God Beyond and Without Religion

Faith in a Personal God

Evidence of a power far superior to us humans, that one can call ‘God’, that has brought the universe and all that it contains into being and is continually sustaining it is for me just too overwhelming to deny. Faith in God for me, then, stems from recognition of what seems to be the plainly obvious fact of God’s existence.

It also makes sense to me to regard this power that I call ‘God’ as a personal being whom I can relate with through an intimate personal relationship. One reason is that it is only with another being (even if, like God, it is infinitely greater than myself) that I can have such a relationship. Since I intuitively crave the need for this sort of relationship with God, considering God as a personal being makes the greatest sense to me (in contrast to if I were to imagine, as some people perhaps do, God to be an impersonal force, something akin to gravity or some sort of energy).

A second reason why the notion of a personal God resonates deeply with me is that I think it makes greater sense and seems more logical than the idea of God as an impersonal force. To fashion and to maintain such a vast and extremely intricately designed universe as we have would, I suppose, require a mind, and an immensely intelligent one at that, without which creating and maintaining this universe would be impossible. Now, as far as I can understand, only a personal being, and not some impersonal force, can have any sort of mind, which can will, design and decree things. This being the case, to me it stands to reason that God, the one who has willed, designed and decreed the universe, is a personal being, a being with a mind that is supremely intelligent, of the sort required to will, design, decree and continually sustain the sort of universe that we know of.

A third reason why the idea of God as a personal being seems logical to me, and certainly more appealing than the concept of God as an impersonal force, is that if most, if not all, living beings, including humans, possess a personality, it would seem logical that the one who has fashioned all living beings must also have a personality, although one that is supremely greater than that of the creatures that it has brought into being. 

For these reasons, I believe in a personal God, God as a personal being, a creator with a personality distinct from ‘His’ creations and with whom at least some of ‘His’ creatures, such as human beings, can have an intimate personal relationship.

 A Direct Relationship With God

At the same time, I have come to the firm understanding that religion, a principal means through which humans have historically sought to understand and communicate with God, is a fallible human construct. As I understand things now, God alone is infallible. This means that God is beyond and without religion, because religion is a fallible construct. This, in turn, suggests that fallible human beings can seek to understand and communicate with the infallible God without the mediation of a fallible instrument like religion. This is what my present position is—belief in God, with whom one can have an intimate direct, personal relationship without believing in religion, as conventionally understood. This is a possibility that I think ought to be much better known today.

Belief in, and a personal relationship with, God without religion can free one from unquestioning belief and unthinking conformism that is often regarded as essential for being a faithful follower of this or that religion. It can liberate one from the compulsion of having to uncritically accept someone else’s truth-claims (generally, those of the founder or founders of a religion or what is attributed to them in one or more books) which there is no way one could possibly verify or that may be ethically and logically problematic. One is free to not accept any such beliefs if they do not find them wholesome or ethically or logically acceptable, this being something incompatible with the unshakable faith in them that is often demanded of their flocks by religious orthodoxies.

Many religions, especially the ones that are heavy on dogma, do contain such problematic teachings and practices. Clearly, because of being unacceptable on both logical and ethical grounds, these teachings cannot be said to have been ordained by God, whose commandments, by definition, can never violate reason and morality. Yet, their faithful adherents often feel compelled to believe in them as part of their faith commitment. In this way, they deny themselves the freedom to think objectively and critically in such matters, sometimes being made to believe that even to merely doubt them is a sin that might have horrific consequences for them, such as evoking God’s wrath and leading to them to being punished by God in this life and possibly also in the Hereafter. Millions upon millions of such religionists believe in, or at least outwardly profess to believe in, such problematic religious teachings simply out of fear of Divine punishment for failing to do so. One who believes in God while not in religion is saved from this crippling mental slavery. Since they do adhere to any religion, they are freed from the fear that rejecting, or even simply doubting and questioning, the dogmas of a religion that they intuitively feel are problematic, such as due to logical and ethical reasons, might lead them to earn the wrath of God or some supposed supernatural being. In this way, this theological position liberates a person from the pressure of rigid ideological conformity and the loss of intellectual freedom that faithful adherence to dogma-based religion often demands.

