I have a number of friends and acquaintances who do not believe in God and I have notice a trend there. The God they do not believe in is also a God I do not believe in. I think a big part of the problem here is the language that we use to describe God.
Now language itself is a big problem. It's really inadequate to describe God. Language itself is quite limited. Also, how do you describe that which must be experienced to be understood? There are moments of sheer elation in my life that I find difficult to share with others as I don't have the linguistic resources to adequately communicate my experience and how it felt. Describing the Divine is a far greater challenge than describing my own experiences.
We also limit ourselves with the language we choose to use. Language itself is far too limited and yet we intentionally further limit it by choosing predominantly (or exclusively) masculine descriptions of God. How is one to shake the image of God as "the man upstairs" if we only describe God as being male, even if that's not exactly what we mean? Of course God as some kind of giant of a man who lives in the clouds and rewards or punishes us based on our actions and his whims is a nonsensical image. Of course that image of God is difficult to believe in past childhood. Our experiences in this life do a pretty good job of disproving that God.
How can we blame people for not believing in God if that, through our own limited language, is the dominant image of God in our culture. We do them, ourselves and our Creator/Sustainer a disservice when we limit God to masculine imagery.
So here's my challenge:
Try to go an entire day without referring to the Divine as anything male. No masculine language at all. See what happens. I'm not saying to never use masculine language again, just try avoiding it for a day. Your own view of God may change as well.
I once heard a pastor speak on our distorted images of God. He was an ordained minister and a licensed counselor. (I think he passed away a few years ago, but most his life he served in both vocations.) He said at his first counseling session with any individual, he would give them a blank piece of paper then ask them to draw a picture of God. He said he could tell a lot about the person's self-vew as well as their understanding of God based on that one picture. I've never forgotten that message and often wonder both what picture would I have drawn at different stages of my life, and what would that picture say about me and my understanding of God.
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