THE HUMAN GOD

Our forebears confounded by the predictability of the seasons, the randomness of natural disasters, and the mystique of life especially our ability to create offspring, similar to us, decided to ascribe such happenings to the work of a Supreme Being. With no human claiming to be the Creator of such a wonderful scheme of things, the early man gave the credit of creation to physical objects both seen and unseen. Such objects became gods, but to give such gods a human dimension and personal connection to us, we always put the human in our gods.

The original human god was a man or woman who was endowed with immense physical or mental attributes and was able to manipulate other humans to his/her own advantage. If you can confiscate my property, beat me to a pulp, and forbid other people from dealing with me, you are my god. That god is at least the god that directly affects and controls me.

There are animal parallels. Suddenly one chick emerges from a brood of chicken and starts pecking on the other chicks to enforce the natural order. One may wonder what is going on in the minds of the other chicks. If they can talk to us, they may tell us that their god is bothering them. We see human equivalents in the god-pharaohs. Since the pharaohs held the powers of life and death over their subjects, they were gods.

Another good example of a human created god is the Sun god. The early man must have been mystified by the overpowering, constant, and predictable Sun. It came over the horizon predictably; it warmed you up, provided your plants with energy, and illuminated the environment. If you looked at it, it blinded you. There was no hiding from the Sun. When it took a rest at night, its offspring the Moon deputized for it. The early man taking all these in exclaimed, “The Sun must be god.” The early man then proceeded to put a human face on the Sun and deify it.

Other human gods followed to explain other inexplicable events. The half fish, half human mermaid god explained the waves, tides, and gale force ocean winds. When it is beyond our knowledge, comprehension, and imagination, we ascribe it to a god. When there is a strong gale force wind at night when the Sun god is asleep, there must be other gods who are helping the Sun god to maintain the natural order or chaos depending on your inclination. Do you prefer a half-full or hall-empty cup?

Every unexplainable natural phenomenon was ascribed to a god and every major life activity had to be controlled, contained, and consummated by a specific god. Consequently, we have gods for fertility, farming, war, love, and so on. On a more personal level, people started sculpting personal gods for specific purposes.

In most societies, these gods answered to a more powerful God, which usually resides in the clouds above. This is understandable since most natural disasters such as floods, tornadoes, cyclones, lightning, and hurricanes always come from above. Rain could be the god, urinating on us, hurricanes could be god, passing gas, earthquakes could be angry gods stumping on the ground, and the list goes on. If the Ancients had airplanes and rocket ships, they would have thought that God lived underground!

No plane or spacecraft has ever encountered God, Heaven, or Hell. Could Heaven and Hell also be human creations?

In some societies especially in the tropics, the lightning god was feared as it could strike you dead suddenly, and of course you must have committed some seen or unseen transgression, to be killed by god. Nobody has ever been killed by lightning while under a shelter but tell that to superstitious Africans whether educated or not.

The unification of all gods into one almighty invisible being by Religion did not solve the problem of humanization of god. While invisible, God came to us in a human form, in keeping with the humanization of god.

Why God did not come in the form of a talking, invisible or visible cloud remains a mystery to some?

Did God have to be born by a human?

Since God created us out of nothing, couldn’t God have suddenly appeared without warning to fix some of the havoc that God created?

God gave us the freewill to commit original sin, the freewill to be inhumane, the freewill to kill, the freewill to enslave other humans, and then God will judge us at the end! This is like medicine after death.

When God was threatened with the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11: 3 – 9), God intervened by making the people speak different languages.

Why would God not intervene and prevent 700 million from going to bed hungry every night?

Why did God not intervene to stop Hitler or Genghis Khan?

Wouldn’t it be better to give us a loving, humane and caring will, right from the outset?

Why show up and then wait for over 2000 years without returning to follow up on God’s creations?

Was it necessary for God to come down to be humiliated by God’s own creation?

Since God created the “Devil,” couldn’t God just have eliminated the Devil to spare us the constant harassment and temptation?

The Devil is a human creation that explains why good people suddenly turn evil. An innately, conniving pastor that decides to murder his wife for real or perceived infidelity is possessed by the Devil.

When you question some beliefs or faiths that seems nonsensical or illogical, you are possessed by the Devil or you are an anti-deity.

When events become too complex for one God, you throw in the Son, the Father and the Holy Spirit.

What of God, the Daughter; God, the Mother; and soon the LGBTQIA God?

Some denominations now ordain LGBTGIA clergy and soon LGBTGIA groups will clamor for their own God.

It is their right to do so. Only time will tell.

Finally, any way you dissect, analyze, or proselytize it, the existence of “God” is incontrovertible, but humans may never know God’s shape, form, and size. The “Big Bang Theory” instead of repudiating the existence of God has strengthened it indeed. Nothing cannot bang nothing, and something cannot bang nothing. For a bang to happen, something must bang something. A simple explanation of the big bang could be one God banging another God and creating the universe or in religious terms God the Father banging God the Mother and creating the universe.

In conclusion, we may agree that there was something that started this Universe and that something is God but giving God a human flavor because we do not know God’s size, form, or shape is disingenuous. Even more disingenuous is the story of creation being told by human beings who apparently were already in existence before their creation and witnessed it, to be able to give an account of it. Unless you believe the Prophets, whom God told the story of creation, usually alone and in their bedrooms, several thousand years, after God created the Earth!

Africastallestman believes in God but disbelieves in the Human God.