand the gravitational pull this has on one's life. The promise of salvation based on believing in Jesus Christ dying for my and every other person's sins is mitigated by a host of "if, ands, and buts." The idea the some people are predestined to be saved while others, as the Gospel of John 3:18 puts it are "condemned already" because they don't believe promotes a sense of helplessness and hopelessness. What an odd verse that is because, if people are condemned already, what chance is it that they could ever believe and be saved? There is no wiggle room in that declaration. I personally do not believe Jesus said anything like that. Such a statement is pure theological speculation, but it makes one wonder how many people have gone through life feeling condemned and hopeless because of it.
Jesus' understanding of God was that of God being a loving father, and not just his father, but the Father of every living thing. Jesus' teachings exhibits God's love for all creation, and in that love we humans have it within us the power of God to heal the world; that the Kingdom of God which he proclaimed is attainable in this life if we would reach for it.
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For centuries, theistic religion was used by civil authorities as the purveyor of moral conduct which would ultimately carry out justice on the good and the evil. Hope in the promise of an eternal life in some sort of paradise is the spiritual currency that has kept and keeps theism alive and well today, but this currency is losing value in an increasingly secular world; especially, when the moral leadership associated with theism is increasingly subject to scrutiny that frequently reveals a streak of hypocritical behavior within its ranks.
I am not suggesting that theistic religion will go away or that it should go away, but it could go away or be reduced to a cultic artifact as a primitive ideology. The fact is people tend to be religious. People need other people, which is the primary impulse to be religious.
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The concept of an indefinable God is not likely to go away. I would suggest that what keeps the idea of God alive is its indefinability in search of a definition. It is this indefinable property of God that keeps the term God relevant in our world. God as the indefinable source and the metaphorical term for the Theory of Everything gives it a broad appeal in our search for meaning. Theistic religion is slow to catch up with the reality that scientific discoveries necessitates a revision of its theologies. What is becoming obvious is that it is not science that is playing at being God, but rather it is theistic religion that believes it speaks for God.
In my next post, I will examine the topic of GOD IN SCIENCE.
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Until next time, stay faithful.
Norm
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