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How To Pick Your Own God

     Picking a god is tricky business. Some Hindus say there are more than 300,000 gods. On the opposite end of the spectrum are Buddhists who say there are no deities. And the Shinto religion, found primarily in Japan, believes that gods reside in all creatures, and even in trees, soils and objects. How do you decide? How do you decide?

     Things would be so much easier if God just came to us on the street and said, "Well, here I am." We wouldn't need any of this faith stuff (because we'd know for sure who to believe in). There wouldn't be fights over whose God is right. And we wouldn't have the confusion of choosing between hundreds of different religions. Well, this article gives some factors to consider when picking a god and the reasons why I chose the God I did.

1. Pick a God that's outside humanity

     There's no doubt that we have made great progress in recent years. We have more information and better access to it than ever before. With advanced technology, we now live longer than our ancestors, fly faster than the speed of sound, and can access the world from a computer keyboard.

     But while we're progressing in some ways, we seem to be digressing in many others. Consider that:

  • Since 1960 there has been a 560 percent increase in violent crime. {1}

  • In the last 30 years, births outside of marriage have increased 419 percent.{2}

  • Divorce rates have tripled.{3}

  • The number of children living in single-parent homes has tripled. {4}

  • The teen-age suicide rate has increased 200 percent. {5}

  • SAT scores have plummeted 80 points on average. {6}

  • 6,000 people around the globe contract HIV every day. {7}

  • One in five Americans has a sexually transmitted disease. {8}

  • 100 plant and animal species disappear every year. {9}

  • About 750 million people worldwide have chronic hunger. {10}

     Unfortunately, the list could go on--the rise in ethnic genocide, the depletion of the ozone layer, and the record number of wars worldwide.

     Yet, there are people going around saying we are divine or masters of our own destiny. We are our own little gods.

    If the human race is God, then we're not doing a very good job. We're killing ourselves and our planet rather than striving to ensure our survival.

     Facts like those mentioned previously that demonstrate humankind's propensity toward greed, hatred, and selfishness tell me that if I'm to find a fully competent God, I'll need to look outside the human race for someone who qualifies.

     More than human. I picked the God of Christianity because I saw him as definitely more than human. He is the creator of the universe--an all-knowing, all-powerful Being who alone is the first cause and sustainer of all that exists (including you and me).

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live." {11}

     There are so many areas in which the God of Christianity is superior to us humans. While we are mortal and temporal, he is immortal and eternal." {12} Unlike you and me, he knows all things. And he, unlike us, is morally perfect in every way, incapable of evil or wrong." {13}

2. Pick a God you can know personally

     When I was only two years old, my parents divorced and I lived with my mom. I never knew my father because he lived in a different part of the country. I didn't see him again until I was nine when I began visiting him every summer. It was great getting to know him and be with him.

    I knew I had a father. He was out there somewhere. My life became much better as a result of getting to know him personally.

     My father wasn't just a concept, a life-force or an idea. He was real. When picking a god, I suggest choosing one you are capable of knowing. Is this god attainable to you? And, would you even want to know that god personally?

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