I have been contemplating this post for nearly four months now. I have tried to write it several times but have been unable to express my feelings quite accurately. I must admit the title of this post can be misleading for it is not my belief that God is relative; He is absolute. The more accurate title of this post would be the The Relativity of God Throughout Humanity. I do not claim to be a philosopher or a great theologian. I am only offering my observations as a poor student of a University. And yes, I know that I am trying to swallow an elephant with this post.
In my observation there are two very broad categories of religion those that try to explain God and those that do not; e.g. Christianity and Buddhism, respectively. Since this post is about God's relativity I will not be discussing those religions that do not attempt to explain God. For those who know me, I definitely hold nothing against these religions, especially Buddhism. I will ignore these religions for the simple fact that I don't like to compare apples and oranges or try and swallow two elephants at once.
Let's compare apples to apples; Fuji's to Gala's, and Granny Smith's to Red Delicious. It will be noted that religion as with apples there are personal favorites, but that doesn't inherently make them a better apple. It only goes to support the claim of relativity of humans.
As far back as 4000 B.C. we have a record of the people that inhabited the area of Mesopotamia. These people were the Sumerians and the Akkadians. It has been estimated that they worshipped over 2000 different deities ranging from patron deities of varying cities to Gods of war, agriculture, fertility, death, etc. The facets of their life were ran by the favor of the Gods. This polytheistic pattern of appeasing the Gods continued for the next four and a half millennia with the rise and fall of multiple civilizations e.g. Greek, Egyptian, Indian, Norse, Roman, Mayan etc.
We also have a record, the Bible, of a small peculiar group of people, the Hebrews, that practiced a monotheistic religion. This record begins about 4000 BC as well. So I don't bore you with biblical history I will give an extremely brief summation. Adam, the first man, has children and about nine generations later we have Noah, the one with the Ark. In another nine generations from Noah we have Abraham. Abraham has a son Isaac; the one he was willing to sacrifice. Isaac has a son named Jacob whose name is later changed to Israel and he has twelve sons who become the twelve tribes of Israel. after Jacob/Israel dies it is 200-ish years before Moses comes on the scene and liberates the Israelites/Hebrews and takes them to the promised land. After several years in the promised land they split up into two kingdoms Israel and Judah. The kingdom of Judah is where the Jews originate. They had one God, Jehovah.
If we examine the Greek view of deity we will find an interesting correlation to their whole society. Greek deities were extremely human, they had vices and passions. They had disagreements with one another that spawned wars. Now if we think about how the Greeks viewed themselves do we not see a similar pattern. Greeks loved the concept of "humans" they thought themselves to be the best. In essence, they viewed the Gods to be like themselves.
If we look at the Hebrew religion of the Old Testament. It is filled up by a God who is anything, but human. A God who is perfect, authoritative, absolute, and in all candor, a bit of an extremist. Now looking at the people that ascribed to this philosophy another correlation can be seen. The people, as a whole, viewed themselves as absolutely and unquestionably the chosen people of God and everyone else as heathen. They viewed humanity not something to be celebrated, but something to overcome. They viewed themselves how they viewed their God.
The examples of this throughout history are vast. Unfortunately I cannot discuss them all here. I am sure though that if you were to look at other examples you would see the pattern repeat over and over.
We are no different today. There are as many varying perspectives of God as there have ever been. The different sects of Christianity, for instance, all view God differently. Some paint Him to be a God who requires praise, not obedience; and in turn all they do is praise. Others paint Him to be an ethereal spiritual mass without parts or passions that can never be fully understood; these people feel that they cannot reach an understanding of themselves. Others are unable to forgive themselves and thereby deny God's forgiveness. Some view themselves as unhappy and "going through a rough time" and therefore feel that God is unhappy with them.
In our individualistic society we all have varying beliefs of God. It is these beliefs that make Him relative to us. One day I am sure that the grey curtains of this life will roll back; the sun will shine through and our understanding of God will be complete and perfect. We will see Him as he is. Until that day though He remains to humanity, relative.
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