An Atheist's View on the Personal Relationship with God

When I was home over Christmas Break, my family asked me to attend church with them on numerous occasions.  Since I love my family more than I hate this sort of social gathering, I reluctantly agreed to go a few times. I attended both a wedding and the traditional Christmas mass.  With two different settings, I was surprised to find that the messages of both of them were about finding a personal relationship with their almighty god.  It was perplexing to me that this sort of sermon was given at the wedding I attended. Here we are sitting in pews watching two believers become “one” in the eyes of god, yet they are told to separately to find a relationship with him.  This created a sort of paradox in my mind, and then it hit me.  These sorts of events are not truly religious, in the sense that the religious experience should be personal.  Instead, these events are systematical and replace the subjective experience to an objective experience.  How can two individuals become “one”, yet be expected to experience a personal relationship with god differently? Therefore, the religious experience seems to be a farce when shared with others.  This wedding was not about god and his blessing, it was about two people who loved each other very much and were making a promise build on that love.  The wedding was personal, therefore the relationship was personal.  Yet, the personal experience of organized religion seems to have a different view. The churches have systematically bundled up a personal experience and sold it to the masses.

               You can choose to believe in a god or not, that’s your personal choice- therefore- that belief is of your own personal experience.  So why are we building churches and recruiting the masses to harness something the each individual is experiencing to themselves (if they so choose to believe)?  Simple, these sorts of structures are just that, structures.  Man created the bible to systematize a particular god that is apparently all powerful and beyond human comprehension into a book of oversimplified rules and contradictory ideals.  First off, this takes away from a personal experience when guidelines are set in place to even reach the point of personal expression.  If you wanted to talk to me, but you have regulations on how to reach me or even how you can talk to me, is that personal?  The god we view and even think about is the one laid out for us in the bible.  We are at a disadvantage already- because we are experiencing a god that has already been objectified. Once again, the relationship should be subjective, not objective. To believe in the absurd requires faith, but objectify the absurd is just flat out ignorance.    

               Let’s recap; we have a subjective god that has been objectified in a book written by man.  Now let’s take that one step further by systematizing it and create a church with a community around it.  In this setting, priests are able to interpret “the message of god” and spoon feed it to the congregation.  I see a couple of problems with this.  One, the priest is taking a subjective experience and trying to relay it to the masses, therefore objectifying it.  With this being done, there will never be a complete understanding of the nature of what the priest experienced or interpreted. If I told you to visualize yourself playing golf, what do you see? Do you see yourself on the 5^th hole tee box with knickers on?  Even if you visualized my example- you still couldn’t see the setting I have made for myself.  The second problem is that by spoon feeding the congregation the message, you stunt the listeners’ existential look on the subject at hand.  So, either you fill an experience that isn’t the person’s own by preaching it to them, or you hinder the individual who has yet to experience the nature of their relationship to their god. This is why preaching will get the religious nowhere. What makes your relationship to your god special can only be special to you.  Only you feel the way you do. 

               What does this all mean then? How should one go about building a relationship with a personal god?  Well, the experience should be your own.  You can’t relate that experience to others because there will always be a different view of said experience. We both could say the same thing, but visualize it and feel it in a completely different manner. If you believe in a personal god, then that god should be, well, personal!  Preaching and trying to save someone is completely out of the question.  If you do try, then your objectifying what is at heart, an existential experience.   As an Atheist, this is why truly religious people don’t bother me.  Their beliefs are personal and will stay personal.  This is why there is a difference between religion and organized religion. The man preaching is not trying to save you, but trying to relate his experience to you, this will be in vain.  One cannot organize subjective reality, which would make it objective reality.  If god is truly beyond objective reality then to objectify him will only, in a sense, prove his non-existence.  When it’s all said and done- to each his own.