Do you wish your god were different?

Calling all the faithful...It strikes me as odd that I don't think I have ever heard any religious person of any denomination say that they believe in one particular god but wish he were more like another - or simply express dislike the god they believe in.For example, I've never heard anyone say "I'm a Catholic and believe in the Christian god, but I think he's a right tosser."Similarly, I've never heard someone say, "I believe that the Islamic god is the only one that really exists, but I would much prefer it if it was Thor instead."When you look at it objectively, it's very odd. There are billions of people on the planet who believe in some god or other. But does every single one of them also like the god they believe in? It seems like too big a coincidence to me.Does belief in a particular god's existence and wholesale admiration for that same god always go hand-in-hand? If so, why?

Thread copied here from the Do you wish your god were different?your[/i] god were different? thread in the Proposed New Topics forum.

I can't read the thread title without thinking... Dont cha wish your God was hot like me
Dont cha wish your God was was a freak like me
Dont cha, dont cha, baby
Dont cha wish your God was was raw like me
Dont cha wish your God was was fun like me
Dont cha, dont cha Edited by Mr Jack, : No reason given.

I guess I wished God would intervene more into this world sometimes.But anyhow this isn't a very diverse forum in terms of religions, we won't get the opinions of many Hindus or Islamists.And since the christian God is believed to be love,mercy,grave,justice, etc. etc. by 99% of the christian population, it's gonna be pretty hard to find people who would prefer him NOT to be those things ...

When someone goes to a buffet is it really that surprising when the food on their plate coincides with the food they happen to like? What are the chances?

How could anyone want the FSM to be anything but?I am an American, what's a "right tosser"?

---

"Some people think God is an outsized, light-skinned male with a long white beard, sitting on a throne somewhere up there in the sky, busily tallying the fall of every sparrow. Othersfor example Baruch Spinoza and Albert Einsteinconsidered God to be essentially the sum total of the physical laws which describe the universe. I do not know of any compelling evidence for anthropomorphic patriarchs controlling human destiny from some hidden celestial vantage point, but it would be madness to deny the existence of physical laws."-Carl Sagan"On a personal note I think he's the greatest wrestler ever. He's better than Lou Thesz, Gorgeous George -- you name it."-The Hulkster on Nature Boy Ric Flair

I think Taq hit it. There is so much you can go with what you want. Since you have a vested interest you make the comfortable choice. Don't like your present god? People "covert" all the time.And with this there is the phnemenon that once you have found your comfort zone you can rationalize away any discomforting facts about your crede. Religion is a powerful antidote to reality.Edited by AZPaul3, : syntaxEdited by AZPaul3, : Now spelingEdited by AZPaul3, : Didn't change anything. Just wanted to add in another edit line. Edited by AZPaul3, : I'll never git this wrightEdited by AZPaul3, : That's it. I'm being incompetent. I quit.

But it's not really like that, is it? --- because people almost always adhere, if to any god, then to the god they were raised to believe in.It's more like observing that Chinese people like Chinese food and Indian people prefer curry.

A "wanker".Still not sure?I think you'd say a "jerk off".

To some extent you're right.But it's actually as ludicrous as claiming that not only do you like Chinese food because you happen to have been brought up with it, but it is the only real food that exists!

There's such a thing as pushing an analogy too far ... for in that case atheists would correspond to people who deny the existence of food.

Fair point.Perhaps a better use of the analogy would be to say that you like Chinese food because you happen to have been brought up with it, and therefore (because you were brought up with it) it is the best food in the world.An extraordinarily self-centred and arrogant attitude, demonstrating a complete lack of ability to perceive anyone else's point of view.That of course is an analogy to those who believe in the god of the culture of their upbringing.But I find the attitude of the converts just as bizarre. Do they all convert to a new god just because they like the sound of it? That still seems like far too big a coincidence to me. Does anyone convert to a new god purely on the basis that they consider that that must be the only god for some very good reason - whether or not they actually like that god and might prefer another?

But even then people take the aspects of that god they like and tend to ignore the rest. If you were to ask an average christian on the street if God would order us to commit genocide what would their response be? "No way would God order us to commit genocide" would probably be their response. They just ignore all of the instances in the Bible where God has ordered his believers to commit genocide and continue with the belief that God has always been a benevolent, but never belicose, god.

I suppose you're right. When you think of all the things that Christians have managed to reconcile with Christianity ... it turns out that according to their preference, God can be for or against genocide, he can be anti-semitic or Zionist, he can be for or against the death penalty, he can want you to execute gay people or to love them as thyself, he can be a strict sabbatarian or think that "the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath", he can be conservative or liberal, he can be for or against any particular war, he can be on both sides in any war between Christian nations, he backs both sides in every election, he can favor the poor (as in the Beatitudes) or the rich (see the "Prosperity Gospel"), he can want Christians to Judaize or he can have freed them from the burden of the Law, he can favor monogamy or polygamy, he can want strict justice meted out (to your enemies) and mercy and forgiveness (for the people you like) ... and, of course, he can be a Young Earth Creationist, an Old Earth Creationist, or an evolutionist, just as you please.This is because the defining features of God are to be good and wise and just, which in practice means that he has the characteristics that the particular devotee thinks are good and wise and just. His god is in fact the god that he invented.So the only real complaint the believer can have about the god he made in his own image is the complaint that slevesque in fact made --- that he doesn't seem to do anything. Just as the only problem a lonely man can see with his fantasy woman is that she never actually turns up on his doorstep with the riding crop and the jar of marmalade (or whatever his tastes run to). Apart from that, of course she's perfect. How could he wish to change her? --- apart from adding existence, which as any philosopher will tell you is not a predicate.It's a good thing that Anselm's Ontological Argument doesn't work, otherwise we'd be knee-deep in competing gods, each of them perfect in someone's eyes.

Yes, it is like that. Why does one "like" the religion in which they were brought up? Acculturation. It builds the comfort level.Then, of course, there's the "she's Mahayana and I'm Shaivas so I guess I'll convert" thing but that's a comfort of a different dimension.For the most part people will stay with their childhood religion. Like a comfortable pair of old slippers. If something bothers them about their given comfortable old god they can easily rationalize it away.If this something really really bothers them to the point of not being comfortable anymore, they will find their comforts somewhere else.That's what happened to me. Freshman in High School. I had a hard time rationalizing the stories of this god of my youth and what the math and physics were saying. I lost my comfort level with this biblical god so I went looking for another more comfortable one. After a decade of trying (mostly Eastern and Oriental) I finally ended up with none. It dawned on me that I was comfortable with this. Thus, I are atheist.