Creating God in Our Own Image

I once stopped to listen to a Black Muslim preaching to the crowds on State Street in Chicago. Something he said really stuck with me: We all have an image of God in our minds, but we should not worship that image because it is just that, an image. It is not God himself, but an idol.

Muslims are very strict about not having graven images in their mosques. This guy was spiritualizing the principle of not worshipping idols (graven images).

The psychological principle that relates to this man's insight is projection--the idea that we unconsciously project fragments of ourselves onto external events and people. We filter reality, interpret it, and impose patterns on it through our own perception of reality. This perception can be altered by upbringing, trauma, intellectual constructs, etc. In a very real sense our perception is an idol of our own minds.

I sometimes think that we ALL create God in our own image, and God is constantly breaking down that image to enlarge it or to get us to abandon it altogether, along with the implicit attempt to control God (have Him/Her be like we think He/She is). I expect this principle applies whether we are Christian, Muslim, Jew, Pagan, or Atheist. (Many Atheists have an image of God too that they reject.)

If this principle of projection is correct, I think it calls for humility in dealing with people with different perceptions. After all, if I condemn certain things in myself, I am surely going to condemn them in others; and, I will certainly think that God condemns those things too. Am I right that God condemns these things? Maybe, or maybe I will learn compassion for myself and others, and, presto, project that compassion onto God also.

Have a person describe what they hate in others, and you have a self-portrait of the person's unacknowledged shadow. Have a person describe their God, and you've just had them create a self-portrait of both their shadow and light.