Relating with God without this being mediated by belief in, and adherence to, religion, as conventionally understood, thus avoids a major predicament that many religionists contend with—of conforming to unwholesome beliefs and practices that may be an integral and undeniable part of this or that religion. These are clearly human fabrications, in many cases invented to seek to justify crass greed and exploitation and inhumane social structures and hierarchies and dressed up in the garb of supposed supernatural revelations or realizations so that religionists are often made to believe they are of Divine origin or are true in some other compelling sense. There is possibly no evil that one can think of that has not been sanctioned and even actively promoted by one or the other religion at some point of time down the centuries. Slavery, hatred, conflict and even aggressive wars directed against people of other persuasions, colonial conquests, terrorism, oppression of women and sexual minorities, the hounding of dissenters, ‘heretics’ and apostates, denial of freedom of conscience, belief and expression, crass superstition and anti-scientific attitudes, rapacious priestcraft, barbaric treatment of non-human species, pillaging of the bounties of Nature, subjugation of marginalized social groups, including the poor, those branded as ‘lowborn’, and ethnic, cultural and religious minorities, the fostering of steep social hierarchies and egregious economic inequalities and sanctioning the hegemony of ruling elites as supposedly divinely-ordained—these are only some of the evils that have been pursued in the name of religion and that various religions and their adherents have been responsible for over millennia. Relating directly with God without the mediation of any religion robustly negates the claims of supposed divine sanction for these and other such evils that numerous religions and their adherents have historically employed.

Given that many such evils are still routinely sought to be defended, legitimized and actively promoted by a number of religions and in their name, resulting in misery on a massive scale, the contemporary relevance of the faith in God beyond and without religion is easily evident. As before, even in our own times, unwholesome religious beliefs and practices are a major barrier for many religionists to be able to enjoy a truly wholesome and enriching relationship with God and also with God’s creation. Bypassing religion and its dogmas, a direct relationship with God unmediated by religion effectively addresses the challenge posed by this major problem area that seems to be an integral part of many dogmatic religions. This clearly underlines the immense importance and value of belief in, and a personal relationship with, God without religion.

Another major reason that I resonate with the idea of relating with God without this being mediated by belief in, and adherence to, any religion is simply because God ‘Himself’ is without a religion. And since God ‘Himself’ has no religion, why should we, who are God’s children or made in ‘His’ image?  If we are, as it might be said, to become more like God or to reflect God more in our lives, then, logically, would not that mean that just like God, we, too, oughtn’t to have a religion?

An additional reason why relating with God without this being mediated by belief in, and adherence to, any religion powerfully appeals to me is that it gives one the freedom to relate with God in the way that best resonates with oneself, a privilege that one cannot enjoy as a firm believer in this or that religion, for most, if not all, religions have their own rules and regulations for this most intimate of relations that they expect their followers to adhere to, sometimes recommending harsh punishments for nonconformity. But someone who believes in God beyond and without religion can develop their own prayers and commune with God just as and when they like without having any one else (like a religious functionary or a supposedly holy book) dictate to them what the supposed ‘best’ or even ‘only’ way is for this most personal of all relations—that between an individual and their Creator. And what a great liberation this truly is! 

A further reason why I uphold the idea of relating with God without this being mediated by belief in, and adherence to, any religion is because it offers a much-needed alternative to agnosticism and atheism, on the one hand, and conformity to one or the other religion, on the other, that vast numbers of people are perhaps today unconsciously searching for. It can thus satisfy their quest for faith in God and, at the same time, address their unease with dogmatic religion. Many such people may not deny the existence of God, for they may regard evidence of God as simply undeniable. Yet, at the same time, they cannot believe in this or that religion, for various reasons. For instance, they may not agree, on logical and/or ethical grounds, with some core teachings and practices of various religions. Or, they may not wish to be bound by a belief system that has been devised by another person or group of persons, finding this too restrictive, confining, controlling and alienating. For such people, believing in God beyond and without religion can be a most suitable option since it enables them to have faith in, and a deep personal relationship with, God without being associated with any religion whatsoever.

Yet another reason why relating with God without this being mediated by belief in, and adherence to, any religion is of great value is that in today’s globalised context, characterized by unprecedented density of interaction between people from different religious, ethnic and national backgrounds, it provides a basis for a much-needed global spirituality that transcends religious particularisms and divisions, and so is especially suitable to address some of the vital needs of our age. It offers the framework of a spirituality that is rooted not in any one religion, but, rather, in faith in the One Source of all beings that transcends religion as such, a sort of universal spirituality that can meet our present needs for global peace and harmonious coexistence. A simple faith in, and personal relationship, with the one God of all, without and beyond religion can be an effective antidote to deep-seated hatred and widespread conflict between rival sets of religionists and also form the firmest basis for bringing people from diverse backgrounds from across the world into close communion, an urgent necessity in today’s globalized context characterized by multiple forms of oppression and conflict engendered by religions or in their name.

For all these many reasons, the possibility of faith in, and a personal relationship with, God without and beyond religion makes sense to me. I see it as a particularly relevant and necessary possibility that ought to be made widely known.