Daily Meditation: Thursday, July 28, 2005

God - his image has inevitably evolved over the centuries

07/28/2005

How could God, this Being who surpasses all understanding, be described to primitive peoples who had no concept of an inner life? It was necessary to use a language they could understand, to give God human characteristics while emphasizing, of course, his power and grandeur. To do so, religions made God out to be a king, with the characteristics of monarchs who ruled on earth. He became authoritarian, angry, jealous and vindictive towards those who refused to bow down before him, and he dispensed favours to his courtiers. Really, what an example! There are kings on earth who spend their time more reasonably and effectively than this. These days human beings, or at least many of them, have acquired a knowledge of the psychic life as well as a moral conscience which was unknown in prior centuries. Well then, isn’t it time to give them a different image of God?