Why God is Not a “Who!”

by Nickolas Martin

Strange When We Consider our Source

What a strange title for an article. Strange for many, because it acknowledges the obvious–God is not human. It is strange because religious teachings we encounter over the years embed the thought that God exists within the spiritual realm. Strange, because we also never refer to our source in human terms, as having thoughts, experiencing feelings, having preferences, or acting.

Wait, wait, wait! There’s a problem with the last one and it links to the first two. Haven’t we heard references to God in written and spoken teachings that ascribe human qualities? Human qualities in which our source has a gender (Him or Her), is loving or angry, rewarding or punitive, or has preferences attached to religious, political, or cultural approaches, even sports teams/accomplishments, to mention just a very few.

Human Qualities Directed at God

God is not a who, but every time we use references in which human qualities connect directly to our divine source, that is exactly what we are doing. We are turning God into a who within our human frame of reference. Unfortunately, this has huge negative implications for our understanding. It sows the seeds for the conflict and destructiveness. This has and continues to take place between people built upon defining who God is.

Many may think and respond by saying that human characteristics attached to the divine are just metaphorical or figurative and intended to help us to better understand our source. Unfortunately, this understanding also has two significant problems connected to it:

1) Metaphor is only helpful if one can appreciate and keep track of the abstraction involved. We must not convert it into a concrete, literal meaning. Failing to do this often leads one to cling tightly to the latter. This is often better suited to one’s cognitive and emotional “comfort zone.” It turns God into something extremely human and less spiritual to us. We may not even be consciously aware of doing this.

2) Human characteristics attributed to God have often sown the seeds for divisiveness, particularly within and between religions. A divisiveness in which anger, hatred, and war have all occurred in the name of honoring what our source “wants” from us. A divisiveness in which the Love, Life, and Energy-God Is within the fundamentally good, well-meaning, and intelligent participants became lost; an absence of spirituality exists.

Then What is God?

If God is not a who then “what” is God? The what is, God is-love, life, and energy! Everything that was here and always here before humans, human consciousness, and human frames of understanding divinity were formed by people.

Love which is unconditional, unburdened, inexhaustible, and connective when we are being it.
Life which recognizes the presence of the divine in all life forms, honors all life, and realizes the eternal nature of life when we are being it.
Energy of light and truth, diverse in manifestation, transformative, and healing when we are being it.

From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You, when we manifest love, life, and energy within our daily thoughts, words, and deeds, we are being and truly knowing what God is.

About the Author

Dr. Nickolas Martin is a licensed psychologist. He worked in clinical, university, school, and private practice settings as a therapist, diagnostician, educator and consultant for 35 years. He authored “Ego Therapy: A Method for Healing Your Whole Self” and co-authored with Rev. Linda M. Martin, “EgoSpiritualism: Awakening to Your Human and Divine Self” and “The Two Voices Within: Balancing the Energies of Ego and Spirit to Enhance Your Life.”
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