As Christians, we regularly speak the words of the Lords Prayer.
But have you ever really thought about these opening lines? You pray to him as "Our father", but do you actually see God as a father-figure? Do you picture him as a wise man, looking after you and guiding you with love? What is he wearing? Is he smiling? And where do you picture him? In the clouds? Or flanked by marble pillars? The Lords Prayer states: "...
who art in heaven.
" ...
Does he need a place to 'be' for you to picture him in your minds' eye? Another question for you to ponder.
"Hallowed be thy name" ...
Does he has to have a name? In the same way that you and I have a name, for identification purposes? As part of our identity? If you're trying to communicate with someone, does it help to know their name? Take a moment to consider how we communicate with God.
Even when not in a prescribed manner as with the Lords Prayer, we talk to him often during our everyday lives.
We ask him things, sometimes silently, sometimes out loud.
We see him as able to listen, as able to consider our requests.
So do we see ourselves as interacting with God in the same way as with fellow humans? Consider what your thoughts about God actually are.
This may be something you haven't actually devoted too much time to before.
But to what extent is your concept of 'God' dependent on endowing him with human qualities? Our thoughts are based on our experiences in life.
We live in a material world.
We have human form.
All we see around us, all we know, has physical or human form.
So when we think about God, most of us understandably picture him with some kind of human form.
We also say "He speaks to us", and "He looks after us".
In other words, we endow HIM with a gender.
Be honest, do you ever picture God as a woman, and if not, why not? And all the qualities we say he possesses, eg goodness, wisdom, and being 'all powerful' and 'all loving'...
These are all human qualities.
That might seem like an obvious statement to make, but why does he have to possess human qualities? Would anyone argue that God is human? The philosopher Aquinas argued that because of our limited understanding of the spiritual/non-physical world, it's necessary to introduce human qualities.
To achieve in our minds some kind of limited understanding of who God is.
We can have an overall concept of God through faith, and we need faith to even have a concept of the 'perfect God', because we cannot conceive of a perfect human being.
But it's extremely difficult for us, as physical beings in a physical world, to conceive of a being which we endow with qualities such as love, goodness, benevolence, wisdom etc, as having no particular form or shape, - no body, no mass, just being there, - pure spirit.
Any imagining is imperfect but what else can we do? I believe that our concept of God, our being able to understand him, love him, talk about him, and talk to him, is largely, if not wholly, dependent on endowing him with these human qualities.
How else could we describe him, or envisage him, without using these terms? And maybe God needs all of these positive human qualities so we can accept him logically as a figure worth looking up to? One final thought to consider..
..
The Christian view is that God IS love, not that he is just loving.
So maybe we shouldn't ask the question "Why do we endow God with human qualities?" Maybe we should remember that he gives us those qualities, and maybe, as individuals, we should imagine a father on high looking at how we live our lives and ask ourselves whether any father would be proud of what he sees?
But have you ever really thought about these opening lines? You pray to him as "Our father", but do you actually see God as a father-figure? Do you picture him as a wise man, looking after you and guiding you with love? What is he wearing? Is he smiling? And where do you picture him? In the clouds? Or flanked by marble pillars? The Lords Prayer states: "...
who art in heaven.
" ...
Does he need a place to 'be' for you to picture him in your minds' eye? Another question for you to ponder.
"Hallowed be thy name" ...
Does he has to have a name? In the same way that you and I have a name, for identification purposes? As part of our identity? If you're trying to communicate with someone, does it help to know their name? Take a moment to consider how we communicate with God.
Even when not in a prescribed manner as with the Lords Prayer, we talk to him often during our everyday lives.
We ask him things, sometimes silently, sometimes out loud.
We see him as able to listen, as able to consider our requests.
So do we see ourselves as interacting with God in the same way as with fellow humans? Consider what your thoughts about God actually are.
This may be something you haven't actually devoted too much time to before.
But to what extent is your concept of 'God' dependent on endowing him with human qualities? Our thoughts are based on our experiences in life.
We live in a material world.
We have human form.
All we see around us, all we know, has physical or human form.
So when we think about God, most of us understandably picture him with some kind of human form.
We also say "He speaks to us", and "He looks after us".
In other words, we endow HIM with a gender.
Be honest, do you ever picture God as a woman, and if not, why not? And all the qualities we say he possesses, eg goodness, wisdom, and being 'all powerful' and 'all loving'...
These are all human qualities.
That might seem like an obvious statement to make, but why does he have to possess human qualities? Would anyone argue that God is human? The philosopher Aquinas argued that because of our limited understanding of the spiritual/non-physical world, it's necessary to introduce human qualities.
To achieve in our minds some kind of limited understanding of who God is.
We can have an overall concept of God through faith, and we need faith to even have a concept of the 'perfect God', because we cannot conceive of a perfect human being.
But it's extremely difficult for us, as physical beings in a physical world, to conceive of a being which we endow with qualities such as love, goodness, benevolence, wisdom etc, as having no particular form or shape, - no body, no mass, just being there, - pure spirit.
Any imagining is imperfect but what else can we do? I believe that our concept of God, our being able to understand him, love him, talk about him, and talk to him, is largely, if not wholly, dependent on endowing him with these human qualities.
How else could we describe him, or envisage him, without using these terms? And maybe God needs all of these positive human qualities so we can accept him logically as a figure worth looking up to? One final thought to consider..
..
The Christian view is that God IS love, not that he is just loving.
So maybe we shouldn't ask the question "Why do we endow God with human qualities?" Maybe we should remember that he gives us those qualities, and maybe, as individuals, we should imagine a father on high looking at how we live our lives and ask ourselves whether any father would be proud of what he sees?
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