‘God’ Is a Social Construction Like ‘Race’ and Gender Roles

Somebody on one of the social media platforms that I subscribe to posed the question: “Do you love God?” I responded in the negative.

The concept of “god(s)” is a human construction in the realm of the concepts of “race” and “gender roles.” Some people may claim that their conceptualization of “God” helps them cope with the struggles and changes in their lives within an unalterably changing and uncontrollable world.

That’s fine for them. But I think that the concept of “God” was constructed to divide people by imposing a hierarchical positioning of people and groups into “us” (people who believe as I believe, the “ingroup”) versus “them” (the “others,” the marginalized, the heathens, the unbelievers, the “outgroup”).

That question on social media could have asked whether we like the concept of “race” or “gender roles,” and I would have given the exact same response since all of these concepts divide people into hierarchical positions of power and privilege versus marginalization and oppression.

“God” is certainly not in the same category of the natural elements of earth, water, fire, and air, which all living things on this planet have discovered uses for to sustain and enhance life. “Gods,” on the other hand, were invented by humans in their attempt to explain the mysteries of life and to justify their supposed place in the cosmos.

Humans have raised ultimate questions as the world spins around, as individuals and nations since recorded history have attempted to explain the mysteries of life, as spiritual and religious consciousness first developed and carried down through the ages, as people have come to believe their way stood as the right way, the only way, with all others as simple pretenders, which could never achieve THE truth, the certainty, the correct and right connection with the deity or deities, and as individuals and entire nations raped, pillaged, enslaved, and exterminated any “others” believing differently.

How many wars are we going to justify in the name of “God,” our “God” versus their so-called “false gods”?

Someone said to me once that throughout the ages more people have been killed in the name of religion than all the people who have ever died of all diseases combined.

I doubt whether this is actually true, but I do think it highlights a vital point: that we continually kill others and are killed by others over concepts that humans can never prove.

Throughout history, Jews and Muslims have killed each other, Christians and Muslims have killed each other, Christians and Jews have killed each other, Hindus and Muslims have killed each other, Catholics and Protestants have killed each other, Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims have killed each other, many faith communities have killed Atheists and Agnostics, and on and on and on.

In psychology, there is the notion that insanity is doing something over and over again while expecting different results. The insanity of the world continues because human beings do not know their history. They do not understand that we are doing something over and over again while expecting different results, namely, we are expecting peace to break out.

Individuals and entire nations continue to believe that their reality fits all, and that it is proper and right to force their beliefs onto others “with God on our side.”

In reality, all religious doctrine stems from uncertainty and conjecture, from multiple gods, hybrid gods and humans, to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, to the burning bush, to the covenant and the parting of the Red Sea, to the immaculate conception and resurrection, to Muhammad’s rising to heaven from the rock, to the golden tablets, all beginning with the humancreation of gods.

So, rather than asking the question on social media, “Do you love God?,” I prefer to ask instead: “What do you think about any religion that justifies discriminatory treatment of other human beings?”

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