“Is God real?” …is the wrong question
Most Christians take this question completely for granted. “Of course God is real, He is the omni-present Creator of all, the God who died for our sins and love us very much”. And yet, there is a subtle assumption hidden in this question that is very dangerous. In the way this question is stated, the identity of God is assumed. In other words, you are not asking if there is a God, you are asking if a specific God is real.
To illustrate the problem, and the danger, consider the issue from a Christian perspective. There are many different versions of Christianity floating around, all of them claiming to follow the “God of the Bible”, and many of them completely and irreconcilably incompatible with each other. There are the health-wealth-prosperity churches, and those that believe Christians should own nothing. There are the Catholics and the Protestants. There are those who believe in baptizing babies, and those who don’t. There are Calvinists, and those who believe salvation is ours to accept or reject.
And we cannot all be correct. What is more, God has no obligation to be any of these. God is who He is, whether you like it or not. In fact, in reality God is probably not quite what we want Him to be…
Customizing God
We, as humans, have this tendency to make up a God that is to our liking, and then convince ourselves that God really is like this. We’ve been doing it since the dawn of time, and we are extremely good at fooling ourselves. Christians, being human and all, are no exception to this rule. I’ve seen many people making up a version of God that is truly amazing, but obviously unbiblical.
To understand the danger of this, consider what would happen if you happen to be wrong about some important property of God that you take to be true. As an example, consider the age-old debate related to Calvinism. Many Christians, including myself, have very strong opinions and emotions on this topic. Personally I believe Calvinism to be very, very wrong, and the implications of Calvinism paints a picture of a God that I very much dislike.
BUT, simply because I do not like the idea of a Calvinistic God, does NOT automatically make it false (or true). God is who He is, whether I like it or not, and making up and believing in a God that is exactly to my liking is tantamount to idolatry. If God in reality happened to be exactly the way John Calvin explained Him to be, then I could choose to accept Him or reject Him (uhm, you know what I mean…), but I cannot choose to change Him to something else.
Now what?
Our purpose as humans are to seek God and get to know Him for who He truly is, not what we want Him to be. In our search for God we must realize that we might not like what we find, and that we should have the humility to accept God as He is, not as we want Him to be. This may have major implications for our daily lives and how we make decisions. The real God may not be quite so understanding of your porn addiction as you might have hoped, or maybe He really does think you are better off without that job you are so vehemently praying for. He might really expect of you to submit to your husband, or maybe He actually does disapprove of your sexual preferences.
Whatever the case may be, if there really is a God, you are free to reject Him if you don’t like Him, but you cannot change Him to your liking. Reality simply does not work that way. God is who He is, whether you like it or not.
Disclaimer : This essay is written with a Christian audience in mind, and I am starting from the assumption that it has already been shown that there is indeed a God, and that He can be identified as the God of the Bible. Neither of these are trivial assumptions, nor can or should it be taken as self-evident. I am quite happy to open a discussion with you should you wish to do so on this topic, but for the purpose of this essay, a lengthy discussion proving God to exist will muddle the point I am trying to make here.